Originally Posted by Paperwork

I saw a post here before about a website giving details of rental properties, but can't find it now.

Anyone have any ideas on how we might search for rentals?

Originally Posted by act1980

I looked at craigslist and actually inquired about quite a few properties.

I am not sure how legit it is but I keep getting very odd replies, such as this one:

Hello,

It is a great pleasure you are interested in my house.Thanks for your email
and it is my gladness to hearing from you.I am the owner of the house you
are making inquiry of.Actually I resided in the house with my family,such as
my wife and my only daughter before and presently we had packed due to my
missionary work transfer now situated at (WEST AFRICA,NIGERIA)and presently
my house is still available for rent for $500 per month including the
utilities like,washer dryer,and security,it is well furnished but you can
also have it unfurnished if you like.Please i want you to note that,i am a
kind and honest man and also i spent a lot on my property that i want
to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this
my house and want you to treat it as your own,is that taken,it is not
the money that is the main problem that is why is very cheap but i want you
to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat
when i come for a check up.I also want you to let me have trust in you
as i always stand on my word.All i want you to do is to go ahead and view
the house immediately.
here is my number fill free to call me on this number 0112348022961208 or
+2348022961208 .let me know if you are interested so that i can email you
the rent application form so that you can fill them up then we can proceed
further..

It's obvious just from the spelling and grammar that it's a phoney ad. When I ask when I can view the property I am told that they have the keys on them as they are in Africa and that I need to complete the application form and we can then proceed.

I have had several emails like this and no legit replies yet! What's going on? Anyone else had this?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by act1980

I looked at craigslist and actually inquired about quite a few properties.

I am not sure how legit it is but I keep getting very odd replies, such as this one:

Originally Posted by Flyingscottie

Yep!

I have also found that NONE of my KIJIJI e-mails have been replied to, I wonder if they are even getting through... it's tough

Originally Posted by ireland2canada

Scam Scam Scam. There is lots of that sort of thing on Craigslist, unfortunately. You will get to know which ads are going to be scams just by looking at them. They are generally very nice apartments, much too nice for the often very cheap price. Sometimes the location is very vague, like the ad is written by someone who does not know the city. Ignore, delete and move on!



If we are refering to Toronto here, then yes, it can be incredibly tough. Recently, I moved out of my downtown apartment and so needed to get it rented out to someone else. I put an ad on Craigslist on Sunday afternoon. By early evening, I had been bombarded by calls and emails to the point where I had to remove my phone number from the ad. I had so many viewers who wanted to come that I ended up showing the place as an 'open house'. It was rented by the next day. I should point out that although it is in a sought after location where apartments do not come along with great regularity...the apartment itself is very small and basic with a tiny kitchen.

The moral of the story is, if it is a good apartment then pick up the phone and see it straight away. Be prepared to hand over the 1st and last. To be honest, I ended up just pasting a generic "sorry too late" response to the people who emailed after the 1st day.

Originally Posted by act1980

I looked at craigslist and actually inquired about quite a few properties.

I am not sure how legit it is but I keep getting very odd replies, such as this one:

Hello,

It is a great pleasure you are interested in my house.Thanks for your email
and it is my gladness to hearing from you.I am the owner of the house you
are making inquiry of.Actually I resided in the house with my family,such as
my wife and my only daughter before and presently we had packed due to my
missionary work transfer now situated at (WEST AFRICA,NIGERIA)and presently
my house is still available for rent for $500 per month including the
utilities like,washer dryer,and security,it is well furnished but you can
also have it unfurnished if you like.Please i want you to note that,i am a
kind and honest man and also i spent a lot on my property that i want
to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this
my house and want you to treat it as your own,is that taken,it is not
the money that is the main problem that is why is very cheap but i want you
to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat
when i come for a check up.I also want you to let me have trust in you
as i always stand on my word.All i want you to do is to go ahead and view
the house immediately.
here is my number fill free to call me on this number 0112348022961208 or
+2348022961208 .let me know if you are interested so that i can email you
the rent application form so that you can fill them up then we can proceed
further..

