8 sneaky ways to snag a great apartment

There's more to life – and renting – than Craigslist. Here's how to push past the clutter and find the gem of an apartment that's waiting just for you.

Looking for a new apartment is like finding a date online: so many options, so much competition for the few good ones.

The default solution for many is to scroll through Craigslist, the online classifieds site so massive that it appears to have every listing from New York to Nome.

But there's such a thing as being too popular. These days, the site is so heavily read that landlords who use it spend hours weeding out the con artists, undesirables and no-shows who respond to their ads.

"Once it gets to be a commodity like that, it loses its effectiveness," says Dennis P. Fassett, an owner in the Detroit area who only occasionally posts his units on Craigslist and never the houses or most desirable apartments. Instead, he posts a sign in the units' windows. "I try to limit my scope," he says.

So how do tenants find all the nice landlords with the great units, low turnover and happy renters?

It's easy, and it may end up actually saving you time. Below are eight ways to scope out those hidden rental gems, all tried and tested by happy tenants from around the country. All you need is focus, creativity and, in rare moments, a bit of bravado.

1. Pound the pavement
It worked well in the old days and it works well now: the walk and talk.

When Colleen Wainwright, a former television writer, moved to Los Angeles with her husband in 1992, she immediately asked friends to drive her through several neighborhoods.

After a couple of afternoons in the car, she got out on her own and started walking, notebook and Polaroid in hand.

"There were people around and people were fairly friendly, and I'm fairly friendly," Wainwright says. She took notes, inquired in rental offices and talked to building managers. When she got a good feeling, she'd fill out an application on the spot.

At one complex, the manager took her upstairs to fetch an application from his unit.

"I walk in, there are these huge ceilings, light pouring in. It was so much nicer," Wainwright says. The man explained that he was moving out, but that the unit was only for the building manager.

"I said, 'Well, who's going to be the manager?' I knew my husband was rather handy and frugal; I thought he might be up for it."

The couple ended up getting the apartment and the job, well before either had been advertised. And when she moved out seven years later due to divorce, she again picked a neighborhood and started walking. She spotted a "for rent" sign just as it was being put up, along with a manager so relieved by the in-person find that she offered a price break.

"Get out and walk," advises Wainwright, now head of the marketing firm Communicatrix. "Stuff happens face to face that can't happen via an e-mail or phone transaction."

2. Post your own ad
Some landlords either aren't certain they want to rent out a home, or aren't interested in posting an ad and weeding through the deluge of responses. Instead, they peruse the "housing wanted" ads and select someone they find fitting.

Zipporah Sandler, a middle-aged retiree, employed this strategy in a bold attempt to get a lot of house for a little money, something that seemed like a good idea after she and her husband moved to Florida and decided to rent instead of buy.

Sandler posted an ad online that detailed exactly who they were – retired, 50s, no kids, one dog — and what they were looking for – a pool, yard, space, gated community, $1,000 rent. (She blogged about “finding the mansion” at her site ChampagneLiving.net.)

Although what she sought should cost triple what she wanted to pay, she received dozens of responses from interested homeowners. "It made life easy for me, that's for sure," she says. "I could weed through it and narrow it down to just what I was looking for."

She chose a 2,700-square-foot home in a gated community for, yes, just $1,000, available because the owners never intended to advertise it for rent but decided to take a small amount of cash in exchange for older, responsible tenants.

Fortunately, "friends" these days might be defined as anyone in your online social network.

Although you might not know these “friends” well, they'll definitely feel more comfortable considering you than they would someone outside their circle of acquaintances.

When Havona Madama, a New York lawyer, had to move suddenly from her Brooklyn apartment due to asbestos removal, she first did what most do and visited Craigslist. "There were hundreds of posts just from that day, and just in the area I wanted to live," she says. "I just felt overwhelmed."

She'd also had a bad experience once subletting from a stranger through Craigslist. But she'd had an excellent experience using a bulletin board at a neighborhood coffee shop in Washington, D.C., years earlier.

So she used her 21^st-century bulletin boards – an online network of friends, including an online group for neighborhood parents – and immediately found three listings. All were from people hesitant to post an ad to strangers, but willing to consider her even though they had never met. Her family was able to move into a place they liked within one week of launching the search.

