Where to Find House for Rent URGENT (Gold Coast)

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  Falbium on 12/01/2015 - 21:22

  +4

  Definitely try any agents that were involved with selling the property. They have a vested interest in getting the tenants to vacate the premises on time, so they will try harder than anyone else would.

• 

  toristo on 12/01/2015 - 21:29

  +1

  Check Gumtree and sites like that for private properties being let by the owner. They'll be more likely to give an immediate yes or no (but obviously represent a much smaller number of options too)

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  ddrex on 12/01/2015 - 21:47

  Didn't think of any of that. Thanks guys.

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  atasnatas on 12/01/2015 - 21:55

  +8

  The major thing is that someone dedicated needs to be involved. If no-one in the family is calm enough at this point (few people would be), then someone else needs to help. I imagine you would be an excellent candidate. They need someone on their side who isn't going to be held back by the pressure of the situation. It's hard to do everything in your power to get a situation to work out well if your entire livelihood depends on it.

  So, either someone in the family or someone else who cares about them needs to take on this list of priorities:

  1) Monitor as many sites advertising rentals as possible, ideally learning how to best utilize their search functions. This includes the usual sites like Domain and realestate.com.au, but also sites like Gumtree and Craigslist. Persistence here is the key. Anything that is worth applying to (make sure the family doesn't get too picky, as that could be costly) needs to be put into a list and the inspection times need to be as monitored as the sites are. It's vital to search as well as go to as many inspections as possible. If a place doesn't look like it's that great but could be good (sometimes it's a matter of poor photos), it's still worth going to check it out.

  2) Contact real estates directly and frequently. See if you can get someone to let you know if they get anything (or already have something) that lines up with what you're after. A family of working people is an ideal set of tenants, so if you can real estates working against each other and all for you then they might even get feisty about it and try to set this family up with something great. Real estate agents are also the best people to go to with the time frame, as no-one wants to see a family with nowhere to go and they're the ones with the power to help prevent that.

  3) Make sure family and friends know what the family is looking for. Even people beyond the area could know someone in it. Word of mouth is an incredibly underrated tool and it may be possible to get somewhere before it even goes on the market. A landlord is looking for someone to pay x price to live somewhere, so if a good set of tenants (like a family who have the income to pay the rent) come along they wouldn't need to go through the usual lengthy process. That's good for everyone involved. Even better, it could happen much faster than the usual process and would be easier to sort out by the deadline.

  4) Check out for-sale listings. If you can, set the search to show listings that have been there the longest. If someone trying to sell a house just can't get it sold and there's no guarantees it will be any time soon, they may be willing to rent the property out. Anything that's been on the market for more than a few months is a property that the owner(s) are likely to be be stressing about. No matter if the owner(s) are in financial difficulty or not, a house on the market is a frozen asset and renting it out (even short term) frees it back into being a means of income. Don't hold back on contacting individual owners, as well as asking real estates to get you in touch with their long-term clients.

  5) Make it abundantly clear if the family has a great credit score. Anything beyond about a year of regularly paying rent shows that a tenant not only can afford the rent, but actually does so. A lot of people think that bank statements and such are enough to get a landlord to see they will pay, but being able to pay isn't a guarantee that people will. If possible, get a statement from any previous landlords who can vouch for them. Treat it like a resume. No-one would get jobs if they just said they have the capacity to be a great worker, which is comparable to just showing a bank statement. It's also worth considering including professional and personal references too, as a good attitude and work ethic can be a great way to reinforce that you can be trusted with a property. Showing you're a good worker lets the landlord know that you have money in your account because you're a hard worker, rather than that a family member temporarily transferred 10k to your account because you had no savings and are constantly getting fired from jobs.

  6) Get someone to ask about weekday viewings and attend as many as possible. In Australia, Mondays and Wednesdays seem to be the major ones aside from Saturday. If you go on a Wednesday, you might be the only person to view a property. Whereas by the Saturday viewing, you could have twenty competitors not only making it hard to properly inspect the place, but also giving you competition for applying. Going on a weekday means you could be accepted and be signing the lease before a Saturday viewing even happens. That's the dream. So get in touch with real estate agents and owners for any property you're interested in that is newly listed. Just explain the situation and say that you would like to see the property as soon as possible. A great deal of the time, landlords will be workable for viewings because they don't want to miss a potential tenant. It just really puts you in a great position if you get in before a Saturday viewing, when it will be abundantly clear that there's interest and the landlord doesn't need to work around other people's schedules.

  7) Call before you inspect anything. Sometimes online listings don't get updated and a place is already leased, leading to a bunch of people showing up for an open house that has already become someone's home. It happens most often when a property has its lease signed after a mid-week inspection. Your best way to avoid that for this family in a time they really don't need to go through that (esp. if it's a Saturday and they could be at other inspections) is to know for sure that the inspection is still on.

  8) If a particular property looks completely ideal, pick up an application form from the real estate prior to viewing it and fill it out. This way you can be in first and sometimes that's the most crucial part of an application. It's another case of the frozen asset issue, where often the place will be given to the first applicant to show they will pay the rent and look after the place. If you called prior to the inspection (as the previous point suggests), being able to hand your application in to the real estate agent at the inspection puts you at the top of the stack.

  I wish your girlfriend's family the very best with finding a rental. It's rarely a stress-free process in even the best circumstances, so I hope these tips can help take the edge off this high-stakes situation.

• 

  gevidian on 13/01/2015 - 09:41

  +1

  Have they spoken to the agent about the house next door to find out why their application was rejected. Trying to resolve that might be the easiest solution.

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  ddrex on 13/01/2015 - 23:49

  Thank you so much atasnatas! Those are very good points and thank you for writing such a long and detailed response. I forwarded your reply to them tonight. They went to a few inspections today and possibly found something suitable. They offered to pay 6 months rent in advance if they get approved and now the waiting game is on. Hopefully this does it so they dont need to stress any more and get on with normal life.

  As for the house next door, apparently the agent said that they don't need to give out a reason for rejection. Gf says they were pretty cold and almost rude about it, they didn't care. There were other people inspecting the house so someone else probably looked even better on paper… They also found out that their current agent, who rented them the current house, left a really good reference to the agency that managed the next door house, but even that didn't help to get approved. That just added to the stress.. Hopefully paying in advance, and before other people inspect the house on the weekend, will do the trick.
  I'd hate to think how they'll feel if it doesn't…

  Thanks again, atasnatas you are a legend :)

• 

  ddrex on 15/01/2015 - 22:53

  +1

  Just an update: they looked at another house and offered to pay up front for the whole year and got approved. Getting the keys tomorrow and moving the stuff over the weekend, so got in just in time. Not too happy about paying up front but the whole house hunting experience was quite stressful and they couldn't risk missing out again with just a few days left to move.

  I never realized how complicated renting can be and i hope nobody here goes through crap like this.

  Thanks again to everybody for your suggestions.

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  atasnatas on 19/01/2015 - 17:09

  I just remembered this thread and realised that by now, the result would be decided.

  So glad to hear they've found something! Short term, it's a pain having to pay up front, but it'll be a relief not having to worry about rent once they've moved in. Delayed gratification, in an odd way. :)