Craigslist rentals (Tampa, Brandon, Seffner: apartment, houses, water heater)

[Getting_there]

I have been browsing the realtor rental sites and it seems to be that every realtor site has 3 bedroom homes for rent listed at $1400 or better. So I went on Craigslist and there are a couple of deals there, but some that seem a bit sketchy. For instance, a whole house, 3 bedroom rental for $680? I can't possible believe that rent can be so cheap in Tampa.

How reliable is the craigslist site or should I skip it altogether? I am a little leery thinking of those news stories of people who go to see a rental and get robbed or something.

Does anyone have an alternative site that I can look up rentals that are legit and safe? Or in your experience, personal or otherwise, craigslist is pretty reliable and the rent prices I am seeing are the going rates? Thanks.

[MAniacTHW]

I have rented from three different "landlords" on Craigslist. Each one has proven to be the worst landlord ever. Here's the stories:

1) First landlord was in Brandon. I was EXTREMELY broke and he was offering a bedroom for $350/month all utilities included. Great. I start living there and realizing that he will take anybody with $350 a month. After two months or so, he tells us he'll be upping the rent to $400/month so he could provide a living room for everybody. After raising the rent, he then moves into the living room, curtains off the entire thing, then moves somebody into the garage (where he was staying). The hot water heater went out and he didn't have money to fix it. It stayed out for a month. He didn't give us his real name or a lease agreement as he owed money to the IRS and didn't want them to know he was making extra money.

2) I then moved to Seffner with my girlfriend in what we thought was a duplex of our own. We quickly realized we were sharing it with the most irresponsible woman I've ever met. She told us she either needed to get a roommate or sell her car. She couldn't afford groceries for herself or her kid, but she could afford beer and weed. The electric AND water went out, so we stayed with the girlfriend's grandfather that week. She was already struggling with money buy decided her son needed a dog... And not a small one. So, we had an aggressive (the dog was clearly beaten prior) pitbull that she left in it's cage for so long that the dog would urinate on itself. When she did let it out of it's cage, it would chew up our shoes. We come back, hand her the money, which was about an hour late than she wanted it, and she started threatening us with eviction. I had to constantly remind her that if she could afford an eviction, she could afford to pay her bills. We left there quickly afterward.

3) Rented a room in Egypt Lake. Room turned into an illegal studio apartment built into the garage. There was air conditioning, but it was only controlled in the other apartment that was illegally built in the garage. The house itself wasn't up to code. The apartment had no windows. The toilet backed up. There was no real kitchen. I finally left.

Long story short, landlords are criagslist are some of the worst people you'll ever meet, and their rentals are usually pos's. Stay FAR away!

[Getting_there]

Originally Posted by MAniacTHW

I have rented from three different "landlords" on Craigslist. Each one has proven to be the worst landlord ever. Here's the stories:

1) First landlord was in Brandon. I was EXTREMELY broke and he was offering a bedroom for $350/month all utilities included. Great. I start living there and realizing that he will take anybody with $350 a month. After two months or so, he tells us he'll be upping the rent to $400/month so he could provide a living room for everybody. After raising the rent, he then moves into the living room, curtains off the entire thing, then moves somebody into the garage (where he was staying). The hot water heater went out and he didn't have money to fix it. It stayed out for a month. He didn't give us his real name or a lease agreement as he owed money to the IRS and didn't want them to know he was making extra money.

2) I then moved to Seffner with my girlfriend in what we thought was a duplex of our own. We quickly realized we were sharing it with the most irresponsible woman I've ever met. She told us she either needed to get a roommate or sell her car. She couldn't afford groceries for herself or her kid, but she could afford beer and weed. The electric AND water went out, so we stayed with the girlfriend's grandfather that week. She was already struggling with money buy decided her son needed a dog... And not a small one. So, we had an aggressive (the dog was clearly beaten prior) pitbull that she left in it's cage for so long that the dog would urinate on itself. When she did let it out of it's cage, it would chew up our shoes. We come back, hand her the money, which was about an hour late than she wanted it, and she started threatening us with eviction. I had to constantly remind her that if she could afford an eviction, she could afford to pay her bills. We left there quickly afterward.

3) Rented a room in Egypt Lake. Room turned into an illegal studio apartment built into the garage. There was air conditioning, but it was only controlled in the other apartment that was illegally built in the garage. The house itself wasn't up to code. The apartment had no windows. The toilet backed up. There was no real kitchen. I finally left.

Long story short, landlords are criagslist are some of the worst people you'll ever meet, and their rentals are usually pos's. Stay FAR away!

HOLY. MOLY.

You see, I had my doubts. Not something that I need to go through with 2 kids!! Thanks for responding!

[PDF]

Craigslist is reliable. People do post legit ads on there. You just have to weed out the bad ones.

[bentlebee]

Our office advertises every where including Craigs list but keep in mind if the amount is too good to be true it usually is and don't give out your SSN and/or wire money through Western Union.

In some cases we had our listings hacked which means that a scammer takes over the entire listing but changes the contact info and in all cases they lowered the list price tremendously and we usually get calls or emails right away about it but taking our ad down doesn't help since the other one is out there and even flagging theirs is not helping.

We usually hit back by making a new ad on Craigs list and telling the public the other one is not ours and it is a scam and only ours is for real. We contacted the cops once but they stated they can't do anything either so just use common sense and careful for things out of the ordinary.

[rd711]

I rented my house from a craiglist ad. I love the house, the area and the landlord. I actually found the ad, no picture called and emailed, flew down to see it and rented in thwe course of one week last year.

[DUNNDFRNT]

Craigslist is just an advertisement tool, you still are required to have common sense, read the lease before you sign it, if you are renting a room or half a duplex then I guess you are more susceptible to an unpleasant situation, but overall read the lease don't agree to anything you don't want to do. In some areas you can buy a three bedroom house for 40k so 650 for rent is not uncommon, I doubt realtors bother with those properties you imagine not s lot of people renting 600/month houses are hiring Realtors but that's speculation on my part.

[new_tampa_rentals]

Try HotPads and PadMapper

[Pragmaticus]

Craigslist is OK. Just know what you are doing. I have bought and sold stuff with it.

Just establish first the value of the service that you want to buy for the location that you are interested in and you would easily weed out those that don't make sense. I wouldn't totally ignore it.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by Getting_there

I have been browsing the realtor rental sites and it seems to be that every realtor site has 3 bedroom homes for rent listed at $1400 or better. So I went on Craigslist and there are a couple of deals there, but some that seem a bit sketchy. For instance, a whole house, 3 bedroom rental for $680? I can't possible believe that rent can be so cheap in Tampa.

How reliable is the craigslist site or should I skip it altogether? I am a little leery thinking of those news stories of people who go to see a rental and get robbed or something.

Does anyone have an alternative site that I can look up rentals that are legit and safe? Or in your experience, personal or otherwise, craigslist is pretty reliable and the rent prices I am seeing are the going rates? Thanks.

I wouldn't do any business with Craigslist in Tampa. Too many crazy's....