4. Ask about homes listed for sale
The sign may say "for sale," but the owner making mortgage payments on an empty house may say, "Yes, rent it!" if the right person asks.

"The market is absolutely flooded with owners who could not sell their homes, and they're now on the market for rent," says Maurice Ortiz, of the Apartment People, a property brokerage in Chicago.

Lisa Thomas, a career coach in Minnesota, called real-estate agents of nearly three dozen houses to ask if the owners would rent. Although the homes were not listed as rentals, about one in five said they were willing to take a tenant.

The lesson: Ask and ye may receive. Just make sure the house is not in foreclosure so you won't get kicked out. Check the county recorder's office in your area for public information about the property's status. You also can type in the address at RentalForeclosure.com, a free site set up for this purpose.

5. Check vacation rentals and make an offer
You should also ask if you can take out a long-term lease on that "vacation rental" property posted online.

With more vacationers staying home, it's hardly uncommon these days for owners to feel a little desperate. Suzanne Wergeland, a Houston-based oil and gas insurance broker whose vacation rental in Costa Rica is advertised only for nightly rentals, would nonetheless take a monthly or yearly rental at a third of the low-season rent. "Because of the economy, we need to sell the house," Wergeland says. "If we don't sell it, then the next best thing would be to have long-term renters."

In other words, don't think the advertised rates are it. Pitch yourself, and make an offer. It never hurts to ask.

"You can rent a gorgeous home that you might never be able to buy," says Magan Hunt, who does marketing for Wergeland. "But you can rent it for much less."

6. Get someone else to do the grunt work
Ortiz, of the Apartment People, says his brokerage is bombarded by renters tired of bumping up against apparent scam artists, or making appointments with landlords who don't show up for appointments or have misrepresented the property. Professional brokers and property managers screen properties and arrange viewings. And except for in a few cities – primarily in the Northeast – the tenant does not pay extra to use a broker; the property owner pays the fee for finding a tenant, typically about one month's rent.

"Why not have someone else do all the dirty work?" Ortiz says. "All you have to do is sit back, relax and have someone drive you to all the apartments."

A common misperception is that tenants will still be charged more because a professional will set the rent higher, since he may be taking a monthly percentage as a maintenance fee. But representatives of the National Association of Residential Property Managers say this is not so; brokers need to rent the property, and to do so must list it at or below market rent.

Furthermore, Ortiz says that brokers are able to negotiate on behalf of the tenant, getting the owner to agree to allow a dog or a smaller security deposit, for example.

And perhaps the biggest benefit? A lot of the pros post only a small number of their listings on general sites. It helps draw traffic to their broker sites, but they may not have time to post all the listings, nor may they want to. The Apartment People, for example, puts only 10% of its apartments on Craigslist.

"And that could take a week," Ortiz says, "so they're missing all the new listings. We get hundreds of listings a day."

7. Stop by the neighborhood laundry and coffee shops
Dozens of Web sites list apartments, but those with a national reach at this point predominantly list only large apartment complexes.

However, some sites may be gaining ground locally. ShowMeTheRent.com, for example, has thousands of listings for Michigan, where the site began. Search the Internet for "apartments" and your town name to find local listing companies.

Other landlords keep it local as they always have – posting at the church, coffee shop or chamber of commerce or in area newspapers or bulletins.

Dana Schultze, a merchandising manager at Gifts.com, walked the neighborhood where she wanted to move and found an old, family-run leasing business. "A lot of times they get first dibs, because obviously people in the neighborhood want to help their neighbors before some big fancy real-estate company," Schultze says.

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The agent got her a beautiful, large one-bedroom with period details on a tree-lined street in Brooklyn for $200 less than the advertised rent.

"There's no way that we would have found this place if it wasn't for this woman," Schultze says. Besides, the agent told her that she and others post listings on general online sites only for units they're not able to rent out otherwise.

8. Crash a meeting of property owners
Yes, this is a real strategy.

Adam Baker, a freelance writer who once owned a property management company in Indianapolis, said that prospective tenants used to show up at a monthly meeting of property owners and tell the room about themselves – the perfect tenants in search of a rental.

"There would be a swarm of people at a landlord meeting who would want a tenant who was brave enough to come in and pitch themselves like that," Baker says. "As a tenant, it's all about selling the positives of your situation."