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I need to find a rental place for my family of 4. I looked at Craiglist and find a few of them might be good fits. My question is: How can I determine if the asking rent is reasonable? Should I negociate? Is anything I should be aware of?
thanks a lot
meimei
Realtors who manage rental homes often list them by price per square foot. So, you can look at the rent and divide by square footage and get a price per square foot to determine averages in areas. Obviously, some areas are cheaper to buy in and so will be cheaper to rent in. A townhome will frequently cost less. These are generalizations.
You can negotiate rent. The owner may or may not negotiate with you. Often times a single owner (rather than a property manager of many properties) is working to cover mortgage and can't negotiate.
Ultimately, you'll have to decide whether it's a good rent! Is it worth it to you? You might even want to go look at 2-3 in the areas you are interested in and you'll get a better feel for whether the rent suits the property.
Just to illustrate my explanation--I went to craigslist and found some houses:
Morrisville in Breckenridge: $74/sf (1195 for 1600sf)
"executive" home in Cary: $85/sf (2545 for 3000 sf)
Cary 3/2: $75/sf (1200 for 1600 sf)
Kirtsbrook 3 br: $58/sf ($1350 for 2320 sf)
The last one would "appear" to be the best "value" but you'd have to decide if the condition of the home and location made it a really good deal!
Totally comparison shop and negotiate, craigslist, the N&O, and signs on houses (which I actually haven't seen many of lately) are great ways to find a property.
We found a house through a large broker in a neighborhood we had never heard of (we were totally new to the area.) It was 3 br/2.5 bath in a nicely located Cary swim/playground neighborhood for $1300. We were filling out paperwork when we saw a "For Rent" sign on another house (same style) in the neighborhood. We got it from the owner for $1000. It had a better location, better backyard, and a fridge (who wants to cart a fridge in when you're planning to move once the lease ends?)
When we rented, we comparison shopped online and then went to rent.com and apartmentsearch.com...both are basically a sort of directory for apt rentals (they put you in touch with the actual rental agent) but offer $100 or $200 back in the form of a M/C. We got the rent.com $100 because we weren't aware of the $200 back from apartmentsearch.com
Lauren
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