My partner and I have been lucky these past couple years to have family members offering us places to live. But now we're trying to get out of the suburbs and move to the city so we have to find our own place to live. I've found places to live before but that was way before COVID and way before I had pets and I really don't want to get completely fucked by a landlord.

Are there any tips for finding a place to live, especially for people with pets? Any good websites/should we just use craiglist/does craiglist suck? What's the biggest percentage of our combined paychecks that should go to rent? What should we do? Please help lol.

We both make a couple dollars more than our local minimum wage but we're still working class if that helps. We'd love to rent a house but I doubt we could afford it

  • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Facebook marketplace is probably used more then craigslist anymore. ideally only 25% of your paycheck goes to rent, at max 33% i guess? if youre from the area ask people you know for building recommendations. might even be able to ask a local FB group or reddit page for some more specific tips. or even god forbid nextdoor(i know its terrible but these shit sites still have some uses)

      • captcha [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah that's the like "good for you range" that people advise. You're looking at up to 50% in reality. Landlords won't rent to you past that.

    • Thylacine [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      we don't really use Facebook 😔 but at most a maximum of a third of our paychecks to rent is helpful so thank you. and I guess we could ask coworkers and friends who live there for tips 🤔

        • Thylacine [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          yeah that's definitely what I'm afraid of, especially since we have pets :/

          • CanYouFeelItMrKrabs [any, he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            in my area at least they add $50 a month for a pet (and maybe a higher deposit). But it definitely limits the number of options you've got.

          • StewartCopelandsDad [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            also it really depends what kind of pet. lots of places won't rent to you if you have a dog, especially if it's large. landlords care less about cats. if you have a fish or something in a tank/terrarium literally don't even tell them about it they won't care.

      • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        if you dont use FB much that makes it even easier to make an account just to find an apartment and then delete it. Youre definitely missing out on listings if you dont use FB marketplace, and it's mostly because i dont think craigslist has an app for easy posting. there are some listings on Nextdoor too.

        • Thylacine [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          maybe we'll check it out then 🤔 I guess I was just wondering if it's better to find some random landlord on the Internet vs some renting company one with an actual website and it seems like you're saying the smaller ones can be good

            • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Watch out for scams on there. Just don't let your money leave your hands until they show you inside and a rental agreement is signed.

          • Cummunism [they/them, he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            its a crapshoot without asking current or previous tenants. ive had apartments in large-ish buildings that were run well and had no issues, and then another time there was roaches everywhere. With a large building you know you can probably live there for a while no matter the prices, smaller landlord could sell the building whenever.