There are millions of offers for apartments for rent and today most of them are published online. The article below focuses on some insider’s information about how apartments rentals work from the personal experience of the tenants. I do hope that you will find it useful and will be able to find just what you need.

How do rentals work?

Websites offering apartments rentals allow people to rent out an individual room, corner, or the entire apartment and even house for individual needs. Furthermore, modern websites are specifically designed to meet the most demanding requests of future tenants: there is a variety of categories that one can tick or untick to find the required housing option. The greatest benefit of these websites is possibility to see the offer at its full; you can check not only price and location of an apartment, but also its floorplan, verify its condition by looking at pictures, read detailed descriptions of the owners, etc. Once the decision about a place is made, all you need to do is to press ‘book’ button to request the booking. After you receive confirmation, the possibility to learn about any payment details and issues connected to finalizing the process will be sent to you via email.

Who is this for?

The websites described above can representations not only of real estate companies offering their services, but also individual home and apartment owners willing to rent their housing. With the former you are likely to receive better overall service, such as apartment cleaning or garbage disposal, yet at a higher price; the latter’s price will be more acceptable but don’t expect much maintenance, for instance, to be included and even offered.

How to pick the right online renter?

To get the best deal in terms of renter and price you need to make your research and pay attention to several very important details. Below I collected nine simple tips that you will be able to follow easily.

1. An updated calendar – Good renters always update their rental calendar not to mislead potential tenants and to show that the apartments are cared about. So in case you find some offer with a calendar that has not been updated for a long time, the experts advise to leave it behind and move on in your search.

2. Late replies – The same tip goes for the late replies from a renter. Always deal with people willing to cooperate and checking their mail, otherwise you may get in serious troubles.

3. Active users – Only active users are reliable and good users to deal with are people whose activity is daily or at least weekly.

4. Verified renters – Every online website has verification system to protect potential tenants from scams. Only verified accounts are qualitative and reliable renter to deal with.

5. Photos – Every reliable renter will include lots of photos of the rented place. It is highly not advised to book an apartment without taking a look at it. Some renters offer a walk through the rented space instead of photos. If neither photos nor a tour are on the table, don’t agree to such terms.

6. Reviews – Check reviews of the company or person you will be cooperating with. You can check apartments rentals and try to get together with people having many reviews and at least 80% of which must be positive.

7. Being someone else’s guest before – This is a tip for private renters. If they have used online resource before to be someone’s guest and reviews of their trip are fine they are likely to be nice and not crazy (such system work on Airbnb housing offers for example).

8. Multiple listings – Try to avoid renters who re-rent apartments from other websites. To check this you only spend some time on research prior to contacting agents.

9. Personal qualities. – Without any doubts, evaluating a person via only several messages sent online is very hard. Yet, a good and reliable renter will always be willing to help you with finding movers or some tips on how to relocate easier and stress-free. This information can be received via the email or online message correspondence. Don’t neglect an opportunity to find a truly good landlord.