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Craigslist apartments
Hi, 20/m
I'm a small town boy, soon to be moving to a big city. I'm trying to look for a room in an apartment, and have been looking on craigslist.
I've never done this sort of thing before, and so I'm a bit confused.
Some of the pictures look like they've been taken off a website i.e. they look like billionaire penthouses. Are these scams? Is there any damage in contacting them?
Also, any other tips you could give me when searching for a place on craigslist? I.e. what to look for, what to avoid, how to tell if its fake/a scam?
Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks
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I agree with Braiden, craigslist is not the way to go. There is a potential for getting caught up in a scam if you use craigslist. Many people do not trust it and while you will see lots of ads on there and some of them may be legit, those same people will advertize their apartments in other places too. You're much more likely to get involved in a scam on craigslist than you are with an ad in the newspaper or other website like [Link](Mouse over link to see full location). No one in their right mind would only advertize their apartment on craigslist and many people do not use craigslist because they do not find it reputable, so you'd be missing out on some opportunities. A local newspaper is the number one place to find a good apartment. A lot of newspapers have websites with a place where you can interactively search for an apartment. Find out the name of a big newspaper in the area where you're going and you should be able to find the website for that newspaper. Other than that, I'd go with rentals.com or another site other than craigslist. Craigslist just can't be trusted with something important like getting an apartment when you can find one another way.
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I've found apartments on craigslist before. It's not necessarily a scam. They hire professional photographers and interior designers to make the apartments look as nice as they can. I would be careful though.
Never give your credit card/bank information to them over the telephone. They may ask for your SSN as well to perform a credit check. None of this should be done over the phone.
Tell them you want a tour of the apartment, they should set up a time and date no questions ask. If they ask for any personal information beyond your name and contact information, hang up the phone.
Also ask them if they can give you the names of some residents that you can contact as references, or while you're looking at the apartment, try and stop a resident and ask them their opinion of the building. Try to do this when the person giving you the tour isn't right there so they don't feel pressured to be overly positive.
I would watch out for anything that seems too good to be true. After looking at a bunch of apartments, you should have a pretty good idea of what an apartment costs. If anything is significantly below that value, it's probably a scam.
I signed a lease at an apartment like that. The tour was great, I asked one resident and she said it was pretty good but that there was kind of a "bug problem". I imagined the odd cricket or roach getting in and signed the lease. The first night in I turned on my kitchen light and literally hundreds of roaches went scurrying into the corners. I was out of there by the end of the week. (I had to claim the apartment was unlivable and threaten legal action to get out of the contract, and I still lost my deposit.)
As long as you follow those steps: Don't give out information over the phone, request a tour, speak with a resident, and watch out for deals that are "too good to be true".
As a last bit of advice. Make sure when you do sign a contract and give them your information that you do so in their office. It should either be located in the apartment complex or separately if they manage a number of properties. Make sure it appears to be an actual management office (staff, file cabinets, break room, etc.) This sounds like common sense, and it's extremely rare that a scammer would go as far as to create a fake office, but it always pays to do your research.
Also, you can look up who the biggest realtors are in the city you're moving to and look at apartments directly through their site. Good luck, and don't stress out too much.
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Craigslist is most definitely not a website I would be looking for apartment. Yes, 9 times out of 10 things are scams, Items for sale are broken or damaged etc.
If you want an apartment my best advice is too look in your local newspaper for ads, Call places when you see a for rent sign outside. Try to find someone who is looking for a roommate etc.
Seriously, I can't even begin to tell you how much shit I hear about Craigslist. One of the biggest scams I recent recall is someone putting up an ad on a house that was for "sale" Guess what? The owner of the house was actually on vacation in Africa while someone just randomly started false advertising. Yeah, these type of scams are everywhere.
Check the papers you should have much better luck, Next if you see something that is interesting then call the number and schedule an appointment to view the place and bring a friend along with you.
This is regarding to the answer given above me; Maybe not all ads are scams. This wasn't what I was implying but it's better to be safe then sorry. Craigslist not only has a bad rep but a friend of mine got screwed paying $800 a month for an apartment that was the size of a small bedroom literally...Now he completely regrets the choice.
Anyway, Whatever you do just be careful! Happy hunting
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