Home Rentals in Tucson (hotel, houses, neighborhoods)

[tonyman]

What is the best way to go about looking for a home to rent in Tucson. I'll be looking to move in a year or so.

[coatimundi]

Set your price range, figure out what you want in the house as far as amenities, pick your ideal neighborhoods (best to ask on this, but get something relatively close to your work), watch the ads. It's a very good rental market for tenants here right now. Then again, it's also a very good time to buy here.

For places to look, Google "tarmls" and search those listings. Craig's List is also a good place. There are also quite a few property managers in town that deal in houses, Prestige and Peach Properties are two that I've worked with (not rented from, just talked to a lot) in the past, but there are many others.
Best way to do it though is just drive around the neighborhood you want to live in and look for signs. These are usually owner-rented houses, of which there are quite a few. So if you have the means to come out here for a little beforehand, it would very much be in your best interest to come out right around 3 weeks before you leave for about 4-5 days.

You won't be able to find anything available for when you want to move in before a little over a month out (edit: I should clarify this with the most desirable places are snatched up quickly but there are certainly others, so you could find something two months out but they will likely not want to rent to you that far out). Tenants are required to give 30 days notice, although you'll get one occasionally that gives a little more, so the house goes up earlier. I'll usually either overlap the places for a half month or get a storage unit for a month and then live minimally or in a hotel for a week or so. I just don't like to move my stuff and clean all in one day.

If you want to live by UA, around this time of year is the best time to move because that's when there's the most availability. It fills up by August.

Hope that gets you started.

[sullivds]

Are realtors involved with rental property in Tucson? i.e. Can you contact a realtor and have them find a property for you? If so, who pays (renter or landlord) and what's the going rate?

Also, do you know anything about REDI? They seem to have innundated Craigslist with ads for rentals, but you have to pay to view them on their website....is it worth it or is it a scam?

[coatimundi]

Only some realtors deal with rentals. I don't think you can just contact any randomly. I believe the landlord gets certain realtors to market the property and find tenants, then pays them a fee when they do, but manages the tenancy themselves past that point. This as opposed to a property manager, which both finds a tenant and manages the tenancy, but collects a percentage from the rent throughout the lease.

I've seen REDI, but haven't dealt with them and I'm not sure how they work. Sorry.