Any tips on finding properties?

We're having a little bit of trouble finding a permanent place to stay. We've registered with a couple of letting agents around town, most of which seemed to shrug and say "We'll keep a look out" when we've met with them---but we have yet to hear back from any on available properties. I've since started looking obsessively through the Rightmove listings. I've called about a dozen in the past couple of days, and most (if not all) are already rented out by the time they hit the online listings.

At the moment, the inventory around town seems to be more of the furnished (and more $$$) student type housing---like trying to squeeze 5 "bedrooms" out of a 2 bedroom terrace and that sort of thing.

We're only in our short-term let until Mid September and I'd rather not have to move into a hotel.

I feel like we're doing all the right things---searching Rightmove, registering, calling about listings, etc. But it's frustrating that there seems to be nothing available that suits our needs.  Is this a problem that is unique to a place like Norwich, or have others run into the same problems?

Just starting my search now and I'm getting discouraged.  I've made about 3 calls now that we are beginning our search for a rental.  Not one of the letting agents has even returned my call. 

Where I live, Newbury, seems to be flooded with tenants and a shortage of property.  My husband and I have been looking in the local paper hoping to get a rental through a private owner.  That would be my only suggestion as to finding another source of rental property. 

I am obsessed with my iphone app for right move and property search.  Did you sign up to get their emails when a property is available with your criteria?

Best of luck with your search. 

It ain't easy but I'm sure you'll find something.

I moved to a new flat earlier in the year and there seemed to be a shortage of good flats at that time as well (in London). Being registered with an agent wasn’t much help. Most had more tenant than properties. I still looked on findaproperty, rightmove and gumtree 2-3 times a day and called any that sounded promising. There were a couple of times where I called the agent within minutes of a new listing coming online and I was still too late

I found my current flat on findaproperty.com. The listing came up one morning with just the street and a rough description, but no pictures. I liked the houses on that street so I called and was able to get the first viewing. It was more than decent so I immediately put a deposit down. I think not having pictures may have put some people off.

So the one tip I can give you is know the area in which you want to live. Get a feel for the good streets and the not so good ones and be ready to pounce when you find something.

Don’t wait for an estate agent to call you and consider listings without pics.

It doesn't really work the same as the way you'd work with a realtor in the US. You don't sign up with an agent who then looks for properties for you, there may be a small degree of that, but honestly estate agents for rental properties don't need to chase around finding people properties.

The lettings market is so competitive that properties go on first viewing if they're anyway decent at all, the reason you get the same rubbish properties coming up is because anything new that's great is going to go immediately, I've been the first viewer on the last three flats I've taken and missed out on countless others by being the second or third person to see it.

The way to do it is to have lots of websites on refresh, findaproperty, rightmove, friday ad, gumtree, ring around to all the agents in the morning and ask if anything came on the market today.
Know your absolute max budget and area.  Have your money, references etc ready to go. Look for properties around your budget and just above, when you see something, ring immediately, if you can't see it that day you're probably going to lose out. Always remember you can make the landord or agent an offer, worth doing to get properties out of your price range for an acceptable price.

As soon as you see it, sign for it.

Thanks!

I know the system here is much, much different than I am used to with renting in the States. We made the mistake of not taking the first property we saw. DH didn't want to commit to the first thing we saw, and the next day it had already disappeared. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Right now I'm just trying to find properties that are available to view. Every one I've called about in the past couple of days are already let out, even those that show up on my daily Rightmove alerts.

How big of a radius would you consider to your town?

We're focusing on a very small area, to be honest, which is likely complicating our search. But have no car and we would like to live in the part of town that is relatively family-friend and has good transport to the university (for DH's job) and within walking distance to the city centre. This particular neighborhood has a handful of properties listed right now--most of which are student properties. So we'll keep plugging away

I just moved to London yesterday. I am having a similiar situation as you. I have found, like most of others agree, that you can't find a property online and expect it's available.
In fact, some of those properties have been rented out for weeks and it's still active on the website.
I suggest just phoning up all the letting agents who work in the area you are interested in and just tell them what you need. No need to set up an account with them-they will not get back to you timely and the properties they will send you are ones that most likely do not meet your criteria. 
Also, properties let within a few days or sooner. So, call these agencies everyday. When something matches what you want schedule a viewing right away and sign on it if you like it. Waiting to think about it will likely end in someone else getting it before you.
Hope this helps! Good luck on your search!

