So I live with my b/f in his house for the last 7 years and I really want my own place. The last time I had my own place was in 2016 and boy things have really changed since then. I honestly believe covid had a lot to do with the craziness and a lot of homes and buildings being bought up by greedy corporations. I have found out exactly how hard it is to even get a look at places for rent. The competition is rough. Half the time the owners don't reply to inquiries or say outright they won't reply and direct you to a website or phone number. They just won't respond, so you go to the website and fill out the application which is the easy part. Then comes the fee for the background check, which doing the check is fine with me, but the fees are ridiculous. They can be anywhere from 25.00 to 75.00 and are non refundable. These fees add up if you are looking at 3,4,5 or more rentals. Most don't allow pets and if they do I have seen them charge 100-500 non refundable pets fees, plus another 30.00 added to your rent, so be prepared for that. Then there's the good old security deposit, which in the past was refundable once you moved out. Today they are called a "move in fee" which are non refundable. Then there's the places that want 1st, last and move in fee bringing up the price to move in ridiculously high. Also of all the rentals I looked at, all of them want you to earn 3X the amount of rent, which I never heard of before. And be careful where you look for rentals. At all costs avoid Craigs list. Years ago it was a good place to search, but now mostly full of scammers. Don't go there. Even FB market place has scammer rentals, so please be careful. Another thing, I had a couple of rentals on FB market place ask me for the 50.00 back ground fee upfront even before I had filled out the application, even before they had any of my info to do a search. Sounds scammy to me so don't do that either. Also, ever since I have been filling out applications for rentals, I made the mistake of using my regular email and these places are selling your info because I have been getting a ton of spam email ever since. So my advice is to set up another email just for rentals.
Finding a decent rental in a decent neighborhood is tough if you don't make thousands of dollars a month. For people on a low income, or fixed income is almost impossible. The point here is just be careful. Take your time. Eventually you will find a decent rental and person to rent from. The competition is tough. And it gets depressing. For now I gave up. I needed a break from all the negativity, the greed and lousy rentals these landlord thinks are worth a fortune. Some of these places has rickety stairs, mold in kitchen and bathroom or were just teeny, not worth the money charged. Sometimes it's better to look in smaller communities where corporations haven't bought up all the rental properties. Please just be aware and watch out for the greedy rentals and scammers. And don't rent if the neighborhood has one of these
