Hello all,

I'm looking for a apartment or townhouse in Waterloo and just wanted to know how did you do to find a place?
I'm saying this because we only have 3 weeks here and still no Job, we have been searching for a place to live but many ask for employer information. Did you use a Realtor? What do you recommend?

Thanks for any information you can provide.
Regards.

If you use a realtor then it won't cost you anything directly as their commission will come from the landlord, and if you get a good one you will benefit from their local knowledge and they can help you out with other stuff too. The downside is that, because the landlords pay a months rent in realtor commissions it tends to be the more expensive rental properties that are marketed through the realtor system (and obviously their fees are factored into the rent). So if you are looking for an average or above average rental - I would say it is worth using a realtor. If you are looking at the cheaper end then you will likely have more choice with the private ads but be careful there are a lot of scams out there.

Thanks a lot for info HGerchikov. Your site is also very helpful.

And any recommendation on how to get realtor, is there a trusted site where I can find one in Waterloo?

Or can someone recommend a realtor in the Waterloo area?

Nevermind trying to interest an estate agent. Get a job then use viewit.ca or the classifieds like everyone else.

Yes, you don't need a realtor for rentals ... Viewit.ca is excellent; mls.ca is pretty good too (though many houses already gone on that site by the time you look). Key other thing might also be a credit file. Pull down a recent one from Equifax to hand to a landlord - they may ask for that too

Hi Jelcan

We used the Kijiji website to find our current rented house and also the new one we're moving to at the end of August. There's a huge choice of rental properties in Waterloo covering all price ranges. Kitchener is a bit cheaper than Waterloo if you can bear it - also, watch out for the student areas, which don't suit everyone .

I have heard that there are a lot of rental properties on the Craig's list website too, though Kijiji is better because they allow the landlord to post more photographs of the property.

Like you, we also arrived in Waterloo with no employment lined up and found that going with a private landlord is best, as they can meet you face to face and will decide for themselves whether to trust you - they may be happy with personal character references, employment references from back in England etc, which all helps to show you will be a good tenant. Whereas in our experience, an agent or realtor may struggle more with the concept of renting to the unemployed and there will be inevitable problems completing application forms.....

Best of luck in your search!