La Canada Flintridge, CA · Member since 2013 · 21 posts · 0 votes
Maybe I am inexperienced since this is my first time try to lease my house. Or maybe it's only the second day I posted the ads. But I only received two inqueries regarding the new posts. My questions are
Am I listing the price too high? It's about the average of the $/sqft of the houses on the market for rent.
Should I try more websites? I posted on craigslist, zillow and trulia so far.
How many inqueries you get so that you know it's priced right?
School starts in August, and the inventory on the market is low, I thought there should be many people looking right now.
La Canada Flintridge, CA · Member since 2013 · 21 posts · 0 votes
13y
Jon, thank you for your suggestion.I did check the rentometer, I think websites like zillow and rentometer are getting smarter day after day, however, they still don't have the capability of picking the comparables based on the same school district, which makes their estimate totally off.
I don't know if it's a good idea or not... I called a couple of local RE agents and ask them to find tenants for me and I'll pay 3% of annual lease as commission. If I can save one week's time, the rent will pay for the commission itself.
Miami, FL · Member since 2013 · 98 posts · 27 votes
13y
Finally, you called and agent! It's your best chance to find your qualified and desired renter in your unique area, and here's why...
It was almost painful to read all the good common-sense advice of the folk above given to you without realizing what a unique area La Canada Flintridge is - a peaceful oasis next to an otherwise gang-ridden area that is North East Los Angeles. It's also been described to me as the largest Republican population in a heavily Liberal county and state ;)
I can totally understand your fear of offending your neighbors because you probably will - any sign on the lawn other then "Vote Elephant" is offensive there ;)
The wavy canopy mountain roads with and breathtaking views there would be the envy of anyone passionate about RE. And when you say public school district is excellent, most don't realize how good it really is - especially by California standards! The road my house is on begins in LA, goes through Glendale and ends in La Canada Flintridge, and I often drive it for inspiration
Craigslist in LA? Are you kidding? The new listings fill the page of 100 faster then you can refresh the page, it's the entire LA Metrolopitan Area, no less - it's sadder then a sad joke. Your ideal renter is probably a scientist with a family at the Jet Propulsion Lab nearby in Pasadena, try marketing there. But definitely get a good local rental agent - people who look for property like yours need a one-stop-shop
Miami, FL · Member since 2013 · 98 posts · 27 votes
13y
Try www.therentalgirl.com - no connection to them other then i've rented through them before i bought, and it's a friendly collection of women-agents who specialize in unique areas, one of the may tackle La Canada Flintridge
Bad area?
Little info in the description?
Bad floor plan?
Too high of price?
Outdated / not renovated compare to neighbors?
No photos in the listing?
Too many other places for rent in the area?
La Canada Flintridge, CA · Member since 2013 · 21 posts · 0 votes
13y
well said Alex Baev. I guess only people live here can appreciate the uniqueness of the small community. It's probably not realistic to rent it out in a week. I'll have to take my time.
Landlord · Ontario, CA · Member since 2012 · 43 posts · 9 votes
13y
Be patient. The last time I posted an ad, it took me almost a whole month to rent it out. The trick is to set the rent a little below the average in your neighborhood.
Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2013 · 555 posts · 261 votes
13y
Craigslist has improved by adding Map View.
Map View filters out all the crap and repeat/spam listings and makes CL much more pleasant to use.
That said, during my last couple rental listings, I got way more inquiries from Trulia. Zillow came in 2nd, and CL was way last, which is surprising because alexa.com ranks CL as among the top 10 most visited sites in the US. Other rental websites like Hotpads and ebay were just pure crap. They don't get enough web traffic.
The rental market here in LA County is kind of tricky. Because tenants have unique needs, finding one in a place this big is a lottery.
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
13y
Around us Rentometer.com is useless. It hasn't a clue what rental values are because it doesn't understand the metrics between different sections of towns causing price differential. Your best measure if there are a lot of rentals is to befriend a realtor and get the comps that have rented in the last 12 months. Look at when they're rented and how many days they were on the market. Also those that have rented you should be able to do an apples to apples comparison to your own.
Our rental market is like a roller coaster. It goes up and down. Its dry at some points and then for some unknown reason everyone comes out of the woodwork looking.
I'm a realtor and I use postlets.com for my listings. Its great because it feeds into a few major sites. I also use it for when I insert something into Craigslist so that it looks more professional than just me typing something in. I try to take as many pictures as I can. The iPhone with its panoramic views now allows me to take good pictures of small spaces giving people a better understanding of what they're going to rent.
Still when I officially list something into the MLS our system at Keller sends the feed to over 300 top websites that people look at. The things I do like putting it on CL and Postlets is to fill in anything else that our system doesn't feed into.
Investor · West Bloomfield, MI · Member since 2009 · 358 posts · 306 votes
13y
Originally posted by Frank Jiang:
BTW, does anyone know any website listing the past transactions of rental properties?
You mentioned you working with an agent now. The agent can pull "sold" rental listings for your area. Every area is different, but in my experience the more upscale the area is, the more the properties are listed on the MLS and not on Craigslist and similar free websites, unless they've been syndicated to the free site via a feed from the MLS.
You mentioned paying 3% of annual rent as commission. Make sure that's a competitive rate or you may find agents reluctant to show your house. In my area one month's rent is common (split between listing and selling agent). That's 8.3% of annual rent.
I agree that $/sqft isn't how rentals are properly priced. The best thing to do is look at recent rentals in your area. Go through current listings if you can. Otherwise, look at photos from recent listings (your agent can give you what's available or look on zillow, trulia, etc.), read the descriptions, drive by the house and think about how it compares to yours. After doing this with 8-12 houses you should be able to hit the right price point with your house within $100 or so.
Good luck. Even if you can't do these things you'll eventually find the market-clearing price. It's just more profitable to do your homework upfront.