top 10 craigslist tips: how to find an apt…or anything for that matter

when i moved from kansas city to chicago, i was able to find an apartment in the heart of lincoln park, with no money down, new appliances, 700 sq. ft. with hardwood floors for $1000 a month. the complex included a concierge at the front, roof deck, a convienent store in-front of the building, built-in dry cleaners, and across the street from a hospital.

i didn’t use a service. i didn’t sign up for any apartment finding service. while i will admit that being a native of chicago helped, i had never lived in the lincoln park area. so what was my secret tool?

craigslist.

craigslist is a no-frills search engine for classifieds. remember how your parents or grandparents always told you to look in the classified ads of the newspaper to find good deals? craigslist is the web equivalent. no fancy graphics, gimmicks, ads, or sign-up process. it’s just text, links, and a few pictures.

it is these simple characteristics that make craigslist so popular. the first you’ll do when on the website is pick your city. for the newbie, its as simple as <your_city>.craigslist.org. for me, it was chicago.

smack dab in the middle of the page is a category for ‘housing’. [tip 1] decide whether you what type of housing you want. if you sublet an apt, you more than likely will not have to make a downpayment. this is because subletting is like assuming someone’s lease that they have already put a deposit on. in most cases, you’ll have to pass a simple ‘can i afford this place’ background check. sometimes the current tenant (person living there now) wants to recoup their money, so they may ask for a little something. [tip 2] if choosing a sublet, make sure that you can renew the lease once it is up. some of the postings under ’sublet’ are actually just temporary housing for a couple of months because the tenant is going out of town. if you’re planning to stay in the apt, make sure this is not the case.

craigslist does a good job of letting the shopper know to avoid scams. they usually post a general message in bright red and yellow on each post. if something is a scam, it can be flagged and immediately removed. no fuss.

while the craigslist search isn’t revolutionary, it is simple enough that with a few keywords, it can be manipulated. [tip 3] search by amenities or apartment type. if you’re looking for a loft, type in ‘loft’. i know it sounds straightforward, but sometimes using the amenities as a keyword may open up surrounding areas since most searches start with a particular area in the city. once you find a particular area and get a few of the street names, use those terms as search phrases too. [tip 4] don’t use too many search criteria off-the-bat. sometimes you can get discouraged when you try to type in a key phrase and nothing comes back. browsing through a set of results based off of one criteria may yield some interesting results.

another neat feature of the search is the ‘has image’ checkbox. when checked, this will pull back posts that have images attached to it. sometimes these can be misleading, as a ad agencies add non-descript or their logo to posts since most people like to ’see’ what they’re looking for. [tip 5] don’t necessarily limit your searches to ‘has image’. some of the coolest places don’t have images directly in the post, but have links to a website that has a ton! you may miss it if you filter by this option. [tip 6] no image can replace actually seeing the apartment. your mother always told you not to judge a book by its cover. the same goes for apartment hunting. while a place may look great, do not hesitate to go and check it out in person. talk with the renter. ask questions like ‘why are you moving’ and ‘how friendly is the staff here’. nothing can beat first-hand impressions.

[tip 7] use the neighborhood search links at the top. most listings will be grouped into parts of the city. this is helpful if you don’t know the city too well, but want to be adventurous. [tip 8] find listings that have been mapped on google. when someone posts a listing, they also need to add the details of where the apartment is. when that happens, a link will appear at the bottom of the post directing you to google maps so you can ’see’ where exactly the place is. this is probably one of the better features because from google maps, you can type in ‘restaurants’ or ‘groceries’ from that location and see what is close to address. i can’t tell you how convienent it is to be able to walk across the street to get a half-gallon of milk!

[tip 9] contact the person who placed the ad. craigslist does an excellent job of protecting people’s email address because it assigns a temporary address for people who want to be contacted by potential renters. don’t be afraid to use it! a simple ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ into your favorite email program, i suggest gmail, can get a lot of your queries answered.

[tip 10] be patient. as with any big purchase, being patient about finding a place and getting the best deal go hand-in-hand. if time permits, start perusing a couple of months (i usually go about 4-5 months) before you plan to move. usually, you’ll see the same listings pop-up again and again. this can be used to your advantage since the person is obviously trying to get out of their agreement. when i found my apartment, the guy was willing to pay half of the first month’s rent because he HAD to move.

you’ll notice that craigslist also has many other categories of shopping goodness. don’t be afraid to check out a new table or even car because local businesses post deals there too! here is a link to another craigslist tip on lifehacker.

craigslist: bargain shopping made easy.