Austin Real Estate Terminology (West, Alto: apartment complex, rentals, houses)

[AguaDulce]

I was recently in the market for a rental in Austin and I noticed a few quirks that I think only serve to waste the time of everyone involved.

(1) Inaccurate mapping
(2) A flyer for an apartment vacancy--with no rental price on it
(3) The practice of listing "shares" in the same category as whole apartments or houses

Is it really difficult to fill the vacancies? So difficult that they have to resort to the old "bait-and-switch"?

They way people talk you'd think that it's nearly impossible to find a rental here, that there's just far too many people moving here and not enough places.

So, all of these landlords putting out vague or misleading information--
they are having to field many more calls that go nowhere. Right?
What a pain in the a$$.

I know there are lots of real estate professionals on this forum. Hoping to hear from you.

Thanks,
Jo

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by AguaDulce

I was recently in the market for a rental in Austin and I noticed a few quirks that I think only serve to waste the time of everyone involved.

(1) Inaccurate mapping
(2) A flyer for an apartment vacancy--with no rental price on it
(3) The practice of listing "shares" in the same category as whole apartments or houses

Is it really difficult to fill the vacancies? So difficult that they have to resort to the old "bait-and-switch"?

They way people talk you'd think that it's nearly impossible to find a rental here, that there's just far too many people moving here and not enough places.

So, all of these landlords putting out vague or misleading information--
they are having to field many more calls that go nowhere. Right?
What a pain in the a$$.

I know there are lots of real estate professionals on this forum. Hoping to hear from you.

Thanks,
Jo

Some could be scams. I think there was an article in the statesman a couple days ago about fake rentals being listed, trying to bilk people out of deposits.

[Aquitaine]

Is it really difficult to fill the vacancies?

No. Quite easily, actually.

Sounds like you had a bad experience - whereabouts did you encounter these things?

There are unscrupulous landlords everywhere, but as a landlord (for single family homes) we have no trouble getting tenants.

[centralaustinite]

tons of scammers, and poor mapping is incredibly common even for house with sites like Trulia, etc.

What happens on my block is that a legit listing is copied along with the pictures, and a crazy low fake rent set, the apartment is "shown" (via lock box sometime, some times just the outside), the scammer takes a "deposit" from the victim who thinks they just got a deal!! Instead they have lost the deposit money forever.

Get a locator, free to you. Legit

[AguaDulce]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

No. Quite easily, actually.

Sounds like you had a bad experience - whereabouts did you encounter these things?

There are unscrupulous landlords everywhere, but as a landlord (for single family homes) we have no trouble getting tenants.

Happens all the time on craigslist. Not just the scammy listings. Many listing agents are posting placemarks on the Central Austin part of the listings map just to get clicks. They don't list the address. You have to call for that.

Also, many listings on craigslist are categorized under "Apts/Housing" when they should be listed under "Rooms/Shared"

And as for flyers that don't list the price, this has happened many times over the years. Most recently, the apartment complex on 49th, near Grover. They often have a box installed in front of the property with flyers in it. No price.

I ended up enlisting the help of a professional agent, and we were eventually successful in finding a place, but even some of the REALTOR listings were listed incorrectly as apartments when they were actually people looking for a roommate. And these were "official" (MLS?) listings.

[TexasHorseLady]

Those official listings that were inaccurate should have been reported to the MLS by your agent (and may have been). That can result in a fine for the agent who does that.

[AguaDulce]

For example:

If you perform a search here (let's make the parameters max $800, in downtown Austin), you will get results based on a per bedroom price

Search West Campus apartments, campus apartments, apartments in Austin, TX

Since when did they start advertising the rental price "per bedroom"?

[FalconheadWest]

I just had a lease listing on South 1st and many of the appointments were canceled because "I didn't realize the house was actually on South 1st..."

Seriously? South 1st was right there in the address!! Talk about truth in advertising, yet everyone thought I was kidding with the address. You can't win for losing...

[AguaDulce]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

I just had a lease listing on South 1st and many of the appointments were canceled because "I didn't realize the house was actually on South 1st..."

Seriously? South 1st was right there in the address!! Talk about truth in advertising, yet everyone thought I was kidding with the address. You can't win for losing...

Did it have the actual number or did it just say South 1st Street? Some people are just bad readers.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by AguaDulce

Did it have the actual number or did it just say South 1st Street? Some people are just bad readers.

The actual house number was with it. 1234 South 1st Street on some marketing and 1234 S. 1st St on other marketing.