Finding properties is something I've done quite a lot of since moving here (I'm on my 4th permanent address in 3 years and that doesn't count living with friends for a couple of months) and man, finding a nice place, within my budget, was extremely difficult.
I second the obsession of it- searching and calling everyday and getting into viewings straight away- even if you think you want another place, put in your name as a backup if its at all what you think you may want.  I settled last time because I needed to get out of my friends house and it was an awful place and the letting agent was a cow.  I found my new flat on gumtree and I was actually fighting 4 other people for it.  But I won out- mostly because I could stump up the 1 months deposit immediately, cash in hand.  So make sure you have your deposit handy as well.  I LOVE my new flat, so I was lucky. 
Good luck, the letting game is not fun!!!     

We've just been through the process of finding a new place. I checked websites like gumtree and rightmove obsessively for quite some time and every time I found one I liked, I'd phone up and it was already off the market.

I registered with a number of agencies some were great, some were useless, but the good ones were really helpful. For example, I'd get daily phonecalls from one telling me when a new property would come on the market, texts from another and emails from another. Having them contact us directly about new properties before they go up on all the websites was a big advantage. In total, I had about 4 agencies stay in contact with me despite registering and making contact with about 10. Most have pretty terrible customer service but if you stay resolute and just contact as many as you can, you'll get a few good ones sooner or later.

You might want to cast your net a little bit wider, if you're looking where I think you're looking it isn't too much of a surprise that all that you are getting is student type properties. Unfortunately they are the bulk of the rentals. Mostly, the better places are for sale and/or overpriced. Have you looked at areas serviced by the 25 or 35 buses? It might not be ideal, but you might find something a bit more to your liking. It might be a bit of a longer walk to one place or the other, but except for a month or two out of the year the walk isn't too bad.

Good luck!!!

another suggestion is to have your husband check bulletin boards at the university, or even with their student housing department. yes, the will probably have a lot of student rentals, but there are also probably a lot of foreign students and researchers / employees that have families. Also, widen your search. We had been looking for something around where we were and were having no luck (again, student rentals) we've ended up on the edge of town that only 2 buses service and we love it.  We actually found our place because a co-worker posted it on our bulletin board as a private rental.

A couple of friends have been going through relationship splits and they've have the exact same issues with finding rentals. It's kinda refreshing that the british hate the system too lol

Good luck!

We revisited a property agency today and got a completely different reception this time around. They weren't as quick to brush us off, took our information and arranged for us to view 2 different properties this afternoon (neither of which were "right" for us) We'll be viewing a 3rd tomorrow. It's a start!

DH has his heart set on being between 25/35 buses, and I did suggest to him to check the boards at the University, too. I would think somewhere there has to be some non-student university folk that are looking to offload a property. So maybe that'll be a lead.

I'd love to broaden our search area, but without a car and a young son, we're a bit restricted. I want to choose wisely for school options, too, so that's why I'm being choosy with the area we're searching in.  I definitely don't want to have to move again in a year's time (we've moved 3 times in the past 2 years) when it time to start thinking about applying for places in Reception.

Thanks again for all the great tips and suggestions! Here I thought the "tough" part about our move would have been on the other end before we left the States... Ha 

We're in the "still looking, but hopeful," category  . In my web searches, I came across this site:

http://maps.police.uk/view/             (type in the county name after view/)

It was astonishing to see how different the crime rate is between towns and areas.  I think its worth checking if you're trying to decide between different locations.

 

We finally saw a house that 1.) was still available and 2.) is nice, so we've put in our applications and if all goes well, we shall be moving in on the 25th of September. Phhhewe!