Finding a home to rent?

So, I'm obsessed with looking at postings on Rightmove.co.uk right now as we get closer to our move.  Can anyone tell me whether they've actually found accomodation through that site?  (After viewing obviously)

Also, do people in the UK mainly use the internet for posting rental information or are there still a lot of listings that are local (like with an estate agents office) that I wouldn't be able to find online?

Thanks!

We found our flat through Rightmove.  I responded to an ad I saw there and my message got forwarded to the letting agency who then contacted me.  It worked well because it is quite a small agency that I hadn't heard of before and the only one that was listing the flat, so without Rightmove I wouldn't have found the agency and by extension the flat.   It does have a webpage though, I think most letting agencies do.  If you're looking for a private rental, you might try looking at newspapers in the area you're considering, they usually have classifieds online. 

Great! Thanks Historyenne... I'm really driving myself nuts looking at lovely properties come and go on rightmove - but I've noticed that a lot of them link back to estate agent sites - so I wondered whether rightmove really reflects what is currently available.

I can't wait to be able to cactually start making contact with agents about locations and checking them out. 

I spend a great deal of time looking at the google earth images as well - so cool to be able to see what is around the area of the place that's offered.

Thanks for posting that question. This is something I have been wondering about, as well. I was wondering how accurately the listings demonstrated the inventory of properties available in a certain area. I know in other places I've lived, by the time the properties are even posted to a website they're LONG gone.

Most of the agents in our area (Derbyshire) use the property listing with FindAProperty.com which lists properties for sale and rent throughout the entire UK.

We also found our house on findaproperty.com.  I found from doing a general search on google (3 bedroom houses to let in Manchester) that the majority of the houses available were listed on several (if not all the major) websites by the letting agencies.  For our area, I've not found local papers or general postings to have any additional house listings.  Buying a home is a different story, but for letting I've found that a lot of the letting agencies are up to an hour away so internet is probably just a lot easier for them to manage.

Findaproperty is good, but just FYI, our flat was NOT listed there, but it was on Rightmove, so it's worthwhile checking both. 

Also FYI, one of the flats I had my eye on for a while on findaproperty, when I happened to be walking by the agency that was listing it, it was displayed in their window as well so I'm sure it was still available.  I think findaproperty is pretty good about taking things off their site as soon as they become unavailable.  And our flat was off the letting agent's website as soon as our deposit cleared. 

My Inbox is full of notifications from both rightmove and findaproperty, I have both the apps on my Iphone, and also I use Nestoria.  We are still in the looking process and I am more then obsessed with the house, flat or what ever we find to live in.  I keep emailing the properties to my DW who actually scolded me a little for the amount of houses I keep sending.  I scour the Saturday and Sunday E-editions for the local papers too, just in case there is a house that isn't on the websites.

When DH & I considered finding a new place we came across this site as well and there seems to be quite a few private lettings on there: http://www.fish4.co.uk/homes/lettings.