Renting a house - different routes - advice needed

[bizzylizzy]

Hi everyone - can you help?

We are currently renting in Somerset. The two of us (and our dog) are hoping to move to the Stratford upon Avon/Warwickshire area. We wrote to all the agents, keep an eye on their websites, but invariably miss out on the decent properties because we are not on the doorstep. Because of demand for rental, sadly agents don't bother picking the phone up. They don't need to.

We've put ads in the local paper and still haven't had any luck. Our dog, she's 13. She sleeps most of the time and is a sweet, well behaved family member. In fact better behaved than most people's children.

So all we want is to find a property that's in a quiet friendly area that will accept our much loved best friend. You'd think it would be easy wouldn't you.

Do any of you have any clever ideas of how we can find a place by a method not covered? We wondered about renting a property where the owners may be going abroad for a couple of years, but of course how does one go about finding one? But I suppose most people leaving the country temporarily might want to rent their houses as furnished.

It's a frustrating problem. So any bright ideas would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you.

[Cakeboy]

Ring some agents and make some appointments to view properties, then drive up there and see them. If you like them, express an interest there and then.

I refuse to believe that agents won't answer the phone to you or are you saying they won't ring you with details of properties that come onto their books?

Take a couple of days off work and go up there and view properties, although good luck finding someone that will rent to you with a dog. When we rented a place before we bought the one we're in now, there was only 2 properties out of about 50 that would take pets and one of them stated the dog had to be kept outside whenever it was left alone.

The only thing I can suggest is to ring round the agents once a week - do one a day or something and keep badgering them.

Good luck

[bizzylizzy]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. To be honest that's pretty much what we've been doing. I was just wondering if anyone had any other ideas than going down the traditional route. There must be people out there who are going abroad for a few years who want to rent their property out, but don't want to go through an agent, but how do you find them? We were thinking of putting a classified ad in The Lady or even one of the dog magazines. But it begins to get expensive and it also eats up more and more time. Ahh well, we shall press on. Thanks for your help anyway.

[velvet lady]

why should they ring u?!!! make an effort and stop waiting for it to happen. they use lists to ring people, and the one with motivated renters is called, not the "i live miles away with a stinky old dog and cannot be bothered to drive to the agents and make appts list" as this does not generate their income.

its like looking at houses to buy. use your brain and not your ar**se

[bizzylizzy]

Gosh, you're a charmer aren't you.

First of all. You might care to read my original posting. As a matter of fact, we've made the four hour round trip on quite a few occasions. We've been let down by agents on at least 50% of the properties. We've been completely pro active and phoned, emailed and trawled around the agents. We are self employed - add that to the petrol and time wasted and it's been a frustrating experience.

I simply was enquiring as to alternate and less obvious methods of finding rental properties.

As for our dog - we have a duty of care for her - even you must have heard of 'a sense of responsibility'. She's a damn sight cleaner and more intelligent than many people I can assure you.

So many thanks for your armchair advice... and your nicely honed turn of phrase. Nice to know that there are people out there who contribute to the answerbank in such a positive way.

[cruella]

There does appear to be a problem for you both finding accomodation if you have already advertised in the local papers.
Only other thing I can think of, is posting an advertisement in local shops in the area where you want to stay. Lots of shops accept postcards which they display in their shop or window.
Other than that, just ring the estate agents every day, first thing in the morning.
I do hope that you both and your dog find something soon.

[bizzylizzy]

Thank you Cruella. Much appreciated. Yes I believe my hubby intends doing exactly as you suggest this week. We're lucky, we don't have to move straightaway and are flexible on dates. But I do feel sympathy for fellow dog owners. It really is very difficult to find a nice rental that will accept a 'best friend'. Thanks again for showing that for every opinionated idiot out there, there are decent people who respond to answerbank questions.

[cruella]

Good Luck to you both anyway.
By the way, Hubby and I have a Westie and no way would we get rid of her if ever we were thinking of moving. We move, she moves with us. xx

[Twenty20]

As a landlord I wouldnt look in the Wanted section of the local paper for potential tenants so you might be wasting time and money. We advertise our properties on the web on sites such as houseladder.co.uk and torent.co.uk. Have you looked on these?

Renting with a dog is going to be much more difficult. We wouldnt exclude a dog owner but we may possibly ask for a larger deposit to cover any damage and you could try offering this.