Searching for a Rental with Zumper

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I recently started hunting for a new place to live. I am selling my house and moving to a different neighborhood in the Orlando area. I want to make sure this is somewhere that I want to be before making a purchase, so I plan to rent for a year or two.

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Finding somewhere to rent in Florida seems to be more difficult than I am used to. In New York, everything is online and the agent gets paid quite well for doing rentals, so they want to show them to you. Down here, trying to find rental listings and trying to find someone to show them to you is like trying to find a needle in a double haystack.

Luckily, I came across Zumper. Zumper is a great site for looking for rentals. I compared them with the normal sites that I usually use, and others probably use too, and they have a lot more listings.

I was told by my realtor that the fees on other sites have increased so realtors are using them less, and I guess property management companies and owners renting properties are also. This is, however, not beneficial for those of us looking to rent a house. That’s where Zumper comes in; they will have a lot more listings for you to take a look at so you can settle on the right one.

Overstock.com is one of my favorite places to get items for the house. I bought my headboard in my master bedroom from them. They carry lighting, decor, furniture and more for lower prices than you would get in store.

I also love that Zumper provides information on average rental prices in the area where you are looking to rent, so you can make sure that you are not paying too much. Instead of just giving you the average rent across Orlando, which is $1299 by the way, Zumper provides average prices for each of the main neighborhoods in Orlando such as Baldwin Park, College Park, Lake Nona, etc. This is very useful as Orlando neighborhoods are very different and rental pricing reflects that.

Rental Tips

Here are a few tips that I have gleaned from searching for a rental:

Be prepared to pay two months rent up front if looking to rent a house
Most places want 3 times rent as income
Credit of over 600 is required for most places
Make sure to carefully read what’s included; most rentals include HOA fee and lawn care but I have seen some that do not
Make sure you get what you need for your lifestyle – I saw a house that I really liked, but it was missing a space that I could use for an office and I work from home; I could have rented it but I would have been uncomfortable and probably annoyed within a month having to work at the kitchen table or counter
The neighborhood is as important as the house – make sure to not just see the house, but take a tour around the neighborhood as well and check out what amenities are offered
If there is a property management company, look up reviews of the company to see how good they are responding to issues
If it is an owner renting the property find out where they live; out of country owners are harder to deal with and I speak from experience
Get feedback from current tenants, if you are able to, on the response time of property manager or owner to issues – no one wants to wait over a week for an AC to be fixed in the summer (I have been there)

I know that searching for a rental in Orlando can seem like a daunting proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. Keep the above tips in mind and check out Zumper to help simplify your process.