Finding a rental from out of state is so frusrating (Portland: appointed, apartment)

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

Why anyone wants to throw their hard earned cash, sight unseen on an apartment with mold or a with a death metal drummer downstairs is beyond me.

H

So your solution for someone moving here with a moving truck and no friends or family to stay with is what?
Renting a "temporary place" is just going to require another truck rental and the hassle of moving everything again, plus possibly storage fees. So when everyone on this board is preaching "be prepared" and "know what you're getting into" and "plan ahead", it shouldn't really apply to securing a place to live?


OP, Portland is a unique rental city, and is pretty odd with it's overly oppressive income checks and bank statements. Unfortunately that's just the way it is. We were in the same boat as you, and ended up securing our rental the day before we got here (as we were driving our truck out). So unfortunately my advice is you're just going to have to wait until it get's closer to August (or pay early rent for a place to secure it, as others have suggested). It was very frustrating and scary (I've definitely never jumped through so many hoops to secure a not even that great apartment), but unfortunately you'll probably have little other choice.

You might also look to the managements companies (we found our place on craigslist, and liked our management company (mainly because the apartment manager was great) Bluestone and Hockley).

Good luck. Be patient, try to relax, and know it will all work out in the end. You've got money, you've got jobs. You'll find a place to live.

[Random_Walk]

Originally Posted by davemess10

Renting a "temporary place" is just going to require another truck rental and the hassle of moving everything again, plus possibly storage fees. So when everyone on this board is preaching "be prepared" and "know what you're getting into" and "plan ahead", it shouldn't really apply to securing a place to live?

Exactly.

When I moved out here (albeit in 2007), I had a place waiting and ready, and though I had to do it sight unseen, I did have the place reserved in advance with a large rental company (Equity, IIRC). I managed to secure it two weeks in advance.

It wasn't the best place in town (let me rephrase that - it sucked), but with a 6 month lease I didn't really mind it as much.

Good luck. Be patient, try to relax, and know it will all work out in the end. You've got money, you've got jobs. You'll find a place to live.

Again, I'd like to amplify that. If you have the cash and a good-paying job, you're ahead of 50% of the folks already here and looking.

[Minervah]

I have had to pay anywhere from a month to a month and a half's rent in order to get an apartment I wanted because the timing wasn't exactly right in being able to give my present landlord notice and the new apartment's availability not coinciding with the 30 days the notice needed to be given. I have done that a few times during the time I have lived here. You gotta do what you gotta do.

It's a tricky thing. I also would not rent a place sight unseen. With the limited amount of vacancies in Portland, I would be suspicious of any landlord willing to rent to an out-of-towner who he had never seen and they had never seen the apartment. That could mean that people who did see the place may have turned it down due to lack of livability.

About the only exception to this for me would be a complex that had many, many units and the law of averages would dictate that there would always be one or two vacancies. Still, I think it's a heck of a risk.

When I moved to Portland, I flew out here for a long weekend, found an apartment in person, paid whatever I had to pay for it and then returned to my home city and prepared to move. It was in a fairly large apartment complex so there was a bit of wiggle room to negotiate move in fees and dates. But I felt good about the fact that I knew just what I was moving into.

I was lucky because the company for which I was relocating paid my expenses. But if I had to do it on my own, I would have used my own savings. In fact, I am targeting next April to relocate from Portland to Cleveland. I have saved enouth over the years so I could fly there and stay with a friend while looking for an apartment. Once I find one, I will pay whatever move-in fees,fly back to Portland, pack my stuff and move.

[SETabor]

When we moved here, we rented from a large apartment complex in the 'burbs with a six month lease. It allowed us to have some place to move into as well as be able to take the time to find out what neighborhoods best suited us and our commutes. We were able to fly out for a short weekend to take tours of various apartment complexes so we knew the place was decent - if you can swing it, keep track of last minute airfares and see if a bargain comes up to visit for a day or two.

