Rental Trip

[SuzySunshine]

Hey gang, not sure where to post this so I'll just put it here!

We are planning to go to our new location on Friday, April 29 - Monday, May 2nd to look for a rental which we would like to start June 30/July 1.

Do you think that is to early? To late? Unfortunately if we don't go that weekend we will have to wait until June 4th which I'm sure is to late...or I could go by myself which I don't think DH would be to keen on...but even then I don't have a lot of weekend options.

[oceanchild]

The last time I was apartment hunting, which was in DC, people wanted leases that started immediately. The most they'd give us was a month. So I think you might be better off with June 4, which I don't think will be too late. But maybe keep track of craigslist for a little bit? See when people are asking for leases to start?

[Ladybug]

It might be a bit early if you don't find something you love. It will give you a good idea of the areas you want to keep a daily eye on if you don't find the right place that weekend.

[alison]

We went in April for an August move-in in PA, and had to pay a full extra month's rent. Ouch! As you know, it's a tight market there.
If Portland is anything like Seattle with respect to it being a pretty favorable market for renters at the moment, then you'll be fine in June, and will have the upper hand.

[Tenacious_D]

Probably a little early but it doesn't hurt to look. You might to wait till June to make a final decision and so you don't have to pay extra to hold it.

[SuzySunshine]

What I'm also finding right now is that there are several houses on Craigslist that say they are available now until June, so does that mean they'll be available again for July or are they already rented??

[Ladybug]

Email and ask. Its unclear.

[Pollyanna]

I am not sure if it would be too early or not but it would be a fun get a way with your hubby (assuming the kids are not coming)

[Michele]

We are in a similar position. I've been watching Craigslist, realtor.com and a local rental site. It seems like most of the homes have been on since Dec 1 (when I started looking) or they are on and off again in a week or two. I want to be really picky, so I kinda want to look in the beginning of April and then again in May. Of course, I also want to get out of here and am looking for any and every excuse!

Oh, none have said anything about move in dates so I'm assuming they are all available immediately.

[OrionGrad]

We visited Portland in April with a plan to move here in June, simply because it was the ONLY time we had free to fly across the county and look at apartments. Long story short, none of the landlords said they could hold an apartment that was available in April until our move-in date in June unless we started paying rent in May. But because we were looking at apartments in large buildings in the Pearl District, we ended up touring a building, loving it, and signing a rental agreement for one of the units that we hadn't actually toured. (Since people were living in it until May, we toured an empty neighboring unit that was the exact same inside.)

With all that said, I'm guessing it would be a lot easier to find an individual landlord willing to make a deal with you on renting a house with a June start date -- especially given the current economy. I wouldn't worry too much about not finding anything if you come out in April, even though you'd probably have more options if you came out closer to July.

[JaneDoe]

Have you contacted the your Dh's fellowship program? I remember my Dh's residency program having housing suggestions/contacts that were helpful with this stuff. Maybe OHSU has something too.

[SuzySunshine]

OHSU has a housing link on their website that has been deactivated and says it will be re-activated in March. I'm assuming after match but I'm not sure if its for purchasing or renting, I guess we'll see. Of course we have to turn in DH's vacation requests before we'll have that information.

We used the program's housing website and were able to find quite a few houses that were going to be available at the right time because they were owned/lived in by folks finishing up residency and moving for jobs and/or fellowships. We looked in mid-April for a house to start renting in mid-June. It worked perfectly for us.

[SuzySunshine]

Well I think we've decided we aren't going to go in mid-April. We'll either find something online or I'll go by myself the first weekend in June. We'll see.

[SoonerTexan]

It was easy for me because I was only 3.5 hours away, but I drove the area to narrow it down (I figured out really quickly that a lot of the cheaper places were in a nasty area right next to a really nice area) and then stalked Craigslist 2x a day--I called within 1 hour of the posting of our duplex. I found our current place 2.5 months in advance--the landlord was still renovating, so he was fine with us signing a lease in early April to start in June.