First renting? Can't catch a property :( Sydney Australia?

Question

My partner and I have applied for a lot of properties to no avail. Anyone got any tips for someone renting for the first time???

HELP!

Answer 1

Get some written references from your employers confirming you are a nice person and have an income.  Also get written character references from anyone you know that is even kind of official (if they have a nice looking letterhead and respectable sounding title) - friends, parents friends, etc.  Or if you've been paying board get a letter from the person.  Take these with you when you go looking.  The more bits of paper the better!

And as someone else said, if you can possibly offer more than the minimum amount of up front rent - do it!

I know how tough it is - If you can look at properties during the week it makes things a lot easier as you're not speeding to the real estate with 20 other people.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Offer them six months' rent in advance as an incentive. If you do that and you have a perfect tenant profile (good jobs, good credit history etc) that could be a clincher. Borrow the money off parents if you need to.

Also consult the real estate agents - they will be able to give you valuable advice on how to get ahead of the crowd. I'm not saying they will, but they just may if you talk nicely to them.

Otherwise, I'm afraid I'd have to advise you to move out of Sydney. It's a sad situation but the rental market is at its tightest for many, many years.

Answer 3

hey.

for me iam pretty lucky. iam 22 and i have been living with a friend for about 2.5 yrs and i did the whole 1st renting thing.

the lucky thing for me was that 2.5 yrs ago when i started looking for places its not as bad as now. yes im in sydney inner west area so i am speaking mainly about this region in sydney.

my friend and i @ the time were both 19 and 20 and she and i never lived out of home before or rented ourselves before and both of us were part time students part time working so i guess we were pretty lucky to be able to find a new 2 bedroom apartment to live in as we didnt have much income either.

that was also only the 2nd place we applied for. the 1st place turned us down and 2nd place i offered them a 3 months advanced rent as well and they took it.

the thing is... i dont know about u.. but we inspected 3 properties and the 2nd 1 there was like 50 ppl applying so we didnt bother but the 3rd 1 we did apply for this is how we did it.

the inspection time was say @ 12pm sat. we got there @ 11am because there was ppl still living there. we rang the doorbell and told the ppl that lived there we were inspecting the place and they let us in early with us persuasing them. and it looked ok and then we ran straight 2 the real estate and applied for it and they took our 1 week deposit with application forms staight away even before the inspection is meant to start. so they cant look @ any other applications until they approved or disaprove us 1st.

my suggestion is because its worse now to if there is an inspection on the saturday.. persuade  and do your inspection earlier. the earlier the better so then u can put ur application form in 1st  with your deposit so no one else can apply for that place until they have approve or disaproved you.

my other suggestion is also to offer a 6 month in advance rent. if you are unable to do that mayb offer a 3 month in advanced rent just as an incentive.

also i think maybe you should check out the properties that have been there for awhile as the owners r more desperate to rent it out orrrrr chec the properties that havent really been on the market just yet as in it wont b avail to lease till another 6 weeks. normally they dont let u inspct the place until 3-4 weeks b4 the moving in date. i have a diploma in real estate so i know this so if u see a place saying not avail till mayb 6 weeks away try do the inspection as earliest u can before anyone else so you can be the 1st to apply.

also try to sell urself on having good credit.

i know its hard to show you have good credit and realiable esp if youve never rented before but wen i was 19 id put good references in my application forms as well wich i think helped.

from experience and from studying real estate its harder 2 find a place closer 2 the city as more ppl would apply. if you go maybe abit further out like say in parramatta area or homebush or abit further north or south where less ppl tend 2 apply for places. i think you'd be able to make your hances finding a place better.

also i dont know how many bedrooms you are looking for but if your looking for 2 bedrooms + thats also bad news as you would be competing with other people who are applying and most of them would b mid 30's-40's working class ppl who have 1 or more kids and been working for like 10+ yrs with a better credit rating. soo yeah neway sorry its soo long but thats just wat i know.

Answer 4

Try and make small talk with the owner and get some good references.

just keep searching and don't do anything stupid, like going for a c**p apartment or house or offering TOO much rent in advance( you can always offer some, just not too much) it might not turn out to be a nice place, or you might change your mind.

keep looking, and good luck