I'm not sure that you'll find some place sight unseen that will suit you long term. You can look at maps and see if it's close to work or likely work places but some roads or intersections look good on maps but are horrid for a daily commute. Unknown people may rave about a neighborhood but you find that it doesn't suit your tastes.

If I were OP, I would try to find a place in a decent complex and then figure out where you want to live and take your time finding the right space. Plus, the 'burbs were a lot cheaper than living in the city which helps when you've just spent a lot of money on moving.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by SETabor

When we moved here, we rented from a large apartment complex in the 'burbs with a six month lease. It allowed us to have some place to move into as well as be able to take the time to find out what neighborhoods best suited us and our commutes. We were able to fly out for a short weekend to take tours of various apartment complexes so we knew the place was decent - if you can swing it, keep track of last minute airfares and see if a bargain comes up to visit for a day or two.

I'm not sure that you'll find some place sight unseen that will suit you long term. You can look at maps and see if it's close to work or likely work places but some roads or intersections look good on maps but are horrid for a daily commute. Unknown people may rave about a neighborhood but you find that it doesn't suit your tastes.

If I were OP, I would try to find a place in a decent complex and then figure out where you want to live and take your time finding the right space. Plus, the 'burbs were a lot cheaper than living in the city which helps when you've just spent a lot of money on moving.

This exactly!

[turquoise1]

I think I've posted this before, but I was unaccustomed to the lack of rental agencies. In many other cities, there are rental brokers with lists of properties (not management companies with lists of properties). The brokers have keys to vacant apartments and take you on a tour. This kind of thing doesn't really exist in Portland, to my knowledge. It's best to go look in person.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

I think I've posted this before, but I was unaccustomed to the lack of rental agencies. In many other cities, there are rental brokers with lists of properties (not management companies with lists of properties). The brokers have keys to vacant apartments and take you on a tour. This kind of thing doesn't really exist in Portland, to my knowledge. It's best to go look in person.

Yes, that is true. There was a time when we did have rental agencies like other cities. But they are long gone. I remember using one in my area. But even then, although they called themselves rental agencies or brokers, after a time they did was supply people with a list of apartment availabilies.

At first, landlords would use them to screen potential renters. The only listing they had would be with the agenices; no classifieds or signs and that was long before Craig's List. The agencies didn't have keys to show the apartments but they would screen people, set up an appointment to meet the landlords and look at the apartments and sometimes even do all the paperwork for the landlords.

All this devolved into the agencies just handing out lists of available apartments and leaving the potential renter to contact the landlords themselves. The screening was minimal if at all. I think the landlords got wise and realized they could eliminate the middle man and just do it all on their own.

[turquoise1]

Agencies make the process easier for tenants, if not for landlords, I guess. The other disadvantage to having the system this way is that tenants sometimes have to pay a nonrefundable application fee at numerous buildings.

[Minervah]

When I used the rental agency that was in my area in Portland, I only had to pay a fee to the agency. The system kind of reminded me of employment agencies; they did the screening so the prospective employers didn't have to. The rental agencies served the same purpose.

Back in the day, employment agencies charged a fee to the job hunters too. That was a real difference for me than when I had lived in Chicago where only the employers paid the fee. Of course now, in Portland, employment agencies only charge the employers.

[Random_Walk]

You still have quite a few rental agencies on the coast; I went through five of them just in Tillamook and Clatsop counties. The reason why they're around has more to do with landlords living out-of-town (and often out-of-state) than anything else, though. The agencies handle the two types of rentals that occur out here: vacation, and "long-term" (lease).

They usually handle it all, soup to nuts: showing, screening, maintenance calls, rent checks, utilities (if included), and the like. Sometimes they handle exceptions to stated restrictions (pets, smoking, etc) on the spot, but they usually act as a go-between (for example, I have a small (10 lb) dog, so the agency calls the landlord, I paid an extra $250 on the deposit, dog's okay to move in now, etc.)