Apartment locators

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Have I said this already? My mind is a bit lost lately..

I have thrown in the towel on buying a home, so we are going to rent.

IN 2 months, if not sooner, we are outta here.
period.

I am finding a BUNCH of ads for locators?
But.. what .. aside from the obvious , do they do?

Are they a safe choice?

What should I watch out for?
Do they ALL charge fees? or is this diffrent with diffrent companies?

anyone used one before?

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Personally, I don't think they do ****.

I guess they're good for someone that's new in town and doesn't know a thing about the area.

But you know where you want to live.....get one of those apartment guide things from a convenience store.

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Yeah, those are good.

I swear by www.realtor.com for both renting and buying. I had a great (in the sense of highly-recommended and very experienced) realtor, but I'm the one who found the house we bought via realtor.com, not her. It was also very helpful in previous rental house searches. It's very customizable in terms of searching (by features, by time built, by price, etc.)

The other way that's worked for us is to just identify a neighborhood you like and drive around in it, looking for "for rent" signs, write down the phone numbers, and start calling.

Good luck!

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Oh, yeah...forgot to answer your question.

When we first moved here, didn't know the area and used one...

they showed us I think 4 places, and 3 of them were just not impressive at all....rented the 4th....I don't think we paid anything, but that was in '91.

Anyway, I remember months later driving around and realized I was driving by one of the other places. NO WAY would I have rented it. Being new, didn't realize it was in a higher crime area.

I don't remember them doing any more than showing us some places, and taking us down to the rental office.

What do they say they do for you?

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I have already contacted realtor .com and got this -http://rentals.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?frm=byxmls&xlid=1060155997&poe=realtor

an immediate responce with a property we can afford, but in a neighborhood I am not familiar with.

Alot of these places are saying they can get us a discount.
Some say 99 dollar discount, one says 300.

I dont know what those discounts are for.. but I will learn that in time I guess.

Some are offering free moving?

Of course, referal bonus' out the wazoo..

I think I would like the help of a locator simply because I dont have the free time I used to when Jillian was home to be able to do some foot work on housing .

I know the areas I wont live in ... ( like MLS 11 ) yeuuck.

But when I just browse sites on my own, I am not finding safe places in our price range.
What I am getting are large apt companies, and none of the smaller companies, or even private rentals.
Those are the ones that may have our price range..

I am hoping to get THAT kind of help from a locator

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Shewolf, I had a friend that gave me some advice that I would have never thought about, when we were talking about moving to Georgia.

She said that once you find a place..don't commit right off the spot, wait and do "drive-bys"..lol, go through the neighborhood at different times of the day to see whats going on.

She found one townhouse that she just feel in love with, until they drove by late on evening when everyone on the block was home. That opened her eyes up to a different scenario about how wonderful the townhouse wouldn't have been.

On the locators? I used a few seemed to be helpful as in flooding my mail box with crap that I didn't need. But still found the apartment finder booklet more of a use than the locators.

This is one website that might help in making a decision...

http://www.city-data.com/

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What are some of the addresses?

Just curious.

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I swear by rent.com

I got my last two places from searching on that site. They don't "help" you out personally..you go and type in what you want and it spits out a list of places that fit your criteria.

Plus, you get a $100 prepaid visa card when you sign somewhere and report it to rent.com

Very Happy

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Realtor.com is the same -- basically a database that you can search.

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Chai Tea wrote:

What are some of the addresses?

Just curious.

what do you mean?

the addresses of the places I am looking at?
Or the email or web addresses of the apt search companies?

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Like what area are you looking in?

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mostly 78748.

Close to where I am now.

You know where the HEB is on Slaughter and Manchaca?

Behind that, there are apts, then about 4-5 blocks of condos.

most of those condos , because they are small, go for five and a half to six.
Right up our alley.

there is another place that I have not looked at yet, but it is close to the Mopaq / 183 split. On the west side.

Know about that area?

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shewolfnm wrote:

mostly 78748.

Close to where I am now.

You know where the HEB is on Slaughter and Manchaca?

Behind that, there are apts, then about 4-5 blocks of condos.

most of those condos , because they are small, go for five and a half to six.
Right up our alley.

there is another place that I have not looked at yet, but it is close to the Mopaq / 183 split. On the west side.

I work at Mopac and Spicewood Springs/Anderson Lane...the 183 split is less than a mile up.

Right around work there's a lot of apartments, but it seems it's all single people, mostly students catching the UT schuttle in the morning.

Never seems to be any trouble there though.

I don't know why I'm thinking this, but I think closer to Mopac and 183 it's more families...Maybe because there's a lot of houses there too.

One of my co-workers used to live in an apt by 360 and 183..he liked it there. He's like 30-34 years old.

You know, I haven't been as far down as Slaughter in a while, usually I turn onto Wm Cannon from Manchaca. There're doing so much building down there.

Would this just be a kinda temporary thing, like before Jillian gets into school? Of course that'll have to be a consideration then.

Boy, I hope you can get a house by then.
Slow but steady, just gotta keep working stuff out, huh.

Know about that area?

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That doesn't sound like a bad area?
Having the UT shuttle right next to us would be a bonus even if we have to live between tons of kids.
Would save a BUNCH on gas.

My aunt just moved out of her home and she is 183 and Mc Neil.
Between there and spice wood is ALOT of options.

Though, I am finding that most rentals consider Buttercup to be a 'large' breed dog.. and don't accept her.
Rolling Eyes

I would like to think that we could find a good place to stay put for about 5 years if not longer.. but realistically this will be a pit stop until we find the REAL rental that is perfect for us.. ya know ?

Quote:

I don't know why I'm thinking this, but I think closer to Mopac and 183 it's more families

I think you are right.
There are alot of duplexs in the 900 dollar range. Wich is popular for small families, not single people.
At least not in THAT part of town.

The single people who are ok with spending 900 on a small place to live usually attend UT and draw their rent check from daddies checking account.
HA!

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hmmmm...when you get off Far West Blvd at the first light there's an HEB right there when you turn left...if you turn right, you are on Wood Hollow, and every morning I pass an apartment complex that say "Large Pets Welcome" The HEB is walking distance, like 3 blocks. All around there are the apartments and also the Dell Jewish Community Center. The library is right next to the HEB. It's nice there. My bosses son and his bride own a little condo right around in there.

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I will venture up there and take a look.
That sounds nice!

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