Originally Posted by acer rose

... You may also choose to carry a cash deposit around with you - this was suggested to me by a local friend - I did not carry a full deposit with me in cash but did carry enough (about 10%) to make a cheque from a strange foreigner with no local job references more appealing if necessary (but remember to get a receipt for the total you hand over).

Originally Posted by acer rose

I would definitely suggest a multi-pronged attack. Unless money is no object, finding the right place will be a mad experience. You have about one week per month to find a place. Most viewings seem to be arranged for the same (first) weekend or the following week for a rental term to begin on the first day of the following month. Anything left over after this will probably either be overpriced or a total dive. Occasionally places come up to start a term in the middle of a month (15th). Most terms will be for a minimum of 12 months. I did see one place that was offered for a minimum term of 6 months.

First, make sure you have a map, a good idea of where you want to live (area), a contact number (purchasing a "cheap" PAYG cell phone will probably pay dividends), prepare your spiel for the phone calls (polish up your best telephone voice), prepare a few information cards containing a list of references (personal local ones are good) that you can hand in with your applications. You may also choose to carry a cash deposit around with you - this was suggested to me by a local friend - I did not carry a full deposit with me in cash but did carry enough (about 10%) to make a cheque from a strange foreigner with no local job references more appealing if necessary (but remember to get a receipt for the total you hand over).

1. Walk around the area in which you are looking for a rental. Take a pen, paper and cell phone. Phone for any vacancies you see advertised as soon as you see them - there will often be open house viewings arranged for the following weekend or one evening, or sometimes the manager will just love your dinky accent and invite you round for an immediate viewing.

2. Check out Craigslist and follow up anything that looks interesting. This source will probably have a mixture of private viewings and open houses.

3. Check out the local papers (Vancouver Sun, North Shore News, Georgia Straight) for rental ads. Follow up immediately with a phone call - these will probably be mostly open houses.

4. Ask anybody you have contact with at your new job (if you have one lined up) whether they know of anywhere suitable.

Some people spend months looking for the perfect place but there is plenty of choice that comes up if you are prepared to be flexible on size/location/number of rooms/laundry facilities etc. You need to decide what the must-haves are, what your budget is and where you need to get to. I was advised to avoid having to commute over more than one bridge. My commute is sometimes 2 bridges and sometime no bridges, but only becasue the job came after the rental.

Basement suites are generally cheaper than apartments because they are considered dark, cold and damp, however there are some nice "garden suites" available if you are prepared to live in a more family orientated community. If you move in to a split house arrangement, watch out for the division of bills some people do them as a percentage some people include it in the rent (useful if you don't want to stump up utilities deposits).

Apartments sometimes include heat, hot water and other stuff like laundry. Parking will often be extra though (depending on location).

South facing gets the best light, north facing might get a view.

Good luck.

edit: Google something like vancouver suite rental or vancouver apartment rental for lots of other places to look. I used http://www.rentbc.com/search.html to look as well as the standard sites/strategies mentioned above. In the end though my rental came through Craigslist.

Originally Posted by JonboyE

There is a lot of excellent advice in this post so I feel a bit guilty about disagreeing with this one point. However, I would be very, very cautious about handing over cash unless you are absolutely, 100%, certain that the person you are handing the cash to is the owner/manager of the property.

There have been several reports about scam artists purporting to let out an apartment, taking cash deposits from as many people they can, then disappearing.