Possible to find rental in Carmel Valley for $3,500 or less? (Del Mar: apartments, rentals)

[jjones2013]

Experts, I am new to the area and currently renting an apartment in the Rancho Bernardo area for the short term. My lease is up the middle of April and I am looking to rent a house in the Carmel Valley (92130 zip code) for no more than $3,500 per month. I am also looking for a minimum of a two year lease because I have two children and I want to keep them in the same schools. My son in particular will be starting high school and my wife and I do not want to change schools during these important years of school and that is why we are looking for 2+ years for a lease.

Since I am new to the SD area, I have a few questions.

1. Will it be difficult to find a nice rental in the Carmel Valley area for $3,500 per month or less. To be more specific on what I am in search for: A four bedroom house, 2 car garage.

2. My apartment lease is up April 22nd. What would be a feasible time that I could put a deposit down on a rental to hold the house in order to move into the home around April 22nd?

3. Are there trustworthy realtors that someone can recommend to help me in my search? Is there a fee to use a realtor to help search for a rental home?

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing feedback on this inquiry.

Kind regards,
Josh

[earlyretirement]

Are you open to townhouses as well? Not too many SFH's in Carmel Valley (92130) for that budget but it looks like there are a few options just doing a quick search. Although I'm not sure if they are open to 2 year leases. But you can get an idea from these listings below.

I seriously doubt any owner is going to wait until April to start a lease. You MIGHT get lucky but 92130 is a really hot zip code for home rentals due to the excellent school district. So lots of demand.

I rented a townhouse there in 92130 while we were waiting to move into our house. I prepaid 6 months ahead of time and our house was actually ready before the lease ended. I mentioned it to the landlord and she said, "no problem...I'll refund your last month.. I won't have ANY problems renting it out".

That's the first time I ever had a landlord offer something like that. It showed me how hot the market was in that area. That was back in 2011. It's probably worse now.

As far as realtors for a long term lease. I didn't use a realtor. I just negotiated directly with the owner. Many owners just advertise directly now but you might want to contact Jim Klinge - http://www.jimklinge.com I don't think he deals with rental contracts but he will definitely be able to refer you to a REPUTABLE realtor that does. I'd probably avoid the realtors that will PM you with unsolicited emails/PM's from this post. I didn't even use Jim and I emailed him asking about some referrals to contractors and he was VERY kind and everyone that he recommended were excellent and reputable so I'd go with whomever he recommends. A very trustworthy guy with an excellent reputation.


4 Bedroom/3 Bath Beautiful Upgraded House

House for rent in Carmel Valley, San Raphael Community

4 Bedroom Plus Office Luxury Home in Carmel Valley

Carmel Valley Spacious 4Bed. 3Ba.

[Larry Siegel]

The price seems about right. SFH rentals are always scarce in good school districts. I rented my house out a while back and the tenant insisted on a two year lease, so I gave it to him (with a modest rent increase after one year). You may have to do some legwork but you'll be fine.

It's nice to respond to someone with reasonable questions (as opposed to "I want a house within ten blocks of the beach for $1000 a month").

[Luvs2Trvl]

It might be a bit tough to find a 4 bedroom for that price. We moved to this area 6 months ago, the market is pretty crazy in this area. The good places go fast and many offers from renters. We didn't see anything we liked at the time after loosing out on a couple of properties so we resigned to renting an apartment in the area. Depending on our future in SD I would Love to either rent or buy a home right around our apartment (they are newish SFH's and I've seen them renting for more than $3,500). You could find a little older home around the range you mentioned between Del Mar Heights and the 56 but it might be harder to find one with 4 bedrooms. It's a nice area though and I'm glad we settled in this area. Good Central location to everything!

I looked at so many properties for rent when we moved here, I found the best way to find current rentals was Craigslist. A lot of people in this area seemed to use a property management company to handle their rental, some were the actual owner. Most of the realtors in the area post on Craigslist (also Zillow and their own property management websites). Just be prepared for this market, most of the places we looked at were small, had very little upgrades and looked nothing like the photos posted. The couple properties we liked had lots of interest and were very competitive. I wouldn't pay anyone to find something for you, usually the homeowner is paying them the fees to find tenants and handle the rental. For an April move in date I would start looking immediately. There will be some places avail for short notice but many places start listing about 1-2 months prior to availability, plus it gives you an idea of what's out there and you will start to notice the properties that no one is renting.

[lrmsd]

I live in CV and have for 4.5 years...currently, down the street from where I live, there is a SFH for rent: 3 bed/2.5 bath, plus den, and garage for $3100 month. It's walking distance to schools, library, stores, restaurants, shops, parks, etc.

It is DEFINITELY possible to rent for $3500 or less, though I would not say you will find a surplus of places for rent at that price. Also, it will be in the 'older parts' of CV [ha ha], where the houses are a little less McMansion than say, torrey hills. Lots are smaller, too. I have no idea re: deposit to hold a place, nor realtors to trust.

I would suggest driving around some of the neighborhoods near carmel creek elementary and torrey pines high school; i often see signs in front of houses when I walk....I think it will be a bit of luck/timing, too, as far as what's available when you look. I think, personally, that a private owner can be a great choice to rent from.

Also, you could rent in CV first-the apartments are probably what you pay now in RB....and it would get you into the district with a 6 month lease, low deposit and a chance to look around on your own time schedule.