What is the best way to find a house to rent in Raleigh? Also I know that some places won't rent houses to college students, so how do we know who will and won't?

1/29/2008 4:57:37 PM

DO NOT RENT FROM THE DENNINGS

(CHARLES DENNING AND PARENTS)

1/29/2008 4:58:20 PM

go to craigslist, thats the best way to find houses for rent, and if they dont rent to college students it violates the fair and equal housing act

you can't pick and choose who to rent to, thats discrimination that would be like saying "sorry we don't rent to black people."

1/29/2008 5:27:30 PM

drive around and look for 'for rent' signs in yards

1/29/2008 5:30:52 PM

^^^lol, I rented from the Denning's. Where did you live?

1/29/2008 7:50:35 PM

Quote :

"if they dont rent to college students it violates the fair and equal housing act "

I'm fairly certain they can discriminate based on age, which has nearly the same effect.

1/29/2008 10:06:41 PM

Quote :

"DO NOT RENT FROM THE DENNINGS (CHARLES DENNING AND PARENTS)"

Or if you must, take detailed pictures of everything and have them sign off on them. And I do mean everything...like, the screws that hold your oven door on.

I enjoyed the house and really liked the location (Vanderbilt and Gardner), but they WILL try to rip you off on the deposit. I even managed to like Mr. Denning a little, but they are still slumlords.

1/29/2008 10:13:44 PM

Quote :

"and if they dont rent to college students it violates the fair and equal housing act"

wasnt raleigh (a couple years back) passing an ordinance that no more than 2 people could live in a home that werent blood relatives or whatever

in other words, making the friends rooming together thing 'illegal' and killing all the 'college homes' (3-4 bedroom houses around brent road and campus)

same people that brought you the NPO, i think. if that ever passed, that would be their way of legally violating the act. until someone actually cared enough to try to challenge the legality of it

and from the 8 years or so that i spent in raleigh, i met maybe 10 people who were down to stand up to authority (except on brent road party night). so good luck with that.

1/29/2008 10:22:08 PM

do these dennings own a lot of houses in the vanderbilt ave. area? i was at a party at some duplex there with the kegs in the basement and this dude in his 40s comes in with this small dog in his arms with a cone-collar on tellin everyone to get the fuck out and goes to the keg and rips the tap off. i was standing there in disbelief, somthing i never would have expected to see in life.

1/29/2008 10:30:56 PM

hahahah that sounds exactly like him, except he NEVER stopped any of our parties.

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 10:34 PM. Reason : don't forget about his shittastic cars that were filled with trash]

1/29/2008 10:32:22 PM

Just check rental agencies' web sites, drive around looking for signs in neighborhoods you like, the usual. Don't assume they won't rent to you because of age; that's probably the exception rather than the rule. We rented a 3/4 br place (depending on configuration) from Wilson Property Mgt. and had a generally good experience.

1/29/2008 10:36:36 PM

^^^ sounds more like my neighbor when I lived on Vandy

1/29/2008 10:37:32 PM

Quote :

""if they dont rent to college students it violates the fair and equal housing act " I'm fairly certain they can discriminate based on age, which has nearly the same effect."

This is ass backward, they can discriminate on student status, not age. Age is the protected class. It is kind of a fine line to walk though since as you said it has the same effect and a fair housing complaint can be brought against you VERY easily.

1/30/2008 2:45:59 AM

Don't rent anything from the Corner House Inc. (landlord's name is Alex, I forget the last name) They are really nice people to your face, but won't fix anything in a timely manner and generally ignore your requests.

My roomate and I rented an apt. on the corner of Stafford and Chamberlain and went withtout hot water from the beginning of December through the middle of January. Our shower happened to have a small window in it to let in all kinds of cold... When he finally came to fix it - only after I threatened legal action in writing - we only had scalding hot water with no adjustment. I had to learn how to fix it myself so we didn't cook ourselves. It's a wonder we didn't get sick washing dishes in lukewarm water.

He also didn't follow through on promises he made when we first moved in to clean common areas and fix small items. That wasn't such a big deal, but making promises you don't keep isn't good business practice.

[/words]

1/30/2008 7:29:56 AM

if you can find a house from sam belleza, i highly recommend taking it. He was the best landlord I've ever had. Anytime we had a maintenance problem, he would be there within an hour to fix it. If for some reason he couldnt make it that soon he would at least come the same day. He was very understanding about everything. He's a younger guy so doesnt mind parties and such as long as they neighbors are cool. He came over and drank some beers with us on occasion as well. He never tried to screw you on money (deposits or anything). He doesnt have too many houses around raleigh but if you can find one, I'd take it

1/30/2008 10:15:39 AM

Hey, I'm moving on Feb 20th so my duplex townhome is up for grabs beginning March 1st. The landlord is awesome and never raised rent in the 4 years we were there.

