A Guide to Renting a Home in Greensboro, North Carolina

Renting a home is the way to go. Apartments can be nice, but I personally recommend renting a house because it's usually cheaper (and if you have plenty of roommates, it's hard to find upwards of 3 bedroom apartments), there's more variety so you can find something suited to your specifications, and homes are just cozier in general. Renting a home can be a hassle. As I have moved multiple times in the past year, I thought I'd use my vast experience to help others going through the same thing.

The first step is figuring out exactly what it is you want.

1) Let's start with roommates--how many do you want to live with? Keep in mind that the more you live with, the cheaper it will be. (If you need more information, such as you'd like to live with roommates but don't have anyone available, check out my article on how to find and live peacefully with roommates: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1077593/a_roommate_guide_how_to_find_good_roommates.html?cat=7)

2) How many bedrooms/bathrooms do you want? Do you want your own bathroom? If not, how many people are you willing to share with?

3) Where are you willing to live? I recommend taking a look at zip code map (http://www.hellogreensboro.com/zip/zip_codes.cfm) to figure out which zip codes you're willing to live within. That way, when you're seeing tons of street addresses you don't recognize, you can yay or nay them based on the zip code (saves time, take it from someone who spent hours going back and forth between rental sites and google maps).

4) What are the deal breakers? Do you need a dishwasher? Do you not want to be on a main street? Do you have or want to get a pet? Do you need a six month lease instead of a year? Do you need lots of closet space or storage? Etc.

5) What additional things are important to you (but not necessary)? Lots of sunlight? A garage? A deck?

Once you know what you're looking for, there are a lot of different places to look.

1) One place to start is the internet. I recommend starting with Craigslist (http://greensboro.craigslist.org/). Craigslist is a great place to begin looking because a lot of different people and rental companies post there, and the website is simple and easy to use. You have to option of going through rooms/shared, where you can find people who already have places and are looking to fill a room or two, or you can go to the apts/houses tab to find places that are for rent.

If you're looking for inexpensive housing, check out Social Serve (http://www.socialserve.com/tenant/NC/Search.html?city_id=30362&type=rental). This is a website that compiles affordable homes throughout Greensboro. You can search by number of beds/baths, zip code, and price range. It generally has a lot of information on each house (but often does not have pictures). I think this is a great website; it has a lot of listings of cheap homes that you may not be able to find otherwise, as they're generally being rented through the owner and not a company. Definitely worth checking out.

2) Another good place to look is the Greensboro News and Record. The Sunday paper, especially, has a lot of listings for rental homes, and often you won't find those listings elsewhere. The only problem is that the listings are brief and do not contain a lot of information. Be sure to ask plenty of questions when you call about the house (or, if it's convenient, drive by the house beforehand). The News and Record also has a website so you can check there (under "classified), but there are more listings in the Sunday paper.

3) Rental companies can be really helpful when it comes to finding homes. They often have online listings, but they also have listings at their buildings and it can be easier to work with them if you show up in person or call them. Some rental companies will even let you pick up keys for their properties during working hours so you can go check them out at your convenience. You may want to call around, because different companies charge different application fees (although all of them will charge an application fee).

Here is a list of some local rental companies:

a) Concord Management (http://www.concordmgmt.com/) is located at 611 Summit Ave, #11 and their phone number is 273-0598. A friend of mine rented a home through them and said they were really nice and helpful. They have lots of pictures of the homes on their website and it's easy to use. The only problem is they don't usually have a lot of listings. They have the most listings under 3 bedroom homes.

b) Greensboro Rent-a-Home (http://www.gsorentahome.com/) is located at 2107 N. Elm Street and their phone number is 272-0767. They always have a lot of listings, and they have some really nice homes for surprisingly cheap. However, I've known a few people to run into various problems when dealing with them and they have been pretty disorganized, so keep that in mind. Also, I really don't like the way their website is set up--all their listings are on one page and not organized by number of rooms or location, and you can't search for what you're looking for. They usually only have outside photos of the properties and not very much information. Still, they're at least worth looking into.

c) Palmetto Equity (http://www.palmettoequity.com/) is located at 209 E Bessemer Avenue and their phone number is 271-3020. They have a wide variety of prices (currently, they have a 3 bedroom for $650 and a 3 bedroom for $1,350) and they generally have a lot of newer homes and townhouses.

d) Birch Management (http://www.thebirchcompanies.com/) is located at 1118 Grecade Street and their phone number is 288-6997. I had a bad experience once with Birch Management.They told me a house that I was really interested in would be ready by a certain time, and so I began calling and e-mailing them around that time. I didn't hear back from them until a few weeks later when they sent me an unapologetic e-mail telling me the house would be ready in a few more weeks. It wasn't, and I didn't hear from them until about a month and a half later, by which time it was too late for me to rent it. Of course, that was just one isolated experience so I wouldn't rule them out completely. They have a nice, easy-to-use website and a good number of available properties.

e) KAC Realty--I don't have a street address or website for KAC Realty but they do have a number you can call anytime (674-6203) which has a voice message that describes all of their different property listings. The listings are arranged by number of bedrooms so you don't have to go through all the listings to hear the relevant ones. They tend to have really inexpensive homes (like 3 bedrooms for under $600), so if you have a limited budget, this one is good to check out.

f) Greensboro Historic Rental Homes (http://greensborohistoricrentalhomes.com/) is located 740 Chestnut Street and their phone number is 855-7855. They aren't likely to have a lot of listings (sometimes they don't have any) and their homes are generally a little more expensive, but if you can find and afford one, the houses are really cool. They're all located downtown and are renovated older homes, usually very spacious and beautiful. Fun to check out.

4) Of course, you can always look for homes the old-fashioned way: by driving around neighborhoods/areas you'd like to live in and looking for "For Rent" signs. This is good because then you have an idea of what the house is like and know exactly where it is. Also, you can find houses that aren't listed anywhere else this way. On the other hand, most houses will not have handy informational sheets outside so you won't know any of the basics like price, number of bedrooms, etc. Be sure to bring a pen and paper to write down the addresses and phone numbers.

So once you've found a few places you're interested in, ask plenty of questions before deciding on one. Find out the application fee, the lease length, the deposit amount, what's included in the rent, what kind of heat the place has (oil is most expensive), whether there's a pet deposit, etc. Find out when and how rent will be due, what kind of changes, if any, you're allowed to make to the home, and if there are any special things you should know about (for instance, I lived in a place where we couldn't have furniture on our porch). Inquire about what your responsibilities as tenant will be. Some lease agreements will require more responsibilities than others--such as various upkeep. If you're thinking of renting from an owner (rather than a company), you might want to make sure you like the landlord, because dealing with a landlord can be big part of living in a place. An obnoxious landlord can make for a horrible living situation (while a nice one can go a long way towards making a happier home). Just be certain you have all the information before you make a decision. And once you've decided on a place, go over the lease very carefully before signing it--you might find something that makes you change your mind.

Good luck with your house hunting!