finding rental property

[jrock]

1) Last year I was looking into buying a house in SD. I did some research, including finding this site, and decided against it. Everyone of the properties I was considering making an offer on stayed on the market a long time and subsequently had the asking price fall by significantly more than my downpayment would have been. If I had bought one those properties, all my equity would have been wiped out, my entire life savings. So I feel I made the right decision not to buy.

2) Renting is driving me crazy. I am so tired of roommates, noisy neighbors and the peripatetic existence of moving from apt to apt. I am looking for a new place to rent, a small tidy 2BD house in Clairmemont would be fine. But I am having a hard time finding decent rental property at a fair price. The rental market seems to be being taken over by investors who are trapped in properties they paid too much money for and now they want to rent out the places to try and cover their costs. It seems to be driving rents up across the board. Anyway, I am having trouble finding a decent place to rent that is fairly priced and I was wondering where others look to find rental props. I’ve checked The Reader and craigslist and signonsandiego.

thanks
j

[JES]

oodle.com has some rentals listed for San Diego. I find the site easy to use and well populated. I believe they pull listings from other web sites.

[Wickedheart]

I know how you feel. I was totally frustrated trying to find a reasonable place to rent that wasn’t owned by an FB but I found a nice size (1380 sq ft) 3 bedroom house in Serra Mesa for 1700. I didn’t want to rent from an FB. They wanted way too much. And I really didn’t want to rent from someone who was just going to try to put the house on the market come spring. I lived in a rental for sale and it was awful. I don’t want my rent raised when my landlord’s arm adjusts. Also what happens if they get foreclosed on? I paid a 2000 dollar deposit (pretty darn cheap considering I have lots of pets) and I want it back when I leave. I wouldn’t trust an FB to return it. I would be concerned about their ability to make necessary repairs too.

You could try calling your local Realty offices, lots of them do property management and it won’t cost you anything. My place is managed by Century 21 Solymar, Holly Carter handles the rentals. I’d just keep checking Craigs list, the Reader and the UT online every day. Just keep looking, the right place will come along.

If anyone is interested,there’s a 3 bedroom for rent around the corner from me for 1750.

[no_such_reality]

What’s an FB? A Property Management firm?

The key for me seems to be finding a single home or unit, with a single owner that is self managing the property. You get in, pay the rent, they leave you alone.

Complexes suck, even the “luxury” or “executive” ones are one step away from a college dorm for noise and hassle.

Private homes run by a PM firm are marginally better. They still seem to want to churn or bilk you at lease expiration. Plus, bang for the buck seems poor typically with the units on their eventual way to slum status.

In OC, the three best resources for finding individual homes are the paper individual want ads, penny-saver and craigslist. A simple discussion with the owner will clarify what their plans are. They seem more willing to talk with you if they know you’ve owned before.

[EJ]

I had a similar predicament. 1st time buyer, had spent entire career (well all 3 years of it) after school saving and still living like a student. Felt that prices and bidding wars were crazy. I went to a real estate seminar and saw Rich speak, along with 2 or 3 RE cheerleaders, and decided to wait it out (Rich was the only one with data to support his hypotheses/predictions). I have been following this site, checking ziprealty and zillow ever since. From this I have learned, I should still wait longer and continue renting.

But … I decided to go ahead and spend more on my rental. I looked for 3 months and viewed about 20 properties. You have to be willing to overlap on rent a little to get a good place. I looked at many places and found the majority to be over priced. As I continued looking I also noticed these same overpriced rentals not getting rented. So this lead me to believe the good rental were getting snatched up quickly but they are out there. I found mine on craislist and viewed it the same day it was posted, submitted the application the next day. For my patience I was rewarded with a 2/1 in a duplex (approx 1000sf), 2 car garage, all appliences, small yard and 180deg ocean view from living room and patio, 5 blocks from the beach/surf in cardiff, $1800.

Keep looking … it is out there.

[PerryChase]

I suggest renting something that you would actually consider buying. The rental would be only about 1/2 the cost of owning. That way you have the lifestyle but not the responsibility.

Since there’s such a great discrepancy between renting and owning, now is the time to rent where you would want to live. For the cost of the interest on a mortgage, you could rent in a much nicer neighborhood than you could afford to buy. Why not rent something nice and let the owner subsidize your lifestyle?

[KingKong]

Rental Math:

From the landlord perspective, a vacant place means losing money. For instance, if rental is $1000 a month, that’s $12,000 a year in rent. If the place sits empty for a month, he can only get $11000 for the year. In order to get the same amount of money, he needs to hike the rent to $12000/11=$1,100.

[PorkmanDelardo]

Whatever you do, do not move to Pacific Thief. I signed a one year lease on a 1 bdrm apt sandwiched between smokers and an oven that would make O’Keefe and Merrit proud. (If they did’nt go out of business 100 years ago.) Meth heads and transients rule the area and will take anything not locked down. No exageration.

[PorkmanDelardo]

Almost forgot the sirens and helicopters that go off nightly and the morning wake up call from the aluminium looters going thru the garbage dumpsters in the alley. And leave the lid open so the lovely smell wafts thru the breezeway between apt buildings. PB is no place for children or 40 somethings like myself. Leave it to the 20 somethings.

[Author]

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