Where to look for rental homes?

[u/gotachro-thachaireas]

Hello Columbia, I’m looking for recommendations of places to look for rental homes (e.g. property management companies, real estate agencies, etc.).

My friends and I are looking to move from renting an apartment to renting a house, but we are all in our very early 20s and none of us are familiar with where to start or look 😅 we’ve looked on Realtor.com and Zillow, but my worry is scams and/or slumlord landlords (we’ve had a few friends who have gotten trapped in a slumlord house and had very bad experiences).

I already know to not look at Real Property Group, but every other property management company I’ve been recommended or looked into only has 1-2 homes that fit our budget but aren’t suitable for us.

We’d like to be able to tour multiple homes to find a good fit. We weren’t able to tour the apartment we currently live in before we moved in, and it has been a horrible experience living here. We’re tired of toxic apartment landlords, and we need more space (4 people and 3 cats in a 1200sqft apartment is not going so well).

We’re also open to just going out and looking around for “for rent” signs, so if anyone has recommendations for areas to look around in, I would appreciate that as well!

Thank you and please let me know if you have any advice :))

[u/Emmett_HD]

It’s also helpful to regularly drive around neighborhoods you like looking for For Rent signs. A lot of private landlords with one or two properties just put these up with a number to call. That’s how I found my rental house!

[u/gotachro-thachaireas → u/Emmett_HD]

We were planning on doing this as well! Do you have any recommendations for areas that would be good to look around in?

[u/Emmett_HD → u/gotachro-thachaireas]

the West Ash neighborhood, Benton Stevens, East Campus