Hiring a Realtor for Apartment Search

[Jakob Claret]

Hi BP Community!

My girlfriend and I are looking for an apartment to live in for the next year while we save up for our first rental property to househack. 

We understand that you typically use a realtor to buy and sell personal and investment property, but were wondering if it's advisable to use a realtor to find an apartment for the next year.

If so, how do we go about paying or compensating the realtor since they aren't exactly closing on a deal?

We could probably do the search ourselves but we aren't currently in the area, and we will be setting up for our new jobs so it would certainly take the burden off of our backs if we could hire some help.

Thanks!

Jakob

[Jesus Roman]

Great thing about using a realtor to rent out a home or purchase a home is that you don't pay their commission! Sellers/Landlords always pay for commissions so in theory it doesn't cost you anything to hire one. If anything I would recommend it since you are out of town.