Where can I find a rental house in Cranberry township, PA (Pittsburgh: real estate, apartments)

[mjcd-g]

My husband just got a job in Warrendale PA, and we are trying to find a house for us to rent, but I don't find anything online. Please help, is for me, the hubby, 2 kids under 3 and two cats. We want him to come home for lunch, so nothing to far away.

[Aran]

pittsburgh apts/housing for rent classifieds "Cranberry" - craigslist

[greg42]

Hm, come home for lunch. Where in Warrendale is it? Something in RIDC Thorn Hill office park or somewhere else?

Pittsburgh craigslist is a good place to check, and probably the Post-Gazette classifieds, which you can also search online. Many listings for such stuff are only in the Sunday edition, but you can go back to last Sunday's listings online. Look under North section I think (listings are by n/s/e/w). There are some smaller local papers, plus free things like Pennysaver, but I really don't think they'll get a lot of real estate rental traffic.

Place names are weird and don't always match the mailing addresses so for "Warrendale" (not a municipality name) you might also find Marshall listed (as in Marshall Township). Parts of next door Franklin Park Borough might be close enough. (Some possibly close enough parts of Franklin Park have a Sewickley 15143 mailing address which could be listed.) It's very small, but sometimes there's a rental in Bradford Woods, and it would probably say that and not Warrendale. Some things calling themselves "Wexford" with that mailing address would probably be close enough, maybe listed as Pine (Township) but more likely if they say Pine they are farther away. If it's in McCandless, eh, probably too far but maybe could work if on the far far end. Something in the right corners of Economy Borough or New Sewickley Township (mailing addresses Baden 15005 or Freedom 15042, but not everything in those zips) could also be close enough; these are across the border in Beaver County. I live in Economy; my drive to Warrendale takes, eh, just under 10 minutes although that would vary with exactly where in Warrendale we're talking about. Certainly it's closer than some parts of Cranberry, so you'll probably have to be selective with the parts of Cranberry as well. Possible some places listed as Mars or Valencia would be close enough, but probably a stretch. Seven Fields could work; sometimes these just say Cranberry but sometimes they say Seven Fields or might say Mars.

I'm ignoring things like schools with the kids under 3 assuming this may be temporary arrangement. You might want to cross off the Beaver County locations if you expect to rent into the kids' school age years and have them attend public school in the same place.

Rental houses (as separate from apartments) are not exactly what I'd call plentiful in these areas, and if you're not open to a townhouse, they'll be probably even less so, but there are some out there. You'll have to watch for no pets (I've even seen a rental that said a small dog might be ok but no cats, yikes) and if your price range is low you may have some trouble finding something you like. Hope this helps a bit with locations.

[Copanut]

Contact one of the big Real Estate companies, HH, Coldwell, you name it. Right now there are a lot of vacant homes on the market.

[mjcd-g]

Excellent thank you for the info, it's a lot of names I will try figuring out by seeing a map or something. He will work for Heinz in Warrendale, so if you can think of something else, please let me know.

[greg42]

Heinz is off Brush Creek Rd in Marshall Township (Warrendale), so roughly where I had in mind when I was running down the list. There's a fairly good area you can get to within a 10-minute drive, but let's give one caveat: if you have to go north on 79 it does not work from the interchange at Warrendale that's just down the road. So, for example, to get to Seven Fields you might normally think you could hop on 79 for a mile or two, but you can't. You have to go over to Rt 19 and go through the heaviest traffic in Cranberry to get there. It may still work out to be close enough, but likely will not. Going south on 79 is fine from there, and you can exit at Warrendale from northbound 79. Because this office is closer to that interchange, it may work better to look south into Franklin Park rather than north into Cranberry (in addition to Marshall, etc.)

[Retiredcoach]

Originally Posted by mjcd-g

My husband just got a job in Warrendale PA, and we are trying to find a house for us to rent, but I don't find anything online. Please help, is for me, the hubby, 2 kids under 3 and two cats. We want him to come home for lunch, so nothing to far away.

There is a great deal of competition for reasonably priced rental houses and townhouses in Pittsburgh's northern suburbs. I know this because I own a number of rentals in this region. I share this with you because at the present time, I have had my choice of tenants (anywhere from 40-50 different inquiries for each advertised rental), with some requesting to rent, sight unseen. As a landlord, there are certain criteria that I try to maintain in determining who I would choose to rent my property (ies). Financial and credit worthiness are of utmost importance, but there are certain intangibles that I share with many other landlords.... we do not want to rent our properties to those who seem to have a propensity to cause damages (even inadvertent). Our hope is to have a very nice home available for you to rent, and then, to have a quick turnaround when you move. This is rarely possible for me when the tenant has young children, and it is never possible for me when the prior tenant had cats. Simply stated, I/we will lose rental income when this type of tenant moves. The extensive cleaning needed to be done after the cats leave is especially tedious.

Craigslist is generally your best bet in your quest to find available rental properties. Most landlords (and many realtors) in this area advertise their properties here first because there is no cost involved. Also, it is generally the most effective way to create a favorable pool of prospective tenants.

I am sharing this information with you, not to trample your hopes, but to let you know that the demand for rental houses in Cranberry region far exceeds the supply currently. Landlords can be particularly "choosy", and those cats may be real dealbreakers. Good luck!

[greg42]

Man, if craigslist is where most of the rentals are listed first, you're going to find almost nothing. I think I've looked at them all already. I hope you have $1800+ if you want 3BR or more and takes cats. A lot of these are new or new-ish, keep in mind, but still. I think I could count on one hand the number that appeared OK to take cats at all, although I didn't look at the 2BR listings....

[mjcd-g]

Also I forgot a minor detail, we are moving from southern California.. So I don't know much about the area neither does my husband. I think my husband will have to fly there and get some help plus all the info we already have. The kids and the cats are coming but we are really clean, never have a problem, my last home sold within a month of us leaving without any extensive cleaning (really just a very good vaccum). Thank you again.