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Old 02-05-2014, 02:37 PM
 
Location: Las Vegas, NV
229 posts, read 563,429 times
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Hi, any suggestions for best place to find home rentals online in the Boise area? So far the best I found with the most listings is Craigslist. Is there any better resource (I'm not located in Boise)?
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Old 02-05-2014, 07:08 PM
 
276 posts, read 640,970 times
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I don't know if craigs is the best place to look for rentals, but it seems to be the place where most of them are advertised. One thing that sucks about renting in Boise is that most of the rentals are managed by PM companies, and they, for the most part, are terrible to do business with. First thing they want to do is charge you $25 per adult applicant. While that's not backbreaking if you only apply at one place, it can get expensive if you end up applying at multiple. It's pretty much a deal-breaker for me. I'm at the point I don't even bother with PM companies in Idaho. They're not regulated whatsoever and they can and will jerk you around big-time. I now only deal directly with the property owners. There's surely some good PM companies, but I don't know who they are.

My recommendation is to keep an eye on craigs, and get the word out to some of the larger real estate companies that you're in the market to rent. A lot of real estate brokers own rentals.

Last edited by Sage of Sagle; 02-07-2014 at 05:51 PM..
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Old 02-06-2014, 02:58 AM
 
Location: Nampa, ID
69 posts, read 142,679 times
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My father in law used a PM company to find a rental apartment and the application fee is paid once even if you apply for several of their listings. The application fee is normally used for a credit check so you don't have to keep paying over and over again. I personally do not know of any PM to use but I hope you have good luck.
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Old 02-06-2014, 10:17 AM
 
276 posts, read 640,970 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peru & Ky to Idaho View Post
My father in law used a PM company to find a rental apartment and the application fee is paid once even if you apply for several of their listings. The application fee is normally used for a credit check so you don't have to keep paying over and over again. I personally do not know of any PM to use but I hope you have good luck.
I know the app fee is used to offset credit checking costs, but it's also a money-maker.
If you want to apply for multiple listings using multiple
PM companies, it will cost you a lot of money.
Every PM company charges their own application fee.
Did you really not understand what I meant? Sheesh.
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Old 02-06-2014, 05:02 PM
 
12 posts, read 29,361 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KurtAngleDoesn'tSuck View Post
I don't know if craigs is the best place to look for rentals, but it seems to be the place where most of them are advertised. One thing that sucks about renting in Boise is that most of the rentals are managed by PM companies, and they, for the most part, are terrible to do business with. First thing they want to do is charge you $25 per adult applicant. While that's not backbreaking if you only apply at one place, it can get expensive if you end up applying at multiple. It's pretty much a deal-breaker for me. I'm at the point I don't even bother with PM companies in Idaho. They're not regulated whatsoever and they can and will jerk you around big-time. I now only deal directly with the property owners. There's surely some good PM companies, but I don't know who they are.

My recommendation is to keep an eye on craigs, and get the word out to some of the larger real estate companies that you're in the market to rent. A lot of real estate brokers own rentals.
Yep, and $25 is on the low end. I saw several that charged $40 per person or $75 per couple. that can add up big time if you find a few houses you're interested in with different PM companies. I've also read of the nightmares caused by some of these PM's. We got really lucky finding a nice rental by the owner after looking for a couple of months.

Last edited by Sage of Sagle; 02-07-2014 at 05:52 PM..
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Old 02-06-2014, 07:25 PM
 
Location: Boise, ID
8,046 posts, read 28,374,018 times
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As a landlord in Boise, I will say that we do charge a $15 per adult or married couple for the application fee. That is 1 hour wages. It costs us at least that much time to do background checks, verification calls, etc. If the tenant cannot provide their own credit report from a reputable source, it is another $15 to run the report for them. It costs us money to do that, so we pass that on to the applicant. I would not say we profit at all from applications. We spend more time working on them than the money we charge.

