By Sarah CappuzzelloLantern Staff Reporter
Setting out on an online search for a new apartment seemed easy enough; Every person knows whether he or she wants a two bedroom or 3, 1 bathroom or 2, air conditioning, gas heat, appliances. However, it isn’t as easy as it seemed.
There are two major outlets for online apartment hunting: Apartment rental sites and online newspaper classifieds. Neither option was perfect and both had some major flaws.
First, there were the online apartment search sites. Almost all apartment books have websites as well as their printed materials. Sites such as www.apartmentguide.com , www.apartments.com , and forrent.com provide not only a list of amenities and price ranges, but floorplans and photos as well.
These all appear to be great ways to evaluate apartment complexes. A renter has the ability to check for all the little details that they want for their new home down to the amount of square feet in each floor plan.
The renter is unable to check the availability of a complex or the small detailed differences among each apartment. And along with these sites, renters must keep in mind that you are only able to look through complexes, not individual apartment buildings owned by management companies.
This makes looking for an apartment in areas such as Grandview, Upper Arlington and Victorian Village very difficult for the mere reason that the majority of apartments in these area aren’t complexes.
Surprised by many of the listed price ranges for some exclusive prices, checking with the complexes themselves for actual prices was the next logical step. Much to the dismay of many online searchers, the prices listed were completely different.
This disappointment led to looking for another way to find apartments online: The newspaper classifieds. Various city and suburban papers now list their classifieds online, some even provide renters with a search method to narrow down the listings.
The Columbus Dispatch for example allows the searcher to eliminate by area’s of the city, price ranges, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Once a search has been narrowed, all the listings for the previous two weeks are shown and can be printed.
So far, so good, right? Not exactly.
The listings can be small, short and limited. Usually the classified sites only list the apartments being rented out by individual managers or apartment owners. This leads to several questions for the renter: What is the apartment really like on the inside?, what is the area like around the apartment?, are maintenance requests going to be answered promptly? And who is the manger or apartment owner?
Only the phone numbers listed in the ads can answer those questions and even then some of the answers received are elusive and general. All this created was doubt and hesitation in renting from these places.
Overall, both provide options for renting apartments whether a renter is looking for a complex or an individual manager. But, keep in mind: What is listed isn’t always what is true.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and demand answers; It’s the only way to find a great apartment.
