[LuggageTag]

I am currently trying to relocate to Michigan, and looking for rental homes. We are NOT interested in apartment complexes, which seem to be the only thing easy to find while looking from a distance. In the area we now live in, all the rental action happens on craigslist. However, when I search for most of the Michigan cities we are interested in, I find very few listings on CL. Are people still advertising their rentals in the local newspaper around there?

I would love to know about any resources where I can see rentals from a distance, as we need to have something lined up when we get there. One I found was the Grand Rapids Heritage Hill Association, they have a nice listing area. Are there any other listings like this for other towns? We are looking mainly at the west side lakeshore area (anywhere from Saugatuck/South Haven up to TC), Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor. Grand Rapids seems to be the only place where there are privately owned rentals on CL; looking in Ann Arbor or Lansing yields a ton of complexes, and there just isn't much at all (other than vacation rentals) for any other areas...

Thanks!

[michiganbob]

Probably the place most people look is at Craigslist.com.

I also found some rentals in the Lansing area at rentalhomesplus.com, but not a lot are there. This company is also advertising in the Lansing radio market, and they claim to have rentals on the West Side of the state: gillespie-group.com/lease.asp

I also had some success looking at the local MSL and searching for homes in the areas I was interested in. If I found one that showed interior pictures with no furniture in it I contacted the agent and asked if the owners were interested in rental or lease/purchase option. Most did not respond, but a few did and a lead from one of them eventually lead to a rental.

[dori36]

For the Traverse City area, the Traverse Area Ass'n of Realtors has a rental section on their website. There are usually zillions of listings there. Traverse Area Association of REALTORS®. Otherwise, I'd Google the area and "rental homes". I had mine on a couple of websites for a while and even though I have leased it and thought I took it down from all the various sites, a caller told me she Googled it and it came up on no less than 15 sites!! She put in the town and "small farm". Yikes! Good luck!

[ImaMichigander]

Realtor.com has an option to put in leasing. That's how we advertised our home for rent in Southeast MI.

[Sanveann]

You might also put a wanted-to-rent ad on Craigslist. Some people may not want to list their home, of haven't done so yet, but still be thinking about renting to the right person.

[dweej]

This site has many, many MI rental listings (not just apartments!): Free Apartment Listings - ShowMeTheRent.com
This one has fewer, but still worth a look: Rentals.com - Homes for Rent, Apartments, Houses for Rent, Townhomes, Condos & Vacation Rental Properties
Finally, try googling "property management" and then your target city to get the sites of prop. management companies. They frequently post their listings on their private sites before going to third party sites.

Good luck!

[sunshineann]

Traverse City area, check out their local newspaper online. That is how we found ours when we first relocated here.