How would you respond to a house rental ad via email? (Pittsburgh: real estate, foreclosure)

[RoughCollie]

I have answered many Craigslist ads for houses for rent via email (and by telephone, if a number is provided).

So far, I have gotten about a 10% response rate from my email inquiries. These replies, save one, have been from Nigerian scammers or from people who are selling their houses which are in pre-foreclosure.

I am polite. I use a friendly tone. I say my husband and I would like to make an appointment to look at the house. I say something nice about the house, too, since there are usually pictures with the ads.

I do not say that I have a big dog or that we are moving to Pittsburgh from another state. The ads I reply to say they take dogs. I don't want the fact that we are moving to play into a decision about whether to contact me. My email address is a Verizon one and I use my real name in both the email address and in the closing of the email.

Mind you, I used to say we are a family of 6, have a large dog, and are moving there from another state -- I stopped doing that due to receiving *no* responses.

Also, I am responding to ads for 4 or 5 bedroom, 2-bath houses. I am not trying to cram a large family into a tiny house. If the house is in Allegheny County, I check the property assessments on the house to find out if it has enough square footage and other information. I also research the high school, the crime rate, and the town beforehand.

Can any of you think of something else I can do to get replies?

Thanks,
RC

[PeterRabbit]

Email or call larger real estate companies and ask for their rental dept. You can be honest about having a dog with a rental agent. They've probably already told the owner of a large house that families often have pets. You tell them what you want and maybe they can use the multilist computer to search for it. There's a lot of rentals that never get advertised especially if they're hoping to sell the house instead.

[preciouspunk]

I don't have advice but just wanted to say I understand. I have had the same problem. I've had about the same response and learned to tell which Craig's List ads are scams.

I tried to contact Arbors Property Management which no success. They responded to my email and then never responded to me again with listings so I don't recommend them.

I also tried CA Properties with no luck. Their pet deposit is an additional one months rent which is crazy. We said we thought that was crazy and they turned and yelled to someone in the background "Oh they can't afford the pet deposit" - we can afford it, I just am not paying another months rent when normally only $300-$500. Besides that they were just rude and unhelpful.

I'd try a real estate agency and see if they can help you. I'm hoping we found a place from Craig's List - we'll see. We're also moving from out of state so it's frustrating cause it's not like we can just drive around and look for signs!

Good luck with your search

[Hopes]

An additional month's rent for a pet deposit is pretty much the norm in Pittsburgh.

[preciouspunk]

Originally Posted by Hopes

An additional month's rent for a pet deposit is pretty much the norm in Pittsburgh.

Every other place I talked to was $300.00 - no one else has asked for an entire months rent for a pet deposit. And I've talked to tons of places in Pittsburgh looking for a place. A whole months rent is crazy.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by preciouspunk

Every other place I talked to was $300.00 - no one else has asked for an entire months rent for a pet deposit. And I've talked to tons of places in Pittsburgh looking for a place. A whole months rent is crazy.

I think it may depend on whether it's refundable or not. When I was looking into renting with pets, I ran across some that places that wanted an extra full months rent as a deposit for a pet. Then if there was no damage you got it and your regular security deposit back at the end of the lease. I also talked to some places where there was an extra "pet rent" each month of $25-$50 per pet, and some that had non-refundable extra deposits of $200-$300. I ended up finding a private landlord that charged no extra. So I lived there. But that was few years ago...

[Hopes]

Maybe things are different now, but that was my experience when I rented too, Tinare.

The owners who required an additional month's rent were concerned about replacing damaged flooring, which can be very costly, and both security deposits were refunded if there was no damage. Their properties seemed to be the better maintained rentals too.

The owners who required the lower $200-$300 deposit kept the deposit regardless of damage. They claimed the pet deposit was for professional allergy cleaning services. It seemed more like a scam to me.

In the long run, the lower pet deposit could be more expensive depending on individual circumstances and landlords.

[Bong477]

Craigslist is just sketchy. I don't think you are doing anything wrong.

[hempfield mania]

Go through newspaper ads rather than Craigslist. You'll probably get a better response.

[PeterRabbit]

^ Agree. Newspaper ads have phone numbers. The Trib and PG classifieds are online.