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I am looking 15-30 days in advance, not 5 months. There is just nothing. Everything is now. I can afford double rent, but it is basically just flushing money down the toilet. :/
15-30 days is not advanced rental, that is almost standard waiting period. Are you in a area with a hot rental market, or limited supply, or seasonal demand?
I have no clue. I moved into this house last year after looking a week and it was the first and only one we saw. We were strapped for time, so the fact that everything was available was not a disadvantage. We got lucky and we liked it here, despite not having a lot of time to look. However, it was luck.
Now we have to move again because of my husband's job wants him elsewhere in the state. Where we are looking is a mostly rural/semi-rural area. There are plenty of units available in our price range that we like, but they are all available now. About 10% of the postings are in the future, probably because of their serious disadvantages: all propane heat, 20+ miles from interstate, absolutely hideous with appliances older than I am.
I'll just keep at it, but it is a bit annoying and needed to vent.
When do people usually look for a new place to rent?
As soon as you know is when I begin the looking phase. If the lease is about to end, because the lease is up I usually start looking 60 days in advance for a place to lease and set up a date where I can move in before my new lease starts. Last time it worked really well for me. My lease was up on May 31st, so Feb 1st I began looking over my renting options. I signed my lease on Feb. 21st, and set my move in date for Mar. 23 giving me a week to move things from place to place. If you are notified of eviction, or buying out your lease I would start looking as soon as possible.
Just because a place is available "now" doesn't mean you have to rent it "now". I've found many a place that I can't move into for several weeks and have never had a landlord demur about having the lease start a few weeks in the future. Most landlords don't expect there to be no gap whatsoever between one tenant moving out and another moving in and a commitment for 2-3 weeks down the line is better than trusting to luck that a tenant who can move in and start paying immediately is going to show up in a few days time.
In the Boston area, around 75% of leases overturn on September 1. It was the rule of thumb in college to start looking in February and March for that September 1 lease - especially since we were in a smaller town outside of Boston. My old landlord asked my roommate (from whom I was technically subletting) if he was going to renew his Sept. 1 lease in May. He had until June 1 to decide.
If you are moving during an "off" month or looking for a sublet, I'd say about a month so you can scoop up month-to-month apartments after the 30 day notice.
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When do people usually look for a new place to rent?
