Image courtesy of www.wweek.com
It always seems to be renting season in the city, and if you’ve ever tried to rent a place anywhere, you know it’s not as easy as just finding one you like. You need to think about cost, and roommates, and neighbourhoods, not to mention that if you will be living with roommates, you need to find someone who realizes how completely amazing you are during your 10-20 minute viewing of their place. Toronto is incredibly competitive when it comes to housing, but it sort of comes with the territory of living in a big city. With that said, if you aren’t used to it, the pressure of actually finding a place you like enough to stay in for any period of time can be overwhelming, especially if you are on a deadline. Here are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind during your next house hunt.
The first thing you need to do is go online and find out what other people are paying, and what they are paying in the area that you actually want to live in. It doesn’t matter if you use a renting website or just do a google search, but this is an important step to figure out step two which is budgeting.
Do what ever you have to to figure exactly how much you’d ideally like to spend on rent each month, and what would be the absolute max you could spend. There are a lot of things you can to do spruce up a house cheaply, but bottom line is, if you can’t afford to live in a condo right downtown don’t bother torturing yourself by looking at the ads, and don’t try to trick yourself into believing you can afford to sign a lease you really can’t. Go down that road and you can except the worst kind of stress there is: money stress. Imagine yourself hiding from your landlord, or crawling to your parents for help, and hopefully that image will be enough for you to move on to something in your price range.
The next thing you want to do is google the best way to find housing in your city. Craigslist and Kijiji are fine, but you can also expect a lot more competition, because everyone uses them. There are a ton of other websites at your disposal specifically designed for renters that are easier to use, that make subsequent searches a million times easier to sift through, and that, a lot of times, will pick up on craigslist ads, among others, anyway.
If you’ve been going at it for awhile, don’t get desperate. This is the point when you’re going to start reconsidering your price point. First, reevaluate. If you aren’t being realistic, recalculate accordingly, but if you just haven’t found the right one yet, keep looking! New posts go up all the time.
On that note, be consistent in your searches! Looking once in awhile, or whenever you think of it probably isn’t going to cut it. Looking once a day is good, and twice a day is better. Start a system and be smart about it. Looking early in the morning and later in the evening hits both early morning and after work posters. Your goal is to get a viewing. Realistically, after so many emails, or scheduled viewings, a poster is going to have to draw the line. Be above that line, friends.
A good way to do this is to avoid the urge to bookmark ads. You’ll end up with an endless list, you don’t even want to think about starting to tackle. Answer ads as you see them, or at least by the end of your search session. It’ll help you in the long run.
Make sure when you do send emails, you are sending more than, “ Hi my name is ______, and I’d love to come by and see the place.” Even if they don’t ask, they want to know who you are.
You might want to consider spending some time to come up with a standard response that you can more or less use for all your first-round emails. Don’t lie about yourself, but the key is to sound likeable. If you have a stable job or any type of house hold skills, those would be good to mention. Imagine you are applying for a job, because this really is an interview process.
Can’t live without a dishwasher but didn’t notice one in the pictures? Ask. Think of things you absolutely need in your place, and things that you’d like to have. If the poster hasn’t mentioned them you can ask about those in the first email, and while you’re at it, don’t forget to include what times you are available to come by. It saves time for everyone.
If you’ll be living with one or more roommates, be honest with yourself about wether you seem to be a good match. You don’t have to be best friends, but a big bedroom or beautiful kitchen with never, ever, make up for living with someone you really don’t like. You’ll end up locking yourself in your room, or essentially living with your friends. Make sure you enjoy the space you’re in.
Lastly, if you like a place, there is no shame in shooting the person an email later that day or the next day telling them that you are interested. They have a lot of people coming through their place, and though you might be, not everyone is interested. Sending an email like this really narrows down their list of potentials and makes it easier for them. Even if other people have done the same thing, you’ve still greatly improved your chances because they know you’re serious.
