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For me personally, I never use newspaper sites for much of anything anymore. And the reason is that the volume of ads and readership just isn't there anymore plus so many other places let you post free now.
So overall, you can get better quality elsewhere. Thanks for answering. I live in a small town, so it must be different in larger areas. When I WAS living in larger cities, there wasn't a vacancy shortage. Every complex had openings. I know OP is looking for houses to rent, not apartments, and I see homes for rent in newspapers where I wouldn't casually see them advertised otherwise.
So overall, you can get better quality elsewhere. Thanks for answering. I live in a small town, so it must be different in larger areas. When I WAS living in larger cities, there wasn't a vacancy shortage. Every complex had openings. I know OP is looking for houses to rent, not apartments, and I see homes for rent in newspapers where I wouldn't casually see them advertised otherwise.
I am not necessarily saying 'better quality' elsewhere, just a lot more volume of both ads and/or readers elsewhere. I just notice that most people don't or won't pay to post ads in their newspaper as much as they used to when there are so many free sites that have and get TONS more traffic elsewhere.
It is just like our local city print newspaper has been going down the tubes over the years because people just aren't reading them as much and people don't want to pay the crazy ad prices they charge. We would never even consider posting any of our rentals in the local newspaper (which is a semi-larger city) because for ads no one really reads it for that anymore or even thinks about it whether it be print or online newspapers.
You are going about it backwards. Don't look for ads for rentals. Get the names of management companies from the phone book and then go to their website to see what is available and what the terms are.
Rentals are listed on Craigslist in my area. Some are scams, but the scams are exceedingly easy to pick out because they are offering luxury for less than the price of a one bedroom apartment. If it is too good to be true, take warning.
I am a landlord and I don't rent to people from out of the area. You come and view the house in person and I hand you the application in person. I do not accept applications over the phone or in email. I am far from the only landlord with that policy. So, your options are limited if you are trying to rent without going to the area in person to pick a place out.
Why would you want to rent, anyway, without seeing the neighborhood and the condition of the rental unit?
If you texted me 28 messages over a 6 hour period, I would assume you are much too high maintenance and would reject you for that reason alone. I don't want tenants who think they can demand 100% of my attention 100% of the time.
If I have a vacancy posted, it is available, but I will absolutely not hold it for anyone. You apply, get accepted, and sign the contract and at that point, and not before, the unit comes off of the market. So I could not guarantee you that any house would be available for you and you alone, no matter what.
Having extensive experience renting rooms in houses with multiple sequential roommates, I've had several roommates who found the house remotely. They paid in advance to rent a room temporarily, allowing them to move here and have a place to live while scoping out different neighborhoods. Within about six months, they found the right neighborhood to live in.
In response to your comment about Zillow having old ads up, this may not be the landlord's fault.
I have 2 houses that I rented out weeks ago, removed them from the site the day I signed the lease, and they are still showing up as active, and I KEEP getting inquiries about them. When I went and found them on Zillow, they are correct, not scams, they even have our contact info, but when I click to edit them, they say I don't own the listing so can't make changes to it. Obviously it is my ad, since inquiries keep going to me.
I have created a response that I keep cutting and pasting, letting people know that Zillow/Trulia are having some delays on updating their site, apparently, and giving our website for people to see what we actually have available. We keep that 100% up to date.
It is really quite annoying to me as well. I've wasted many hours responding over and over and over to inquiries about houses that aren't available anymore. One day, I came into work to find over 50 email inquiries about those 2 houses alone. An hour worth of cut and pasting later, I was able to start my actual work for the day.
So cut the landlords a little slack for having out of date ads. We don't like it either, but sometimes it isn't our fault.
Oh, and I agree with everything Oregonwoodsmoke said. I do rent to people from outside the area, but only if they have found some way to see the unit. I've even done some Facetime showings lately.
And in response to Corn-fused, not all areas have Realtors who offer this service. I don't know of a single agency in my area who does, and in my 15 years in the industry, I've never had an agent bring me a prospective tenant. We do have a "rental" section in our MLS, but almost no one uses it.
Somewhat relevant question, why don't people look in the local newspapers anymore? All newspapers have websites these days, I find stuff in the classifieds all the time. Is there a specific reason people are shying away from this?
I don't advertise in the newspaper because my local paper charges rental ads the commercial rate so they want me to pay $25 for 3 days 25 words or less.
I put my ad on Craigslist and I can use all the words I want and I can post 6 photos.
The newspaper keeps getting smaller and smaller and more expensive to buy. Because no one else advertises for rent in the paper, there are no "for rent" ads and so tenants don't buy a newspaper to look for a rental.
Yes, I cannot imagine Zillow or Realtor.com can be up to date on anything. In my neighborhood, they rarely have anything listed there until the house is rented or sold. Since your parents already LIVE there, can't you go scouting and stay with them?
Often it is best to update ads with pending or rented.
Changes are sometimes much easier than removal...
Most of my tenants are referrals from current and past tenants.
I did have a recent Craigslist Ad tenant who is working out just fine.
Brought 50 applications and was out before my 2 hour showing.
If you are paying application fees it makes sense to go to a large Management Company... one application fee should be good for 30 to 90 days and cover everything they have.
You do make a point... I know one shady person... he boasts application fees pay the full cost for his assistant... he never denies anyone an application and collects fees from all... doesn't want to have discrimination problems...
I will look over the application in person... ask if there are going to be any surprises and simply say if you have an eviction I will not rent to you...
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