I will also say that for those who are complaining about the cost of applying multiple places, most of the applicants we turn down (I would estimate 50%) are because they lied to us. They told us they had really good credit, when they have a credit score in the low 500s. They say they have no utility collections, when they do. They'll say they were never evicted, when they were, or even are currently in the process. One company I called for employment verification had never heard of the so-called employee of 5 years. More than that, most of the rest of those we deny are because they are dumb and waste their money without disclosing pertinent information up front, such as the fact that they have 4 pit bulls, which if they had told us about before applying, we would have told them not to waste their money. So with 30 seconds of honest, up front conversation before turning in the application, you can find out if you even stand a chance, and save yourself some money. Unless the market is really hot, and things are renting immediately, if you are having to apply 5 or 6 places, you probably have something you should be disclosing.

Beyond that, I will say that if you aren't here to drive around and get numbers off signs in yards in your desired area, Craigslist is the best place. The only places we advertise our rentals is Craigslist and our company website.

KADS is right that PM companies are not regulated in Idaho. Unfortunately, that means you get the bad with the good. There are definitely some bad ones around. (I have to say I've never heard of Idaho Property Guardians, and I've done this for 13 years now, so there are enough out there that not everyone knows everyone else, some have only a few properties, some have many.)

I don't post my personal information on the forums, but if you want to send me a PM, I'd be happy to tell you whether we have anything matching what you are looking for. However, if you are looking on Craigslist, you've already seen everything we have.
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Old 02-06-2014, 08:24 PM
 
Location: Idaho
836 posts, read 1,655,230 times
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Some owners are old school and only advertise in newspaper ads, thrift papers, 3X5 cards at laundromat, signs in yard etc.

Those are tougher from afar.

I won't even do my rant on property managers but I also much prefer dealing directly with owners.

Good luck!
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Old 02-06-2014, 09:45 PM
 
12 posts, read 29,361 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacerta View Post
As a landlord in Boise, I will say that we do charge a $15 per adult or married couple for the application fee.
Lacerta, you obviously are not out to rip people off. I would have had no problem paying $15. That is very reasonable and I know it costs about that much to run a check. We were looking to rent in Boise from out of state and Craigslist was my primary source for searching rentals. There was one PM that had many nice looking homes for rent, far more than anybody else. They required $75 per couple to run a check. I googled them and found one horror story after another from people that used their services (both renters and home owners). Their initials are PPPM.

The reason we were interested in more than one rental was because we were moving from out of state. We were just trying to find a place. It was right before summer and there always seemed to be multiple applications already turned in for each rental we liked. We moved into our current house only seeing pictures of it online and asking questions. It turned out to be the perfect house for us.
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Old 02-06-2014, 10:08 PM
 
276 posts, read 640,970 times
Reputation: 325
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacerta View Post
I will also say that for those who are complaining about the cost of applying multiple places.......if you are having to apply 5 or 6 places, you probably have something you should be disclosing.
I have no doubt that you get many irresponsible applicants the likes of which no landlord would rent to.

The situation for me has usually been that a given PM company will have one place available that is suitable for my family, and a bunch of other stuff that is too big or too small. So then I either have to cough up multiple app fees, or apply for one and hope we are the ones that they want to rent to. A put-all-my-eggs-in-one-basket-at-a-time kind of thing.

Business is business, I get that, and I don't begrudge any company making a profit and protecting their interests, but I'm done with PM companies. And like I said before, I'm your dream tenant. I actually am the guy who's never been evicted, never late on the rent, never had a utility collection, always leaves the place in better condition that I received it, deals with the little problems myself instead of pestering the landlord that my doorknob is broken or my sink is leaking. My landlord told me some of his tenants call him almost every week with some stupid little BS problem, and he is very grateful to have me as his tenant. His words.
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Old 02-26-2014, 02:38 PM
 
213 posts, read 520,714 times
Reputation: 122
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacerta View Post
More than that, most of the rest of those we deny are because they are dumb and waste their money without disclosing pertinent information up front, such as the fact that they have 4 pit bulls, which if they had told us about before applying, we would have told them not to waste their money.
This should be taken on a case-by-case basis, as pitties are what their owners have made them, just like any other dog.
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