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Hi all! My husband, toddler and I are moving to the Cary area as soon as our house in Austin sells. We're planning to rent a home for a year or two while we learn the area, etc. When we moved to Austin, we worked with a realtor who also did rentals and she accompanied us to various rental homes over a couple of days and assisted us with our home search - it was extremely helpful since we were coming from out of state at the time, didn't know the Austin area at all, and had a very limited timeframe to find a suitable rental. Which is the exact same situation we're in as we head from Austin to Cary.
I've searched these boards and googled, and haven't found many companies in Raleigh/Cary that offer this type of service. Weichert is the only one I've found online that has a lot of rental postings, but they're not returning my calls to confirm that they have people who are able to accompany/assist in person during the search.
If anyone is aware of a company/service like what I'm looking for, your info would be most appreciated!
Unlike where I live now, most rentals in Raleigh are listed in the MLS and offer a small fee to the showing agent. I worked with renters a few times; often they end up buying down the road. I know that there must be other agents who do, as well.
1. Rental market so strong there is LITERALLY nothing currently available in MLS.
2. Less than 50% of rental homes are even listed on MLS, thus you can find them just as easily using hotpads, zillow, craigslist, etc. Can a Realtor help you sift through the junk? Sure.
3. compensation of agents through the MLS is a pittance (anywhere from $50-200) and non-existent for all the resources in #2 above.
Almost any of us are happy to assist you, understanding the limitations. If you come from a place- and many places are like this - where you're used to offering the agent a "tenant finder fee" between $1K and 1 month's rent, then your chances get even better.
And remember that none of us who post here are supposed to DM you "choose me!!"
Got the notice to relocate to the area in February. We decided on Cary / Apex because we have kids and liked the family vibe to it. Brought the fam out to check it out and we really liked the area; clean, neat, very nice. I started looking at rentals, and having kids and a dog we needed a fenced in yard.
Now, it seemed as of there were plenty of options - until you filter for 'dogs'. Then poof, all those blue dots on Zillow or Trulia vanish. And when it says no pets - they mean no pets. Having rented before, I chose to go only with houses that were listed by a Property Manager company (PMC) because renting directly through an owner is usually a recipe for problems.
That limits the scope as well. We were looking for a house, 3 bed, fenced in yard, accepts a dog, under $1800. Basically a needle in the haystack.
I came out to look at options after finding 6 properties that worked. The first 3 were a train wreck (nothing like the pictures). The 4th was decent enough, but certainly not the sq feet advertised - but it had everything else. I looked at two more, and one was great - but the so-called 'fenced-in yard' was only on one side with the other two sides open to a street and yard. Not going to work.
We opted for #4, decent enough. Now, we have solid credit, no debt, and full time employment. Suffice to say - the PMC still had questions. But we were approved and set lease start date. When we arrived, there were many problems with the house (as there always are with rentals). The PMC took care of them quickly and effectively, but it was still odd they didn't have these items fixed ahead of time.
The bottom line is it was a challenging process - but again, we have a dog, kids. If you are moving here with no kids or pets its a lot easier. Heck, you can get a townhome easily.
But a house? Under $1800? It's a challenge. And remember the PMC's care only about one thing; getting that rent check on time every month. You are not their customer, the landlord is the customer. You are an annoyance when things need to get fixed. That being said, the PMCs have a responsibility to fix things quickly. They have reputations and usually are also involved in selling/buying houses - they don't need an upset tenant causing problems. An independent owner? Who knows.
Also check out the PMCs websites - they may have other options not listed on Zillow.
Got the notice to relocate to the area in February. We decided on Cary / Apex because we have kids and liked the family vibe to it. Brought the fam out to check it out and we really liked the area; clean, neat, very nice. I started looking at rentals, and having kids and a dog we needed a fenced in yard.
Now, it seemed as of there were plenty of options - until you filter for 'dogs'. Then poof, all those blue dots on Zillow or Trulia vanish. And when it says no pets - they mean no pets. Having rented before, I chose to go only with houses that were listed by a Property Manager company (PMC) because renting directly through an owner is usually a recipe for problems.
That limits the scope as well. We were looking for a house, 3 bed, fenced in yard, accepts a dog, under $1800. Basically a needle in the haystack.
I came out to look at options after finding 6 properties that worked. The first 3 were a train wreck (nothing like the pictures). The 4th was decent enough, but certainly not the sq feet advertised - but it had everything else. I looked at two more, and one was great - but the so-called 'fenced-in yard' was only on one side with the other two sides open to a street and yard. Not going to work.
We opted for #4, decent enough. Now, we have solid credit, no debt, and full time employment. Suffice to say - the PMC still had questions. But we were approved and set lease start date. When we arrived, there were many problems with the house (as there always are with rentals). The PMC took care of them quickly and effectively, but it was still odd they didn't have these items fixed ahead of time.
The bottom line is it was a challenging process - but again, we have a dog, kids. If you are moving here with no kids or pets its a lot easier. Heck, you can get a townhome easily.
But a house? Under $1800? It's a challenge. And remember the PMC's care only about one thing; getting that rent check on time every month. You are not their customer, the landlord is the customer. You are an annoyance when things need to get fixed. That being said, the PMCs have a responsibility to fix things quickly. They have reputations and usually are also involved in selling/buying houses - they don't need an upset tenant causing problems. An independent owner? Who knows.
Also check out the PMCs websites - they may have other options not listed on Zillow.
This echoes our experience almost exactly. We moved into our house on June 1, but our budget/criteria was $1500, 3 beds, fenced in yard for our dogs. Turns out that was difficult due to seemingly so many options, but then when you inquire there are already multiple applications on the house...we were the first to view our house in person, and we texted the owner an hour later to apply. We got approved but barely, apparently. Despite making more than enough $$$ and good credit scores. And yeah, plenty of problems with the house that I agree should have been taken care of by the time we moved in...sticking doors, toilet leaking, dirty exterior and dog toys left in backyard, etc. But whatever. We got most of it fixed and are fixing up the yard on our own (literally the ugliest front lawn in the neighborhood lol). It's $1200 for a ~1k sq ft 3bd/1ba house built in 1959. Big fenced backyard except the "fence" separating one neighbor and I is just chicken wire in between thick bush/brush/bamboo/trees. And there is an angry pit bull next door. So yeah.
Our first several houses/townhouses we saw were also trainwrecks btw! Only 2 places we looked at were actually cleaned well inside. Kinda sucks that $1500 won't get you all that far for a house here. In my hometown or even in Greensboro a $1500 house would have you sittin' pretty. But that's okay. My home town and Greensboro are boring, Raleigh isn't. But if it continues to get much worse....meh.
Aggregate sites like realtor.com or Zillow are fine.
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