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Hello, I am an Oklahoman *hoping* to be a WNYer this year. We are officially putting our house up for sale on Monday and when it sells--we move north! We want to rent for a bit while we are looking for THE house to buy and stay put. Trick is, since we are so far away I am not sure how to go about finding houses for rent! I am asking for links to rental agencies or good reputable websites to see what our options are. We are not too picky about the area right now--ideally would like to start in Lockport, but somewhere between Amherst to Medina is fine too. Would need at the minimum a 2bd house (preferably 3) with garage in a safe area maybe by an elementary school. I don't really care about looks/frilly things right now--it is purely temporary while we look for a house to buy and get situated in a new state.
I am most likely going to work in Lockport at the hospital for the time being and would like to be close to cut down on commute time. Hubby doesn't know where he will be working yet so it can be his turn to be the commuter Thank you again for your help (and please don't bother lecturing me about the snow blah blah, yes I've done my research on the area).
Based on your other thread, I think you will definitely be able to find what you're looking for here in WNY.
This is the website I use to find homes for sale in the area Buffalo Niagara Homes and Real Estate But also if you select "rental" as your property type you may find listings. I tried it for you just now and found a huge brick Victorian in Lockport for $1600 / month.
Best wishes and congratulations on making the move! I've lived on both coasts, in the midwest, the south, and the island of Oahu and in my experience, WNY has the best people in the country! They are the best part of living here
What worked for me and what I would recommend for you is to schedule a trip here for a couple days. In advance you can schedule appointments every hour for as many places as you can in that time. Rent a car and go see them all. I didn't filter too much in advance. I wanted to see as many as I could because I didn't want to come back. Be prepared to make a decision while there , sign any paperwork and make a deposit. I came with printed pay stubs and a reference letter from my previous landlord.
Oh and if you get specific addresses you are considering you can use Google Street view to see what they and the neighborhood looks like
Also I wouldn't mention that you are looking for something temporary to your prospective landlords. Some may want a 1 year lease so decide in advance if you are willing to stay a year. If not you may want to ask about leases when setting up appointments.
When I was trying to find a rental home while in CA I didn't find that any site helped (even sites posted for me to try) except for craigslist. We did finally find our house on there, and found several that would work for our specific needs to choose from.
Thank you everyone for your input! I have been browsing houses on the Realty USA website for years now and actually met with a realtor on our last trip there, but I guess I never realized you could change your search to "Rental"! I will look on there and craigslist for now I guess. I know some places do a 6 month lease so I will be sure to check into that when it comes to it. Whenever we get an offer on our house I will get serious about my search for a rental house. We will definitely take a quick trip up there right before we move to view our options and settle on one to rent. I guess we wouldn't really mind an apartment but we definitely prefer a house.
Suggestion to really know the neighborhood before you rent (good for ANY area):
Drive around between 7-8 am. See if people are leaving for work, staying in, who the kids are on buses and how many. Between 3-5, you can catch the kids as well coming home . That time and a bit later? People coming home from work. A drive thru at night should tell you how congested ( # of cars) or houses that look nice or seedy - who lives there. If you see a bunch of kids hanging out on a corner, or you don't like the looks of no one leaving for work? You might reconsider the rental
and if you go for an apartment do some searches for reviews on the complex name and the management company that runs it. The company that manages mine is great but there are some horror stories out there.
If a place has one bad review and many good ones i tend to ignore the bad one. But if there are many bad ones i run
And if you do pick an apartment the management companies offer referal bonuses so see if someone on here can hook that up and share the money with you.
The same thing for Internet/TV try to hook up a referal with a current customer
Hello, I am an Oklahoman *hoping* to be a WNYer this year. We are officially putting our house up for sale on Monday and when it sells--we move north! We want to rent for a bit while we are looking for THE house to buy and stay put. Trick is, since we are so far away I am not sure how to go about finding houses for rent! I am asking for links to rental agencies or good reputable websites to see what our options are. We are not too picky about the area right now--ideally would like to start in Lockport, but somewhere between Amherst to Medina is fine too. Would need at the minimum a 2bd house (preferably 3) with garage in a safe area maybe by an elementary school. I don't really care about looks/frilly things right now--it is purely temporary while we look for a house to buy and get situated in a new state.
I am most likely going to work in Lockport at the hospital for the time being and would like to be close to cut down on commute time. Hubby doesn't know where he will be working yet so it can be his turn to be the commuter Thank you again for your help (and please don't bother lecturing me about the snow blah blah, yes I've done my research on the area).
I'm from the Lockport area...commute time isn't much of an issue anywhere. If you're concerned, you'll want to look towards the east side of town. It's been nearly 20 years since I live there, so I don't know how much things have changed, but the neighborhoods around the hospital were all OK, working class ones. A half mile or so further east, out around the country club, things got nicer. The worst areas used to be around the downtown core, around Washburn street, IIRC (near the old Harrison building).
You can find lots of nice places on rural lots (if that's your thing) within a 10 minute drive of the hospital. The city limits are ~ 1/2 mile east of the hospital.
Good luck! Lockport isn't fancy or impressive, but it's not a bad place to live/work. The nice point is that you can buy a nice place on a decent sized rural lot and still be 10 minutes from downtown. I worked at Harrions and lived out by Wilson, it wasn't a bad commute at all. You mention a wide area between Amherst and Medina. The Amherst area is much more prosperous, but also much more crowded with suburban strip malls and track homes. The areas surrounding Lockport are much more rural, with many 1-2 acre lots on road frontage surrounded by farms and fields. Medina is more typical "small town America" with an older core, angled parking and an "old style" downtown. Or again, it was...2 decades ago. They were also suffering from a fair crime problem for such a small town. IMO (and again, this was true long ago) other smaller towns in the direction of Medina were nicer-Gasport, Middleport for example, also with an old, small town feel.
If you haven't been warned, be prepared for some of the highest property tax rates in the country.
Last edited by Toyman at Jewel Lake; 02-07-2013 at 09:34 AM..
Good luck! Lockport isn't fancy or impressive, but it's not a bad place to live/work. The nice point is that you can buy a nice place on a decent sized rural lot and still be 10 minutes from downtown. I worked at Harrions and lived out by Wilson, it wasn't a bad commute at all. You mention a wide area between Amherst and Medina. The Amherst area is much more prosperous, but also much more crowded with suburban strip malls and track homes. The areas surrounding Lockport are much more rural, with many 1-2 acre lots on road frontage surrounded by farms and fields. Medina is more typical "small town America" with an older core, angled parking and an "old style" downtown. Or again, it was...2 decades ago. They were also suffering from a fair crime problem for such a small town. IMO (and again, this was true long ago) other smaller towns in the direction of Medina were nicer-Gasport, Middleport for example, also with an old, small town feel.
If you haven't been warned, be prepared for some of the highest property tax rates in the country.
Thank you for your input! I love to hear from Lockport residents. The area I referred to is wide and diverse but it is the area we would be happy to find a rent house in. When it comes time to buy, we definitely want to zero in on the area around/in Lockport to Medina and north. Perfection would be an old Victorian on 1 acre in a nice little town As for the property taxes...yes they are very high! Unfortunately we may have to compromise to get the location that we want. I know the further south you go = more snow and we don't want to get too far away from the Great Lakes and Buffalo. It all depends on where we find the perfect house I guess!
Thank you again!
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Thank you again for your help (and please don't bother lecturing me about the snow blah blah, yes I've done my research on the area).
