How do you find an apt from out of state w/o a job??? (apartment, foreclosure)

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Sovetsky Medved

Try "Budget Suites" It's not the nicest place, but it's a roof over your head till you find better.

I checked out the Budget Suites location on W Indian School yesterday. It was decent enough. However, they 'fee' you to death. I decided to pass and stay where I am for now.

[Returning2USA]

Originally Posted by yukon

I checked out the Budget Suites location on W Indian School yesterday. It was decent enough. However, they 'fee' you to death. I decided to pass and stay where I am for now.

What fees are you talking about?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Returning2USA

What fees are you talking about?

Fee for HDTV: $9.95. Otherwise you get an old style TV.

Fee if your room has upgraded wood floors: $14.95

Fee if you want a microwave in the room: $4.95.

Weekly administrative fee: $11.95

Weekly internet fee, not to be used for work (entertainment only): $9.95.

Weekly pet fee, per pet: $10.00.

Key fee (one time fee, woo hoo): $5.00.

Extra rent depending if room is on first, second or third floor: $219 to $249.

Plus tax.

This was the W Indian School location. The Mesa location wasn't as bad, they mainly just had pet fee and internet fee.

[SnowWhiteQueen]

Originally Posted by IceBear12

YAY we got the apartment! It is in Mesa off Dobson, apparently not the best area, but hey... when our lease is up we can move.

So did you move yet? Any updates? This is the perfect time to move here!

[autism360]

In Arizona we have apartment locators that are paid by the apartment complexes to match up tenants with available apartments and all fees are paid by the apartment management companies, They have lists of all the financial requirements, credit scores, pet requirements, past criminal convictions that apartments will accept and can save you a bundle in application fees.
I used to work as an apartment locator, it is a legit business that requires a realtor license.

https://www.google.com/#q=apartment+locators+phoenix+az

http://www.yelp.com/biz/apartment-finders-phoenix-2

Home - Valley King Properties

If you want a private condo use Craigslist and if you get lucky be prepared to jump on anything that is good because it will not last.

[wannabeaTexan]

Apt locators are everywhere. I haven't seen any that offer more discounts than you can find on your own. They are like many salespeople who try to talk you into something you really don't want. They may be okay for an out-of-state transfer, but anyone can do the research & find their own place.

Coming from someone who moved from apartment to apartment for 22 years...

[autism360]

Originally Posted by wannabeaTexan

Apt locators are everywhere. I haven't seen any that offer more discounts than you can find on your own. They are like many salespeople who try to talk you into something you really don't want. They may be okay for an out-of-state transfer, but anyone can do the research & find their own place.

Coming from someone who moved from apartment to apartment for 22 years...

You have no idea what you are saying. Every time you apply for an apartment you are charged for a background check and or application fee whether or not the apartment complex will except your financial requirements, credit score, pet requirements, past criminal convictions etc. They KEEP your application fee regardless!!! Wouldn't you rather know ahead of time what the requirements are so you avoid places that will not accept you but keep your application money? Apartment locators do not offer any discounts,and some are jerks like in every profession but they offer information that is hard to find at no cost and they are paid by the apartment complexes.
If you have great credit, a good paying job,no past evictions,no criminal history, no pets then you do not need an apartment locator but not everybody has great credit, a good paying job,no past evictions,no criminal history, no pets .

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by autism360

You have no idea what you are saying. Every time you apply for an apartment you are charged for a background check and or application fee whether or not the apartment complex will except your financial requirements, credit score, pet requirements, past criminal convictions etc. They KEEP your application fee regardless!!! Wouldn't you rather know ahead of time what the requirements are so you avoid places that will not accept you but keep your application money? Apartment locators do not offer any discounts,and some are jerks but they offer information at no cost because they are paid by the apartment complexes.
If you are great credit, a good paying job,no past evictions,no criminal history, no pets then you do not need an apartment locator but not everybody has great credit, a good paying job,no past evictions,no criminal history, no pets .

LOL I know exactly what I'm saying. You can find all that out on your own without an apartment locator. It's really easy. Ask about requirements and the staff will tell you. You can also look on Craigslist, find photos of communities where apartment locators won't tell you the name of the place and then you can search a couple of engines to find the place yourself, which will likely have the same discounts the locator is advertising.

I'm not saying locators don't have value to some people (who don't want to pick up a phone), but you can find the places yourself if you do some research. I tried to use a locator once when I wasn't very familiar with Dallas & she was super nice...found a place she thought would fit me based on my situation. But I drove into the parking lot, saw the "condition" & immediately called the manager to cancel the appointment because there was no way I'd pay to live there. Then I figured out where to go on my own (again). Locators don't know what you are comfortable with...same thing happened with my realtor when I was looking to buy a house.

I'm a single mom, had scary credit for years, and no pets. I still always found my own apartments.

If you're at your wit's end trying to find a place, use a locator. But in my opinion, it's a last resort.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by wannabeaTexan

LOL I know exactly what I'm saying. You can find all that out on your own without an apartment locator. It's really easy. Ask about requirements and the staff will tell you.

Most apartments here won't tell you over the phone if they take bad credit. They'll give you generalizations but that's it. The locator services are free to the apartment hunter. Some services and agents are better than others. I'm using two, one who specializes in central PHX/Biltmore area and she's awesome. She even looked up some info for me on a company that has a property in S Scottsdale and has found several good places for me to look. I'm using another service for my East Valley hunt, but I'm not impressed with the agent I drew when I walked in the door. Fortunately she gave me two properties that are owned by major companies with other area properties so I've looked at several, but only one was on her original list. She pretty much dropped me once she realized I wasn't kidding when I said I wasn't going to put down a deposit immediately.

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by yukon

Most apartments here won't tell you over the phone if they take bad credit. They'll give you generalizations but that's it. The locator services are free to the apartment hunter. Some services and agents are better than others. I'm using two, one who specializes in central PHX/Biltmore area and she's awesome. She even looked up some info for me on a company that has a property in S Scottsdale and has found several good places for me to look. I'm using another service for my East Valley hunt, but I'm not impressed with the agent I drew when I walked in the door. Fortunately she gave me two properties that are owned by major companies with other area properties so I've looked at several, but only one was on her original list. She pretty much dropped me once she realized I wasn't kidding when I said I wasn't going to put down a deposit immediately.

Yeah, but they won't tell you because they only know what their approval guidelines are. They won't know if you will be approved until you apply. Apartment locators don't know this either and if one of them says they do, they're lying. You can still do whatever the locator is doing for yourself. Yes, the locator services are free. As long as you say they are the reason you know about the apartments, they get a fee from the apartments.

You can possibly waste some time trying out different locators if you come across those that aren't that good, or you can spend that time finding a place on your own. I know I'm picky...I like what I like. It saved me much more time to go and look at apartments I know I would be interested in than going to ones a locator set up that I could tell right away were not for me.

In my case, I could've found the place easily enough in an internet search, driven by whenever I wanted, and just kept going right on out of the parking lot. Instead, I anticipated a scheduled visit for a few days, only to get there and have to cancel right before the appointment, or go through with it and waste everyone's time being polite.

I'm not saying they aren't awesome people...but I do stand by my opinion that the job they do is not necessary at all (probably why they don't charge the hunter a fee), unless you just don't have the time to look yourself. And they can hinder your goal.

Also, if you don't have a job when you get to a different state, you might have more luck trying to rent from a smaller landlord/private owner who might bend their own rules if you talk to them than a big company with set in stone policies. I doubt they will be giving locators any finding fees!