Rental help!

[Sweet72947]

So my roommates and I are trying to find a townhouse to rent, and we're having real difficulty getting anyone to talk to us about the listings we find. Realtors don't make much money off rental properties, so I guess they really don't care much about renting them out. We really need to move by the end of June. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting someone to freaking TALK TO US so we can go see rental properties???

Thanks!

 

[CaliTerp07]

Have you tried militarybyowner, hotpads, padmapper, and of course craigslist?

I found it much easier to talk directly to the owner than to deal with a real estate agent.

 

[Sweet72947]

Ok I just tried hotpads, it found nothing at all. padmapper only came up with two apartments and we aren't looking for apartments. As for militarybyowner, we aren't looking to move to a military base. (if there was another option, I couldn't find it). I will look at craigslist again, but we didn't have much luck with that.

 

[Renee750il]

If you can't get the managing real estate agent to talk to you, look up the owner in the tax assessor records (they are usually online and can be looked up by address) and contact the owner directly

 

[Sweet72947]

If you can't get the managing real estate agent to talk to you, look up the owner in the tax assessor records (they are usually online and can be looked up by address) and contact the owner directly

I'm on the real estate tax section of my city and state's website. Do you know how I would look up this information? Is there another main website you know of?

 

[Renee750il]

The site can vary from state to state -- and even county to county. You might call the tax assessor's office and get the direct site that you can search from them.

I usually have success finding the right site using search terms like property search with the county.

 

[Sweet72947]

Ok I found the site that I can use to search for the owner of a property. I just tried to search for this one using the address but no results came up. Do you know what "Street Dir" means?

 

[Renee750il]

Not sure. Sometimes the addresses from the tax records don't gibe exactly so I just put in the street name and scroll through.

 

[Sweet72947]

Even if I just put in the street name, no results come up.

 

[Renee750il]

Okay. That's weird.

Look at the search page. Usually there's a choice you have to make about HOW to run the search, name, address or tax map. The default that comes up is usually by name, so you may be giving it information it can't use until you designate how you want to search.

 

[Sweet72947]

I chose address, and I tried putting in the street number and the street name, I've tried just the street name, and I tried half of the street name. I got buttonwood, but not buttonbush. Sigh.

 

[Renee750il]

Very strange! Have you driven by to make sure the street name isn't listed wrong? Or done a googlemap search?

 

[Sweet72947]

Mapquest and googlemaps both find the street just fine.

 

[Renee750il]

Very strange. I'd call the assessor's office and get the information from them.