When to Look for Rental House (foreclose, rental market, broker)

[ryburn]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I will be relocating to Westchester from Washington, DC with a hopeful move-in date of Sept. 1. We are fairly indifferent between towns, as long as it is less than an hour train time to GCT.

We do want to rent a single family home, however, and are unsure about when to start looking with a broker. Should we contact a broker in June? Is that too long of a time horizon?

Also what is the process like? In my mind, we would make one trip up to WC and drive around with a broker to show the broker what type of house we would like and then have the broker email us different houses + photos and we would select one. Is that a reasonable approximation? Having a security deposit plus a few months rent and a broker's fee is not a problem.

Thanks for all thoughts and input!

[jjinla]

I would contact them no later than May. People move out at the end of June, typically...as soon as the school year is out.

[LICgirl]

We looked into this last year too - the rental market is dictated by the school calendar, there are still people looking and properties to be found in August but earlier in the summer is better.

[ryburn]

Thanks guys for your reply.

Does looking in May foreclose moving in September? My new job doesn't start until mid-September, so we'd like to stay in DC until then. Or do most places want to begin the lease ASAP? In other words, could we sign a lease beginning Sept. 1 for a house that is on the market in May?

[jjinla]

Probably not, but you will have much less to choose from then.