.. or house. Rent.com, realestate.yahoo.com, craigslist, house.com, homes.com, apartments.com... or just search internet? Or look at classifieds sections of local newspapers.
i remember when we were looking for a place to rent last year ... and I guess this goes for everytime i looked ... I was always frustrated at the lack of information available. I searched all those places ... well that were free ... some people on craigslist will share or sell cheap an account to rent.com and the like ... that's nice. All I wanted was a picture of the place from the outside (apartment complex, duplex, fourplex, whatever) how much $$, sq foot, amenities (sp?), pets, the usual, and pictures inside were always a plus. But all we found was half the info, no pictures, outdated info, snotty people, and everything was pretty much "you have to see for yourself" kind of a deal. If I was going to make a site for apartments or housees for rent, I'd keep it local so it was easier to get all the info, pictures, updates needed and then everyone would be happy. You might not get all the traffic in the world, but people in that city/county would love that site. OK I probably went off topic too much huh? Basically we looked at all our choices and ended up frustrated and dissapointed with them all. They all sucked.
Our site has all these features; but attracts only 100+ visitors daily, has pr5,alexa varying from 100k to 500k, and still not launched. If we tried a local site, our job would be much easier. It is not clear if we should focus on some average-big city, or whole U.S., as we originally planned. Time will show.
I would go to craigslist first, unless I was in San Diego and then I would hit up the SD Reader. I would think you would have more success in the short term focusing on regional traffic, but as you said, only time will tell.
Groan... I just did this... twice in the past two months! First place (we're moving out of it next week, just got in after Christmas) has been a real mess, 70% due to previous tenant not complaining about problems, but still quite a bit relating to poor management. I'm 6-1/2 months pregnant, so moving twice is a huge deal for me. We started out online, but we found that mostly the more expensive place advertise online. The cheaper ones tended to be in the newspaper or just drove by to find them. We did use the internet, starting with realtor.com's rental listings, as well as the local newspaper's website.
Probally the newspaper if it were in the same area I am from. If it was a relocation I would start with craigslist and yahoo, maybe realtors website.
Depends. If i'm relocating to a place i've never been (done that), i used apartment.com locally, i've always used the newspaper or word of mouth
Depends if I'm lookin for holiday apartment rentals or long term rentals etc. We don't have any decent long / short term property rental sites here in the UK, when I was looking for an apartment the internet was pretty useless. Now, holiday apartment rentals I'd search my own site
I would probably end up looking in the local apartment guides and in the paper. I would not want to have to cull through a plethora of irrelevant listings to find something worthwhile.
visit www.craigslist.com and you'll discover an interesting classifieds online. Personally, I really like www.dclassifieds.com but they're both good.
Our convenience stores locally offer "Apartment Guides." I wish I could do deep linking to specific apartments for my location. I have a local web directory with an apartment section. Both affiliates I've checked into offer a text link to their site, or a banner. I've emaled on through CJ twice now, with no reply. I could turn over some good leads if I had the ability to link with aff code directly to apartments in my area.
Drive around to new developments and see if any are being built. Ask people. Talk and you will find out soon enough