Looking for rental property in 78746 Westlake/Lost Creek? (Austin, Howe: for sale, real estate)

[jaezra]

Hello,

We have been looking into Austin for quite a while, and now its time to go, my company has an office there and would like me to be able to begin working out of that office by the end of July.

My wife and I have been trying to find rental properties in 78746 but we have become a bit frustrated. Seems like every craigslist ad for properties in this area is a fishing scam or something, the people either don't answer or have an excuse why the property is no longer available and want a bunch of your info. We have even reached out to a local broker who put us on an MLS distribution for rentals, but has not returned our emails and calls when we inquire about properties. WTF?

Any advice on how to find some rental properties in the area? I am not looking for some smoking deal or anything, just a short-term property that works for us at a reasonable price. We are strong renters too, great credit, strong income, etc.

Thanks,
Joe

[FalconheadWest]

West Lake is not the clientele to list on Craigslist. The rents will be high. It's also not an area for short term rentals, as you mentioned, so those are your two issues. Not sure why the agent isn't returning calls, except the short term thing would be the eliminator, but that's the reason why the Craigslist postings are scams, because the owners aren't posting there.

[centralaustinite]

Look on Austin Home Search for leases, it is the public face of the MLS. Don't even bother with CL.
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Looking right now, there are 40 homes available for rent in 78746, 30 with rents in a reasonable range (ie below 5K)

[Moonlady]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Look on Austin Home Search for leases, it is the public face of the MLS. Don't even bother with CL.
Austin real estate | Homes for Sale Austin | Austin Homes | Austin real estate | Homes for Sale Austin | Austin Homes
Looking right now, there are 40 homes available for rent in 78746, 30 with rents in a reasonable range (ie below 5K)

You also might try adding 78733 to the search to open up a few more possibilities. It's the adjacent zip to 78746 west of 360 on Bee Caves Rd.

How "short term" are you talking?

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Moonlady

How "short term" are you talking?

In the desirable neighborhood the OP is looking at, there is little reason for most landlords to be interested in anything less than a 1 year lease.

However, in Texas, if the OP had to break the lease early, Texas law requires that the landlord try to mitigate the damages by trying to find a new tenant asap. And I can't imagine it would be to hard to find another tenant for the property fairly quickly.

[jaezra]

Interesting thought about craigslist, I have lived in a couple big cities around the US and found my rental homes in mostly affluent areas using craigslist every time?

Thanks for the link CentralAustinite, I will check the site out. And we will check out 78733 as well Moonlady

Ideally we would like a 6-9 month lease, and I know that might be a challenge. If we have to do a year we will make it work. We just want to rent first and learn the areas we like best and then consider buying a place.

thanks

[Glenn Ross]

Find another agent. A good one will help immeasurably. As said above, 12 month lease is far more common.