How hard was it to secure your Apartment/House?

YouWotM8

This Might be more suited to Renting/Accom but I felt After Hours might have a broader range on this.

Myself and the partner have been looking for an apartment to rent for 3 months now. The usual crying on Daft at the skyrocketing prices. Any agency or homeowner we contacted has either been very "meh" about the whole thing or not replying at all.

I thought it was down to the obvious shortage in property. However I've seen a trend of a place we'd be interested in. Contacting. Place gets taken down. A week later it's back up with the prices jacked up. (testing the waters so it seems)

It's kind of getting me down. Our jobs mean we have to stick close to the city. Partner doesn't drive and we work different shifts so commuter towns are a no go.

What say you AH? Did you have trouble securing your lodgings? Any tips to stay ahead of the game?

Adamantium

Sticky bombs and trip wires everywhere

That'll teach the spiders from broaching an entrance.

Generic Dreadhead

It was grand, 50 pack of cable ties, job done!

smash

I just hang an Islamic flag out my window. Nobody wants to come near the place.

awec

Had no problem getting viewing etc, but when I went to view our apartment I brought our references with me and told them we would take it there and then.

Places now will have one or two days of viewing (and probably groups of people rather than individual viewings) and that'll be that.

Anyone who thinks they can go look at a place and then spend 4 or 5 days looking at other places before calling back is going to be disappointed.

Fr_Dougal

Sharks...with lasers...big ones...

Naked Lepper

awec wrote: »

Had no problem getting viewing etc, but when I went to view our apartment I brought our references with me and told them we would take it there and then.

Places now will have one or two days of viewing (and probably groups of people rather than individual viewings) and that'll be that.

Anyone who thinks they can go look at a place and then spend 4 or 5 days looking at other places before calling back is going to be disappointed.

very true, you will need to have your first months rent as well as deposit with you or available immediately if you want any success in my experience

got lucky with my apartment - expressed interest to landlord and was third in the queue of people who wanted it (thankfully the first two bids fell through for various reasons)

took a while to find the right place, went to view a few places and it was all group viewings i found. landlords seemed to have so many options that they werent really bothered.

Potential-Monke

Too easy, so easy that it was the second worst decision of my life buying.

SmilingLurker

married the buyer of my home and got saddled with an end 2006 peak time mortgage. She is worth every penny, may be out of negative equity now...

Now to save a 20 percent deposit...

She bought it less than two weeks into a new job, no big deposit.