The Internet has changed everything when it comes to looking for apartments for rent. Just 9 years ago, the place to find an apartment for rent was still in the newspaper or an apartment rental guide. Back when I graduated from High School, my friends and I went hunting for an apartment for rent in Fresno CA. The process was entirely different than it is today. Back then, you could not just type something like apartments for rent in Fresno CA into a search engine or take a video tour of an apartment over YouTube. The entire process was slower and took a lot more work. You had to get the newspaper and look in the classified section under apartments for rent in order to see what was available in a certain area.
Now of course, even with modern search tools for apartments for rent, you still need to call, or at least e-mail the manager. But, as the times have gotten faster, and apartment listings are done much quicker, everything is done so much quicker. When I recently moved north and had to find apartments for rent in Clovis California, I was surprised at how little time went between calling the person offering the place, seeing it, and moving in. Back in the day, when I was renting an apartment in Fresno, there was so much more. Before you could even be considered to move in to an apartment complex, the landlord would always take a week or more. He would call all of your references, your parents (if you were under 21), and even call your boss and your previous landlords to see if you are a good employee and resident.
With today’s technology, you can find an apartment for rent online in just a couple of minutes, take a video tour, and then email the manager if you like the apartment. The manager will email you back and ask when you’d like to meet with her. The next day, you meet with her and fill out the rental application. At most she’ll do a credit check and verify you have a job with your employer. That’s it. It is possible to find an apartment with today’s technology in like 15 minutes, and be moving in a couple of days later! I love this. I’m so glad that things are not like they use to be.
I recently read a statistic that says over 80% of all apartment searches start out on the Internet. That’s huge! If this is how we search for and find apartments today, it does make me wonder how the next generation is going to be searching for apartment rentals.
Also, there appears to be several new Craigslist alternative websites for finding apartments for rent. Oodle, Kijiji, and Postlets are some of the bigger, more popular ones. These websites differ from Craigslist in that they are more like traditional newspaper classified listings. You should avoid the classified listing websites that charge the prospect to contact you. People will not pay to contact an apartment complex about a vacancy therefore it is a waste of time posting classifieds on these sites as they get very little, if any, traffic.
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