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Old 06-02-2010, 10:35 PM
 
62 posts, read 151,522 times
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My family is moving to Rexburg from a considerable distance (1300 miles) and while we don't have to physically be there until August, we are moving our stuff there in a couple weeks. I've been looking on line, trying to get a handle on the rental housing market, and have a couple questions I hope someone can answer:

1. Is it reasonable to find single family houses for rent? It seems I've seen a lot of "houses" for rent--only to find that the top floor is rented to one party, and the basement to someone else. Essentially, an apartment. I have five kids and feel sorry for anyone who would be living under us. But is it even possible to find an actual house for rent?

2. Where's the best place to look for rentals if you are just a regular person, and not a student? I've been checking craigslist, but there just aren't too many places listed. We'll be there next week, so I guess we can drive around and look for For Rent signs. Do realtors in the area handle any rentals, or is it strictly buying and selling? We're not interested in renting to own at the moment.

Thanks in advance for any insights you can share.
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Old 06-09-2010, 02:13 PM
 
Location: Old Mother Idaho
29,175 posts, read 22,153,599 times
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Hi, ric...
I live in Idaho Falls, so my thoughts may not be accurate. I hope someone from Rexburg will comment on your post.
From what I've seen in Rexburg, new single housing as separate units aren't being built as much as condos, duplexes, and other multiple housing units. For quite a while after BYUI became a 4 year college, it seemed like Rexburg couldn't build them fast enough to keep up with the demand, but the construction may well have slowed down in this recession.

That's not to say that the enrollment at BYUI has slowed down, though. From what I've read, a lot of the undergraduates are married and in their mid 20's to 30's.

I don't know how familiar you are with the Mormon culture, but it's very common for a young man, fresh out of high school, or with a year or two of college under his belt, to go on a 2 year mission for the church. Many have a girlfriend who waits for them until they return home, and they get married soon after. May also have kids right away, and large families are common in the church.

It's highly likely that some the condo units are designed to accommodate these families, so I suspect finding one that's suitable for you might not be as hard as simply finding one that's available.

I suggest you contact the Rexburg Chamber of Commerce right away. They will have a list of realtors, and may have good information right at hand. You need to talk to them and to the realtors, not mess around with craigslist. Only the realtors can give you a picture of where the families live, vs. where the single students live.

You should also check out realtors in Jefferson County- (Rigby and environs). Rexburg is very close to Jefferson County, and the rental situation there may be much different. There are many small communities close to Rexburg as well, and there are a lot of properties out on the farms and rural areas surrounding Rexburg. The more homework you do from where you are now, the better off you will be when you get here.
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Old 07-18-2010, 05:23 PM
 
62 posts, read 151,522 times
Reputation: 71
Well, I'm coming back to report in case anyone else is looking for info like me. We FINALLY found something just a couple days ago, and we've been looking intensively. Finding a house for rent in Rexburg is actually really hard. There are many, MANY houses for sale--but if you are only going to be there a year or two, you just aren't going to buy a house. Some of the houses for sale are also for rent--but people are quite up front about the fact that if they sell, that's the end of your contract. (Even if you have a year's lease.) There are plenty of apartments if you don't mind that, but if you are not a student/have a number of kids/have kids older than 2-3, you will have a hard time.

Places to look: there appear to be two property management places in town, Rentmaster and Premier Rental Properties. (Hopefully I can mention those specifics; if not, then look up property managers for Rexburg and you find them.) Most of the houses I saw on Craigslist were actually rented through them. They are worth going to. Craigslist is going to list a fair amount, too. The newspaper is extremely scant when it comes to rentals, and most of the time I couldn't get the classifieds page to work on line, anyway. When we drove through town in June we didn't see any For Rent signs, but I've heard of a few since then. And realtors in Rexburg don't really deal with rentals at all. They, like the owners, really need houses to sell.

If you don't mind living in Idaho Falls, it looks like the market is bigger and the houses are a little cheaper. I guess you have to weight that against any weather/commute issues (not that it's far, but the number of cars you have may or may not limit things like that.)

On the up side, there don't seem to be any "bad" parts of Rexburg, and everything is certainly very close to everything else! And plenty of houses have 4-5 bedrooms, so they are built big, even if the whole for sale/for rent thing is tricky.

Hopefully anyone coming after me in the rental search has an easier time than I did. Still, I can't complain as we did finally find something. Whew!
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