How do you find an apt from out of state w/o a job???

[yukon]

Originally Posted by wannabeaTexan

Yeah, but they won't tell you because they only know what their approval guidelines are. They won't know if you will be approved until you apply. Apartment locators don't know this either and if one of them says they do, they're lying. You can still do whatever the locator is doing for yourself. Yes, the locator services are free. As long as you say they are the reason you know about the apartments, they get a fee from the apartments.

You can possibly waste some time trying out different locators if you come across those that aren't that good, or you can spend that time finding a place on your own. I know I'm picky...I like what I like. It saved me much more time to go and look at apartments I know I would be interested in than going to ones a locator set up that I could tell right away were not for me.

In my case, I could've found the place easily enough in an internet search, driven by whenever I wanted, and just kept going right on out of the parking lot. Instead, I anticipated a scheduled visit for a few days, only to get there and have to cancel right before the appointment, or go through with it and waste everyone's time being polite.

I'm not saying they aren't awesome people...but I do stand by my opinion that the job they do is not necessary at all (probably why they don't charge the hunter a fee), unless you just don't have the time to look yourself. And they can hinder your goal.

Also, if you don't have a job when you get to a different state, you might have more luck trying to rent from a smaller landlord/private owner who might bend their own rules if you talk to them than a big company with set in stone policies. I doubt they will be giving locators any finding fees!

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you. A GOOD locator will know their sliver of the market and is very useful if you have issues that will make you a difficult renter (credit, judgements, pet issues, eviction/foreclosure, whatever). And they don't cost YOU any money - they're paid by the apartment complexes. You do not need to make an advance appointment, nor do you have to look on THEIR schedule. If a locator refuses to do business with you if you aren't willing to lease right then, walk out the door and find another one. It's that simple. If one has a spotless background check, great credit, awesome job income (as in, not self-employed) and no pets, then you're right - THAT person probably doesn't need a locator service.

In my case, one of the two I'm using is great and she's steered me to several complexes who can work with my credit. The complexes who will work with credit KNOW what the criteria is and will discuss it with you when you visit the property. They usually will NOT tell you that over the phone. OR that's been MY experience over the past month. She's also found me some small properties that I would not have found otherwise, unless I lucked out and drove around that particular neighborhood. These properties do not advertise on craigslist or the various apartment sites. One might luck out and find them sometimes via hotpads.

[autism360]

Originally Posted by yukon

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you. A GOOD locator will know their sliver of the market and is very useful if you have issues that will make you a difficult renter (credit, judgements, pet issues, eviction/foreclosure, whatever). And they don't cost YOU any money - they're paid by the apartment complexes. You do not need to make an advance appointment, nor do you have to look on THEIR schedule. If a locator refuses to do business with you if you aren't willing to lease right then, walk out the door and find another one. It's that simple. If one has a spotless background check, great credit, awesome job income (as in, not self-employed) and no pets, then you're right - THAT person probably doesn't need a locator service.

In my case, one of the two I'm using is great and she's steered me to several complexes who can work with my credit. The complexes who will work with credit KNOW what the criteria is and will discuss it with you when you visit the property. They usually will NOT tell you that over the phone. OR that's been MY experience over the past month. She's also found me some small properties that I would not have found otherwise, unless I lucked out and drove around that particular neighborhood. These properties do not advertise on craigslist or the various apartment sites. One might luck out and find them sometimes via hotpads.

Yukon you get it thanks for putting in your 2 cents.What part of free experienced help is there not to like.