The Home-Searching Methods You’re Not Using (but Should!), According to 2 Real Estate Pros
You’ve decided you want to move, but sometimes that’s easier said than done. The housing and rental market is only becoming more competitive: You’re probably looking at rental or home-searching websites for leads, but so are a lot of people. You can start to feel defeated in your rental or home-buying search when you show up to an open house with dozens of other people vying for the same place.
Although you can find a lot of potential spaces searching on traditional real estate websites, you might want to also open yourself up to more unique ways of finding available properties. Sometimes it pays to be creative in your search, whether that’s striking up a conversation with a possible future neighbor as you stroll by a building with a “for sale” sign or getting more than just restaurant recommendations from a local online community.
When you add some nontraditional search methods to the go-to websites that everyone else is on, you might just be able to give yourself an edge. And in this kind of market, you need every advantage you can get! Here, I rounded up six slightly unconventional ways to find your home or apartment.
Be on the lookout for moving trucks.
Jenna Cooper, a Compass real estate agent and owner of +COOP in Los Angeles, says you can keep tabs on moving trucks. Of course, this shouldn’t be your only method of home or rental searching, but it could alert you to available properties you haven’t seen online (like if someone is moving into a new place before they sell their current place. “I had a client who saw moving trucks outside of a house,” Cooper recounts. She wanted to get her client in for a listing, but someone else who saw the trucks had the same idea.
“I thought I was the first person to be able to get my client in,” she says. “It turns out they accepted an offer five minutes before from a girl who lives on the block — she was walking by, saw the trucks, called her sister, and her sister came and bought it.”
Walk around your desired neighborhood to scope out any signs.
Sometimes the most unconventional way to find a property is the most simple. If you have a neighborhood in mind where you envision yourself living, take a stroll and see if there are any “for rent” or “for sale” signs. They might not be listed online anywhere, so take note of the contact info and reach out ASAP. It’s a tactic Melanie Moran, leasing concierge at The Rental Girl (TRG for short), uses to find places for her clients. “I’ve definitely done that where I drive around and take pictures of the signs just to scope out what’s going on,” she says.
Reach out to your network.
It might seem like an obvious search tactic, but when so much is done online you might forget to simply ask if your friends, colleagues, and neighbors know of anything available. Cooper says word of mouth is a great way to find a property that you might not have found otherwise. Maybe a friend of a friend knows someone who’s moving, or your coworker knows someone who’s selling their house.
You can also check out places like your online neighborhood groups — in between restaurant recommendations or event announcements, you can keep your eyes peeled for one-off announcements about people moving or noticing exciting new IRL listings. Tap into your community and put your feelers out there. You never know what helpful information you might learn … like whose grandma is downsizing her house.
Go directly to the source.
If you’ve zeroed in on a general neighborhood, it’s likely that you’ll see the same landlords, management companies, or brokers pop up on listings. It’s worth checking directly with these sources in case they have other properties that aren’t listed on the real estate websites you’re on 24/7. (There are even landlord rating websites so you can make sure you’re working with someone reputable.) You can also use services like those available on the TRG website, where they offer a rental concierge service to help renters navigate the process and take on the bulk of legwork.
Sign up for a newsletter.
You probably get personalized search results from real estate websites, but it doesn’t hurt to expand your reach. The Listings Project has been around for 20 years, and covers 200 countries, including 43 U.S. states. It features sublets, lease takeovers, house rentals, and more. You can search directly for the city you’re interested in, and the listings are shared directly by property owners or the person on the lease.
A newsletter goes out every Wednesday with new updates, and you can also submit a call-out to be featured if you’re looking for a place that meets your requirements. While you still have to compete with other people on the newsletter, the pool is way smaller, and the listings are more curated than you would find on other sites. (A friend of mine found a sublet through the newsletter, and he’s lived in the apartment for almost three years now, so it can work!)
Check out the The New Mover to discover the latest tips and most innovative hacks to make your next move the smoothest one yet. This content was presented by a sponsor; it was created independently by our editorial team.