How to rent privately without being attacked by spam?

bramble1

I'm looking for a new property, i've posted wanted adds, but all i seem to attract are scams wanted me to transfer money into their accounts. What am i doing wrong? Why is there no private rental property portal out there?

Svenena

It's more normal for the landlord to post the adverts, and the tenants to respond. Have you tried your local paper/their website?

flappy_mcwarbucks

Svenena wrote: »

It's more normal for the landlord to post the adverts, and the tenants to respond. Have you tried your local paper/their website?

^^ That ^^

Reply to adverts, and also look in local papers, shop windows for notices etc.

Basically, do what people done before the internet showed up. Get out there and look.

kmmr

Where are you looking? If you are in London there is such high demand that LL's don't need to look for tenant ads, the tenants come and find them.

I would think that only LL's with flats that have some kind of issue and are hard to let that would get in touch with you. So just spend the time to look at ads, set up meetings etc etc. Not fun, but no real way around it.

The_Palmist

When I post for sale adverts, I normally add a few extra lines saying "no international scammers" etc. It doesn't make much difference though.

bramble1

We're looking in the village we currently live in, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of adverts up - our biggest thing if we've got a dog, so need somewhere pet friendly, there aren't any private ads to reply to or I would!

G_M

Landlords with a property available will advertise it - either directly themselves or through an agency.

They will not wait for tenants to advertise and then answer.

If there are none advertised in the area you are looking that means there are none available.

bramble1

G_M wrote: »

Landlords with a property available will advertise it - either directly themselves or through an agency.

They will not wait for tenants to advertise and then answer.

If there are none advertised in the area you are looking that means there are none available.

I appreciate that- i'm just trying to be proactive, as it will probably take months to find somewhere.

Rhiannon01

I look in local newspapers. There should be a certain day of the week in your area where they have property section.

I also use Gumtree as I have personally found a good number of places through there. Although it does seem to be worse with the con artists. I apply to peoples adverts & also post my own ad. You may want to get junk separate email for it just in case. You can tell alot from the ad/reply you get. Often pictures are very bad quality, obviously not 'real', bad description (I had one mentioning it was near a tube st in London, I live nowhere near there), too good to be true offers, bad spelling/terminology. Not all will be cons, hang in there, like I say I've found many a gem this way. Alot of Landlords use Gumtree but is dependent on where you live, just in cities. Do you have work internet where they advertise things?

Good luck, you'll find something soon

bramble1

thanks, i will keep searching!

paddyrg

Can you letterdrop homes in the area you like? Literally a bit of paper through the letterbox. Internet scammers have a hard time getting themselves inside that real-world approach!