S.Susan

hello everyone !

only few weeks left for us to go !! still not packed ! I am very close to call the skip and dump everything to end this madness!

Would anyone pls give me some tips about renting your own place ?


is it same process in UK? you check on rightmove,(Zillow in US ) , call the estate agent for a viewing , put offer to the one you like, the estate agent charge you lots of fee for so-called reference checking .
if everything goes well, you pay a month deposit and a month rent in front and then get the key !

oh one more thing, apart from rent , utility bill for tenant to pay , I was told there is no council tax to pay . is there any other fee I should be expecting ?


Please tell me if there is anything different and I can prepare myself.

by the way, we are looking for a 3 bed house/flat in Dublin, Pleasanton area from 01/08. if you know anything will be available around that time. please let me know . thanks for your help in advance .

tom169

When we were in the market to rent in NC we checked Zillow, found a place and then went to the office.

We had to pay a months rent and a security deposit up front.

Then ongoing we pay rent, city water and sewage to the owners and other utilities to the respective companies.

Rete

Unlike yourself who married a USC who has a credit rating, she and her husband are coming on L visas. Unless his company will be assisting in finding a house, i.e. paying the deposits, etc., they might well be asked to pay more than just one month's rent in advance and a security deposit. I've read of others on the forums who have had to pay six months or more at first because of a lack of credit rating.

Pulaski

Outside of a few major cities most estate agents have no interest in rentals.

If you are using Zillow you may get a rental agency, or you may just end up contacting/ speaking with the owner. Given your status as a new immigrant with no credit history I believe you would do better to seek out homes rented directly by the owner because the owner of a property can look at you as an individual and strike whatever deal he is comfortable with, whereas a property manager may reject you for lack of credit history or require an absurd deposit.
But isn't yours a managed apartment complex with an on-site office?

tom169

Yes, but they still advertise on Zillow and other websites.

Pulaski

Understood, but per the OP'S question, the office you visited isn't an "estate agent's" office.

penguinsix

Real estate agents generally don't have a great deal of rentals in their book, especially in smaller cities. You'll have to find the places on your own. Zillow and even craigslist will have some listings, but you'll also want to check your local newspaper classifieds as some people still go old school.

You'll usually need to pay a month's worth of rent as a deposit (note, in California it may be called 'last month's rent' but the reality is it is a deposit, not the actual last month's rent). You'll also probably have to pay the first month's rent so a bit of cash to get started.

Twinkle0927

I had no credit history here and my husband's was extremely poor and we also had to declare my husband's felony. We were turned down by most apartment complexes. My husband hadn't been on a lease in a few years as he had been living off grid and then at a friend's place. We found a place we liked in Craig's List and approached the owner directly. It worked out very well for us. We found someone who likes to do things the old-fashioned way with a good handshake and a cash deposit of 2 months rent and took us on our word that we would be good tenants. No background check, no credit check.

Pulaski

Just like I said.

sherbert

Craigslist is your friend in the Bay Area (but beware of scams and too good to be true listings). Zillow pulls data from Craigslist.

Not having credit history/previous landlord references is going to be a problem for you so it's best to seek out private landlords as mentioned above rather than property agencies who you can sell yourself to and try to work out a deal.

That said, the bigger apartment/townhome complexes will most likely rent to you but may ask for several months rent in advance to cover their risk.

In CA it's custom for landlords to ask for first and last month's rent as well as a security deposit (they make up how much they want but usually it's at least equivalent of one month's rent). Be prepared to splash out several thousands of dollars within a few weeks of arrival.

In terms of utilities, many landlords pay the water bill (if the residence is on a shared meter) and will provide gardeners so be sure to ask about that if you're renting a property with its own garden.

Good luck.

malch

I haven't rented for years so I can't help much with that.

However, if you have kids, I would recommend Pleasanton over Dublin. Significantly better schools which does tend to mean higher prices.

Since you are short on time, you might end up needing temporary short-term accommodation. Try Airbnb for that. My daughter has had good success finding accommodation for 2-3 month internships via that route. Excellent outcomes at very reasonable prices and easy to arrange.

Giantaxe

Correct; property tax is the responsibility of the property owner and is "effectively" passed on to the renter as part of the rent.

1969tonka

We moved to Camas Wa 6 weeks ago and had quite a shock because when we visited property management companies because as we had no credit lines they were not interested even though we had an American bank account with nearly $100k in ! We found Craigslist invaluable and like others found a private landlord who saw us as more than just a statistic and after paying 2 months deposit and a month in advance was fine to rent to us . We now have credit lines as our credit union were/are really helpful , a quick method they have to establish your first one is to do a loan secured against your own savings (i.e. $1000) which you pay back over 12months at a nominal fee which works out at $20 but gives you the first step to establish the all elusive credit lines.