For those that rented sight unseen when moving to Seattle,,, (Bellevue: real estate, apartment)

[mamainfl]

Where did you find your home? Was is an apartment, condo, town house or house? What kind of upfront fees were required? Did you go through an agency, or private owner?

I sure would love to find something more permanent sight unseen (less moves). I figured we would have to stay somewhere temporarily til we found something more permanent.

Any advice you can give, please!

[Seacove]

This was twenty years or so ago but when we moved here we were committed. We had visited, fallen in love with Seattle, went back, sold our home, put everything in a moving truck, trailered one car behind the moving truck and drove the SUV, so both of us drove. We booked a hotel in Kirkland, the one at Totem Lake that used to be a Best Western. We emptied the moving truck into a storage unit (and we brought almost everything) and started looking for rentals with money in hand. We signed a year lease in Bellevue (Newport Hills) about a week later and moved everything in. The biggest stroke of luck was that the storage unit was by Factoria so less than a mile to the house. That was pure luck though.

My point is, I would have sooner moved everything and stayed in a hotel (which for a family wasn't so great) than to rent sight unseen. Now, I would fly in for a week and drive around until I found a place.

[shaylahc]

I rented sight unseen. Honestly, the house was in very shabby condition when we arrived. That was the one downside is that we didn't have a chance to see it beforehand. But it was a risk I was willing to take.

Do you have any friends or family locally who could walk through a property for you?

[Sadie181]

If this is a company move then you should be assigned a real estate agent who can go check places out for you. We had our agent go look at multiple rentals and send us photos so we could choose without being here.

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by Sadie181

If this is a company move then you should be assigned a real estate agent who can go check places out for you. We had our agent go look at multiple rentals and send us photos so we could choose without being here.

True but if it's a corporate move you will be given temporary housing for a few weeks/months depending on the package and you can see housing yourself.

[Sadie181]

Originally Posted by Seacove

True but if it's a corporate move you will be given temporary housing for a few weeks/months depending on the package and you can see housing yourself.

Yes, depends on what situation you are in. For us moving in the middle of the school year we wanted to be in a rental fast instead of temp housing so our child didn't have to chance schools after 2 months.

Good luck!!!

[GatsbyGatz]

I just moved to Seattle last September. I was on a very limited amount of time to move in, so I did a blind move into renting a unit that was part of a duplex (the other unit was lived-in by the landlord). The duplex was in Shoreline and the unit was huge and the price reasonable. However, the landlord turned out to be crazy and paranoid, and due to complications I moved out within 3 months (I was only on a month-to-month lease). From the duplex in Shoreline I moved to Cap Hill into an apartment operated by a large agency. I have not had any problems thus far.

TLDR: Rented a place blind from Craigslist. Landlord turned out to be coo coo.

[eightbitguy]

After flying out to find an apartment for our move a few weeks ago, i'd say if you absolutely HAVE to rent sight unseen, go with a large building that's fairly new, and run by a management company. At least if you know the building is (for example) less than 10 years old there won't be many maintenance issues.

[kyled]

I've been passively looking at places in the area and just judging from the pictures I've seen I wouldn't want to move to an apartment sight unseen. Not for the obvious reason (though, that too), but knowing how tight the market is I would think picking a place you don't particularly like is going to be a given...so in my opinion it would be best to make that choice knowing you made the best decision out of what was available rather than being stuck with a lease wondering if you could have made a better choice.

[Ira500]

I also wouldn't rent a place sight unseen. At the very least, find someone who lives there to check out the place and the neighborhood for you, and report back to you.