It's obvious just from the spelling and grammar that it's a phoney ad. When I ask when I can view the property I am told that they have the keys on them as they are in Africa and that I need to complete the application form and we can then proceed.

I have had several emails like this and no legit replies yet! What's going on? Anyone else had this?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by DigitalGhost

That will explain a lot then, we enquired about 3 apartments in Toronto last week and heard precisely nothing back.

I had just put it down to rudeness on the part of the landlords to be honest.

How difficult is it on average to find a (preferably furnished) apartment in downtown Toronto in your opinion then? We have so far pre-booked a week in a hotel for when we land but I'm not sure if it will be long enough now.

Originally Posted by ireland2canada

It probably is part rudeness! I only had a day or two to deal with it all and I was getting fed up. I imagine that if they get any indication that you are coming from abroad, renting as a brand new immigrant, that the email has a good chance of ending up in the bin.

Furnished apartments are not the norm, the vast majority of places are rented unfurnished. This means, however, that you get kitchen equipment as standard. A fridge and cooker are normally included in an 'unfurnished' place. The only furnished accommodation I know of are along the lines of short term business rentals, aimed towards business travellers, and these cost an arm and a leg. You might do better contacting hotels in the area you want to be and finding out if they do long term rentals. I have heard of some that do, and come with a small kitchenette and so on.

How long do you plan to rent an interim place for? One thing I will say is that apartments here are commonly advertised 2 months in advance, as the normal notice period to leave is 2 months. You can strike lucky and get a place at a months notice, or as I did, straight away, if the first tenant in line changes their mind or has bad references. Failing that, I would give yourself 2 months to make sure you see a good selection of what is on offer in your price range, and to check out plenty of different neighbourhoods.

Originally Posted by DigitalGhost

Well we are currently only planning to be in Toronto for around 8 months (hence why we ideally don't want to buy a load of furniture) so we were just looking for a short term rental really but we can certainly pay the first and last month's rent in advance if needed and are willing to sign some sort of fixed term contract.

Do you think it's better if we just wait until we've landed before we start looking properly and actively contacting landlords. I have seen that a lot of the apartments advertised online are advertised as being available from January or February so presumably this means they would be available at that time or does that just mean that's when they would be willing to start negotiating with new tenants etc?

Originally Posted by act1980

I looked at craigslist and actually inquired about quite a few properties.

I am not sure how legit it is but I keep getting very odd replies, such as this one:

Hello,

It is a great pleasure you are interested in my house.Thanks for your email
and it is my gladness to hearing from you.I am the owner of the house you
are making inquiry of.Actually I resided in the house with my family,such as
my wife and my only daughter before and presently we had packed due to my
missionary work transfer now situated at (WEST AFRICA,NIGERIA)and presently
my house is still available for rent for $500 per month including the
utilities like,washer dryer,and security,it is well furnished but you can
also have it unfurnished if you like.Please i want you to note that,i am a
kind and honest man and also i spent a lot on my property that i want
to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this
my house and want you to treat it as your own,is that taken,it is not
the money that is the main problem that is why is very cheap but i want you
to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat
when i come for a check up.I also want you to let me have trust in you
as i always stand on my word.All i want you to do is to go ahead and view
the house immediately.
here is my number fill free to call me on this number 0112348022961208 or
+2348022961208 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting� � � � � � � � � � � � � � +2348022961208� � � � � � end_of_the_skyp e_highlighting .let me know if you are interested so that i can email you
the rent application form so that you can fill them up then we can proceed
further..

It's obvious just from the spelling and grammar that it's a phoney ad. When I ask when I can view the property I am told that they have the keys on them as they are in Africa and that I need to complete the application form and we can then proceed.

I have had several emails like this and no legit replies yet! What's going on? Anyone else had this?

Thanks!