On top of that, it's walkable distance to campus, quite large (1200 sq feet), 2BR, 2BA, big kitchen, 2 floor townhome. The price is unbeatable - 750$ a month, and that includes ability to have pets.

It is on Sheperd Ave near the Wilmot apts. (Across st. from Readers Corner) so you can access college mart, cup o joe, pantana's, NCSU, and whatever on foot no problem.

email me at kainen@gmail.com if you are interested and I can give you the landlords number. It really is a no brainer and excellent house and location for the $.

[Edited on January 30, 2008 at 11:17 AM. Reason : 234]

1/30/2008 11:14:53 AM

i would go with craigslist as other people have recommended. its the easiest way to find most house listings in the area.

i would also recommend AGAINST renting from Barker Realty. They are deposit scammers fo sho (among a few other issues)

1/30/2008 12:48:13 PM

Quote :

"wasnt raleigh (a couple years back) passing an ordinance that no more than 2 people could live in a home that werent blood relatives or whatever"

I don't think that ordinance was passed. There was a pretty big showing at the city council meetings when that was going on.

1/30/2008 12:55:28 PM

I would also not recommend renting from Metro Property Mgmt. Nice to your face but it take forever to get anything done and they will try and hook you on the deposit.

1/30/2008 2:08:58 PM

I got my deposit back from the Dennings, but this was after they claimed I didn't pay a month's worth of rent, brought a copy of the check from the bank, and threatened to take action against them for some of their nonsense that I over looked (in mine and my gf's place).

1/30/2008 2:14:37 PM

Quote :

"i would also recommend AGAINST renting from Barker Realty. They are deposit scammers fo sho (among a few other issues)"

Barker had some pros and cons that made them kind of even out to me. It was funny when we tried to get our deposit back when they listed damage to a door that didn't exist and charged us for leaving the blinds in the living room that came with the house.

1/30/2008 3:15:48 PM

Quote :

"i would also recommend AGAINST renting from Barker Realty. They are deposit scammers fo sho (among a few other issues)"

$6 each for lightbulbs that were out?! and they also tried to charge me to fix blinds that i had put work orders in for repairs 2-3 months before we moved out. they never fixed them and tried to charge us when we moved out.

1/31/2008 7:25:06 AM

It's actually really standard practice to charge an arm and a leg for lightbulbs, blinds, and other low-cost items when they're assessing how much to take out of your deposit. When moving out of any rental property, it's a REALLY good idea to go around, check every lightbulb, and replace any that are out. I've replaced the blinds upon moving out of the last couple places I've lived because to me it seemed easer to go to home depot and spend the $4-$8 per set for inexpensive blinds rather than going to the trouble to clean/wash the ones that were up there. (And if you look at your lease/deposit form, usually they charge you a ridiculous amount for cleaning blinds....)

1/31/2008 9:00:23 AM

i don't feel like i should have to replace blinds, or pay to have them replace blinds when in my lease it states that all things that came with the appartment were included in the maintenance agreement. i filed work orders, kept copies, and they still tried to charge me. of course they dropped that when i showed them i had requested that prior to inspection.

i see your point though, and i think it's valid (so i'm not arguing with you); i just think it's shitty on their part.

1/31/2008 10:10:40 AM

^^^ & ^^^^... Yea, Barker was insane with their itemized deductions from our deposit. Granted, our place wasn't spotless, but the laundry list of stuff they "fixed/repaired" was hilarious. I spent a couple hours cleaning my bathroom & scrubbing my shower, it was SPOTLESS. And they do some fancy/expensive cleaning on it. I should find the list of shit they charged us for, it was ridiculous. They claimed it was legit since they run their own cleaning company and can claim the expenses were as much as they want.

anyway, just know what you're getting yourself into if you go with them

[Edited on January 31, 2008 at 10:18 AM. Reason : arrow adj]

1/31/2008 10:15:07 AM

I found the house we rent by googling "houses for rent in Raleigh" A lot of renters are putting their houses up online and i found that was the easiest way to find one.
We have been renting from clark properties for the last 2 years and they have been very nice to us and very prompt with email replies and work orders.
This is where we found our ad for the house we rent now: http://www.relocationhelpdesk.com/rentals2.shtml

good luck

1/31/2008 12:12:16 PM

the max person in a house ordinance did not pass

1/31/2008 12:19:21 PM

http://www.rhynerentals.com/

treated me pretty well.

1/31/2008 1:15:17 PM