Apartment Hunters' Favorite Rental Websites

Renting an apartment might be stressful, but we're fortunate to have so many online resources at our disposal. Imagine having to rely exclusively on newspapers to locate listings. It would be difficult to find ads without using filters or price comparison tools.

The biggest challenge these days may be having too much information at our fingers. Fortunately, no matter where you live or how much expertise you have, there is an online rental platform for you. Here are the greatest rental websites with a range of tools, filters, and information to make your search easier (and more enjoyable, we promise!)

Zillow Rentals

I ended up using Zillow to find my house rental a couple years ago. It has the most listings and data out of any other real estate site, and even has an algorithm that caters to a users’ tastes and interests, with help from browsing data. While you can use Zillow to rent, buy, or sell, I liked using it to look for a house because it provides useful data on single-family dwellings. Additionally, the Zestimate tool lets you easily compare rentals so you can decipher what kind of deal you might be getting.

Trulia Rentals

Trulia, which was acquired by Zillow in 2014, is another pioneer in the online real estate space. Thanks to its helpful buyer and renter advice, Trulia can help you rent or buy a house. Trulia's connections with crime-mapping programmes like SpotCrime.com and CrimeReports.com are one of the site's most notable features. Trulia introduced a new function in 2018 that helps members of the LGBTQ+ community navigate potentially discriminatory housing legislation.

Realtor.com

Realtor.com is one of the most reputable rental websites around. The National Association of Realtors runs it, and it only accepts listings from property managers and owners. It offers a variety of criteria to help you find exactly what you're looking for in terms of pricing, neighbourhoods, and amenities, and its listing page provides a wealth of information about various communities, including school statistics and price comparisons.

Craigslist

Craigslist, a well-known online classifieds site, isn't expressly for rentals, but it's where I located four of the five houses I rented in California. Because landlords post directly to Craigslist, which usually avoids broker costs, you can discover fantastic offers here. Many landlords avoid the larger rental sites like Zillow and Zumper in favour of Craigslist, which means you can unearth hidden gems you wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

Craigslist, on the other hand, isn't as strict about screening advertisements, so you have to be careful who you contact. In my experience, if anything seems too good to be true, it probably is — and if the apartment photographs appear to be copied from another rental site, the listing is most likely a hoax. My general guidelines are as follows: the listing must include images and an address, and the description must be professional.

StreetEasy

It's difficult to locate an apartment in any city, but it's more difficult in New York, where the market is fiercely competitive and rates are exorbitant. For New Yorkers with precise criteria, StreetEasy, which can be utilised for both renting and selling, is ideal. You may search for no-fee apartments, trending residences, and amenities you can't live without, among other things.

Nooklyn

Nooklyn is another another excellent resource headquartered in New York City. While the firm is a full-service brokerage, its website serves as a sort of neighbourhood resource, listing apartments for rent, rooms for rent, new residential complexes, and even job openings. On Nooklyn, users can look for a new home to live, as well as advertise their available sublets and other services.

RadPad

From San Diego to Washington, D.C., RadPad is a rental marketplace app that collects apartment listings. The app, which is available for iPhone and Android, lets users see how far a new property is from their present residence and includes filters like lease duration and "I need a roommate." Users can link their RadPad profiles to their Facebook accounts to check which of their friends are also looking for a new house or roommate.

Renthop

Renthop offers basic map views and filters, but what sets it distinct is its "HopScore," which assigns a score to each listing based on a range of characteristics such as price, management firm reputation, and more. Robert Rahmanian, principal and cofounder of REAL New York, says, "This website devised a rating system to assess rental units based on their quality." "It's really practical."

Renthop's pricing comparison tool can also be used to compare rent prices for similar homes in the same neighbourhood.

Apartments.com

Many tenants use Apartments.com to find a place to live. It has millions of listings, a powerful set of criteria, and a solid track record. It also includes a tool for drawing search area bounds as well as a keyword search for listings.

The site has a feature called the Local Guide, which provides tenants with information about specific locations, including market trends, top schools, most popular apartments, and more. Furthermore, each listing describes not just the flat itself, but also the neighbourhood in which it is located, as well as what is nearby in terms of schools and transportation alternatives. It's an excellent resource for folks who are considering relocating to a new city and require additional information.

PadMapper

PadMapper is a rental listing aggregator that pulls listings from sites like ForRent, PadList, and Airbnb. The dynamic map, which shows you how many rentals are available in the places you're interested in, is the coolest feature.

Rent Jungle

Rent Jungle meets all of your basic rental needs, but what sets it apart from the competition is its Rent Comparison Tool, which tells you whether you're getting a decent deal or if the landlord or managing firm is asking for too much money.

Abodo

Another amazing rental site is Abodo, which has over 3.5 million postings. The design is quite user-friendly, and it immediately allows you to specify the type of living space you want, such as a pet-friendly rental, a building with a pool or gym, and so on. Abodo has a lot of options and a cool mapping tool that shows you listings all across the city you're looking in.

RentCafe

Renters don't have to worry about authenticating the legitimacy of each listing because RentCafe provides listings straight from leading property managers in the region. RentCafe's technology displays users a unit's real-time availability, which is useful for apartment hunters (which is useful in competitive markets, where homes can be snatched up in hours). You may even utilise the site as a management tool, which you can use to communicate with your apartment manager and renew your lease.

Zumper

Zumper is quite simple to use, as it divides a city into neighbourhoods and then provides information about the precise locations you're looking at. This is useful for apartment seekers who don't live in the region and require a quick download.

Rent.com

Hotpads

Hotpads, which was acquired by Zillow in 2012, allows customers to customise their searches in terms of neighbourhoods, budgets, and apartment sizes. Hotpads also has a "For You" area that pinpoints your location and proposes nearby properties. The site also displays the number of times the property has been seen, as well as surrounding schools and unit reviews.

Facebook Groups

Another way to find places to rent on Facebook is to join groups. There's also Facebook Marketplace, but the listings there aren't very many, and you're more likely to find what you need on more well-known rental sites than there are on Facebook. Make sure you search for groups on Facebook that deal with rentals in the area where you're moving. When I'm looking for housing, I've used Los Angeles LA – Housing. I've also used Apartments and Rooms and Sublets. If you join one of these groups, you can talk to people who are renting their rooms, looking for a new roommate, or subletting their rooms.