Jerseygirl

After saying "Not wanting to be argumentative Bob"...you seem to be the only person who is shouting. Take a chill pill.

Pulaski

It depends on the state - some require a segregated account, but I don't believe that it is policed effiectively, if at all, in the state where I own several rental properties. ...... And yes I do keep my tenants' deposits in a segregated account, which is recorded as such at my bank. In the event of my bankruptcy the bank knows that it cannot take the contents of that account to offset my personal debts.

Pulaski

Yes, from my experience/ memory everyone is probably correct in their own city / state. Larger cities, especially in the north east (Philadelphia, NY and points north and east of there) have, historically, had rental agents that demand a fee of one-three months rent from renters to find them a home to rent.
Smaller cities and more suburban areas have agents paid only by commission paid by the landlord, though Real Estate Agents in my area sometimes refer potential tenants to me gratis (I don't believe the prospective tenant has paid an up-front fee, and I'm certainly not under contract to pay a slice of my rental income to the agents - though I would pay them a voluntary bonus if I sign up a tenant they referred). I presume the agents only do this if they don't have a suitable property available under a contracted management agreement.

fatbrit

I'm in AZ where the questioner is arriving, and,unfortunately, we're not quite so civilised here.

S Folinsky

Hi:

Many metropolitan areas have internet based rental listing services -- here in Los Angeles -- the most popular one is westsiderentals.com. They allow landlords to list for free, but require renters to pay a membership charge [$60.00 for two months]. I understand that the rentals on craigslist tend to be on the flaky side. From what I understand, the nominal fee charges prospective renters on westsiderentals.com insures that the landlords are contact only by people serious about renting.

My daughter tells me that craigslist has a market in unexpired westiderentals memberships -- people will have set a special g-mail account for it.

Jscl

We have rented for a long time now. Pre-Craigslist we had to sign onto one of those listing services, at about $100 a month if I remember correctly, to see what was available. Now we go straight to Craigslist, as both individual landlords and many of the local renting agents/management companies advertise there.

The house we're in now was listed on Craigslist by the rental agent/management company. We had to pay them a small fee for a security check but other than that we've only paid rent. The house owner pays the management company and in return if anything is wrong we speak directly to the management company. This is the second house we've had with that arrangement.

I would recommend starting with Craigslist, and looking up rental agencies in the online white pages for your area. A lot of the agencies list their properties online. Paying anyone to find a rental for you would be just a waste of money - at least in this area - unless you really had zero time to look by yourself. It might be different in less metropolitan areas.

Hubcaps

We were advised to use craigslist and the local papers when trying to find a rental simply because there was far more choice (at least 10/1 imo). We had the use of a realtor for 2 weekends and she did find us our des res but Craigslist was our main search engine.

Rob_999

Hey there - we've just moved to Naperville. Are you looking for a short term or long term rental and do you plan to buy?

We moved into a short term place and plan to either buy or find a longer term lease. Naperville is a big area and traffic can be bad so it really helps to spend some time here and figure out exactly where you want to live.

Your best way to find a rental is definitely though a realtor. There is a lot on the market right now - many properties that haven't sold during the summer and sellers getting desperate and now willing to rent, so you should be able to find a good deal. Also try craigslist although 90% of these will be agents advertising properties so nothing a realtor wouldn't find anyway.

As for fees - the realtor will just split commission with the listing agent so it doesn't cost you anything (although arguably you could negotiate better if going direct).

Send me a PM if you want more details on Naperville.

Cheers,
Rob

AddyLaddy

Yeh we're almost exclusively using Craigslist now. There is stuff on Hotpads, Zillow and Trulia but its often out of date or no different to what has been posted on Craigslist. At least on Craigslist you can see when it was posted and so eliminate any stale ones. Most rental agents in our area seem to post there too.

But be warned, we've wasted quite a bit of effort and almost lots of money with private landlords on Craigslist. Some of them don't act very professionally, and they're often still living in the house they're offering to rent. Which means it can be very difficult to actually confirm a moving in date!

CelticRover

However, I am sure you know that, 'LTA, $33-1321, E, Security Deposits', provides remedies to the tenant against a landlord who acts in bad faith.


"E. If the landlord fails to comply with subsection D of
this section the tenant may recover the property and
money due the tenant together with damages in an
amount equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld."

fatbrit

Yep -- but if the landlord ain't paying his mortgage, what are the chances he's going to pay you?

Bob

I'm not being argumentative. You're the one stating everything as fact when that isn't the case. It is your experience.

Plenty of other people have used an agent and have had to pay to use the. It is the standard situation that happens in New England and is exactly what happens to everyone that I know that has used an agent and what our agent is expecting of us if they find us a place to rent.

That is fact too and showing I'm not wrong either.

CelticRover

[QUOTE=fatbrit;8821975]Yep -- but if the landlord ain't paying his mortgage, what are the chances he's going to pay you?QUOTE]

The chances are slim to none in that case, even after the tenant exercises his/her legal options. The slick landlord almost switches places with the proverbial deadbeat tenant even if a non collectible judgement is granted by the courts.



"Collection Reality

Now for the bad news (maybe). Although the landlord may be liable to the tenant for substantial damages if the tenant is evicted and the landlord breached the lease, the landlord will probably not roll over and spit out the money owed to the tenant. Here are some reasons why a tenant may have trouble recovering damages from a landlord:

The landlord does not have the money. It goes without saying that if the landlord lost the premises because the landlord could not pay a large sum of money to a lienholder, the landlord may not have the money to pay a damaged tenant either.

The landlord has the money, but will not pay the damages unless ordered to do so by a court.

To collect from the landlord, the tenant may have to sue the landlord and get a court order (a judgment) that the landlord owes the tenant money. A tenant can sue the landlord without using a lawyer (saves on lawyer fees) or hire an attorney (not cheap). If the tenant who hires an attorney prevails, the court has the discretion to award the tenant attorneys fees.

To collect the money won in court from the landlord, the tenant may have to use the legal process to enforce collection of the judgment (more money and possible attorneys' fee). The collection process includes filing a lien on the landlord's properties (if you can find other property in Arizona) and garnishing wages (if the landlord has wages available for garnishment and is employed in Arizona).

The landlord might file for bankruptcy and you would be in line with other creditors to get paid. "

AddyLaddy

I tried to rent a place the other day. The landlord asked for all the usual deposits up front i.e. 2x rent + security. But then asked that I pay his mortgage company direct.
I walked away as this seemed dodgy and I guess the house may still have been foreclosed?
I doubt he would have done any of the promised repairs either.