Rental agencies (Washington: real estate, apartments, rentals)

[Teddy H]

I'm visiting DC at the beginning of next month from the UK to see if my wife and I want to move there.

We are trying to plan our trip & were thinking if any real estate rental companies would show us around a few apartments if we were to email them explaining our situation so we could get an idea of what the apartments are like there. If so which companies would you recommend for me to contact?

Thanks

[juniperbleu]

Try Long & Foster or McEnearney. They don't specialize in rentals, but I know they post them online and in their offices. If you look on their websites and find a few that you're interested in then you can contact the agent.

[treebw]

I agree, I am moving to Arlington and found that a lot of rentals are run by Realtors. The guy I met from Long and Foster...actually two different Realtors... were both very nice and professional.

[NWDC]

I would tend to go around with an independent realtor rather than someone employed by a building management company, as the latter has more of a vested interest in getting you to rent in a particular building.
There are several monthly rental guides available here for free, some of them quite thick and full of photographs. You might pick them up when you arrive (some are in supermarkets, some in newspaper boxes) and have a look through. But they and the "apartment living" supplement in the Washington Post are paid ads, so the downsides of the buildings will not be mentioned (for instance, "major repairs underway, jackhammers from 7AM to 7 PM"),
I'd also suggest you look at the DC government website, dc.gov, and search for "landlords" to make sure you don't end up in a building that looks nice but is infested with bedbugs or rodents or mold. Some management companies have a reputation for not doing upkeep on their buildings, and the ones that the city has sued should turn up if you search.
Also be sure to Google any address you consider renting at, in case it's been written about by former or present tenants either as delightful and well-maintained or, for example, full of late-night parties or staffed by nasty goons. There are several websites dedicated to ratings like that but I don't know their names.