How do I find that perfect rental? (Seattle, Tacoma: apartments, rentals)

[Garfunkle524]

We're looking to move to a new rental soon and we need more effective methods for finding rentals! Currently we've been following craigslist/padmapper and driving around our target neighborhoods about once a week. We would really like a townhome but an apartment or condo would suit us just fine. The only real difficulty we have is my dog (she's great but it's surprisingly tough to find rentals that will allow her).

We're looking in a highly competitive area for rentals: Green lake/Phinney/Upper Fremont/Tangletown. We are having the hardest time finding ANYTHING. I'd always been told that pounding the pavement is the best way to find rentals, but even then we're really not finding a whole lot we like.

Are we missing something here?!? Seems like there's next to nothing available. Any tried and true methods out there? Websites or other form of listings? Should we be looking at specific times of the month? We need your help here!

[happyhunting]

Originally Posted by Garfunkle524

We're looking to move to a new rental soon and we need more effective methods for finding rentals! Currently we've been following craigslist/padmapper and driving around our target neighborhoods about once a week. We would really like a townhome but an apartment or condo would suit us just fine. The only real difficulty we have is my dog (she's great but it's surprisingly tough to find rentals that will allow her).

We're looking in a highly competitive area for rentals: Green lake/Phinney/Upper Fremont/Tangletown. We are having the hardest time finding ANYTHING. I'd always been told that pounding the pavement is the best way to find rentals, but even then we're really not finding a whole lot we like.

Are we missing something here?!? Seems like there's next to nothing available. Any tried and true methods out there? Websites or other form of listings? Should we be looking at specific times of the month? We need your help here!

You aren't missing anything, it's an EXTREMELY tight market right now. We've been here (in Ballard) a year and are resigning this month, because it's too hard finding anything new that's better. We were following Hotpads and Craigslist for 6 months from out of state in 2010, but everything we'd call on was swiped up that day. So we flew down last April, and checked out Hotpads from our hotel. A new one posted like an hour before, so we called that agent immediately. We were looking for a rental that was specificly zoned for a certain high school and middle school, was a house, and accepted cats. VERY hard to find. We got it, figuring if we needed to change locations a a couple blocks or so, we could do it this year, but there has been VASTLY less rental inventory. I can't even believe it. And prices are a little higher, less people accepting pets, less single family homes. So we are stuck resigning. The few I've found were neighbors just sticking up for rent signs. Even those were gone by a few days. I'm hanging on to mine as long as I can. Our lease actually began in June, during summer months there tend to be more people moving on and out. We had also went to a few of the top rental agencies in town and left our info and exactly what we were looking for in case they got something in. Though I doubt it would be worth an agents time to "house hunt" for a rental, I wished at the time I knew someone locally that would keep their eyes out. Good luck, keeping and eye on the websites and driving around is about the best you can do.

[mrman78]

I'm moving from out of state, which made it even more difficult, but I looked up rentals on craigslist and seattlerentals.com and just drove around to look at them from the exterior. If I liked them, I'd call for a viewing. Also, by driving around looking, you sometimes find 'for rent' signs for other properties. I lucked out and found a great place (not perfect, but that's hard to find!) on top of Queen Anne hill, but I had to make the decision pretty instantly due to other applicants.

[azoria]

Originally Posted by Garfunkle524

The only real difficulty we have is my dog (she's great but it's surprisingly tough to find rentals that will allow her).
Seems like there's next to nothing available.

Fiddlesticks. My neighborhood is awash in rentals. (west Seattle)

I think the issue is not rental availability, but um, what kind of dog do you have?

[Garfunkle524]

Originally Posted by azoria

Fiddlesticks. My neighborhood is awash in rentals. (west Seattle)

I think the issue is not rental availability, but um, what kind of dog do you have?

She's small enough to fit within pretty much every weight restriction for those landlords that have one. Her only problem is that she's a dog.

Unfortunately West Seattle is a tough commute for how far north of the city I work . . .

[Landsharkk]

My Wife and I (living near Tacoma currently) have been looking for about 6 months for a place to rent that's further north. We finally found one this month and are moving to Auburn.

However, every time we went to see a decent place to rent (all houses) it was usually done by open house, so there would be a group of other people looking to rent the place at the same time.

The competition is high. Just find a way to make yourself stand out, it worked great for us once we put a little more effort into being more than 'just another possible tenant'. We backed up our claims of being clean/responsible and the landlord really appreciated it. Also, we have 2 dogs, a 25lb and a 50lb dog (non-breed restricted). Having the 2 dogs shut a lot of doors for us (a lot of house rentals won't accept dogs, and it seems almost all apartments won't accept anything over 20lbs or so). We always made sure to bring our dog with us when meeting the landlord. Of course, our dogs are very well trained and well behaved.

It's possible to find that perfect rental, but it does take some work right now. Competition is high and rental prices are just starting to come down, but were recently at their peak.

[Garfunkle524]

So we've been looking hard the past week and have had barely a blip. Even removing price controls doesn't help a whole lot. Rental inventory seems nonexistent right now. Can we expect to see more openings as the month closes out?

[Kayela]

So we've been looking hard the past week and have had barely a blip. Even removing price controls doesn't help a whole lot. Rental inventory seems nonexistent right now. Can we expect to see more openings as the month closes out?

We've been on the hunt as well. I do tend to notice more activity both at the end of the month and the beginning as people give 20 or 30 days notice. 20 days are all that's required here, but we've given more if we knew we were going to be moving.

[goosemonkey23]

We're in the process of rental-house hunting as well and have experienced much of the same. You really have to pounce around here! I did call on a house the other day and after learning it wouldn't work for us because of size, the agent I spoke with directed me to two properties that did fit our specifications. These were two houses that were NOT listed on Craigslist and Zillow (which I refresh several times daily). We viewed one of them today and are considering applying. So if you can find an agent willing to help you in your search you might have a one up on the Craigslist/Zillow crowd. Also, and I haven't done this myself so I can't attest to its effectiveness, perhaps you could post a "housing wanted" ad on Craigslist pitching yourself and your dog. Maybe landlords check out such postings? Maybe not, but it couldn't hurt to try.

[tylee]

Are you looking at apartments or houses or both? I imagine someone renting out a house would have less of an issue with a dog. And since you're dealing with a person, versus a management company, they may be more willing to work with you, since they are personally losing money every month their house stays empty.