Check out our latest post on the Calgary rentals market!

When you’re looking for a new place to live, it can be very nerve-wracking – whether you’re racing the clock to find a new place before your lease runs out or you’re in need of a new place for your growing family. One of the first places that tech-savvy people check is the internet, of course, but navigating through the chaos of the online rental market can be incredibly time-consuming and exhausting, so we’re going to go through a few of the best websites that showcase rentals, and talk about the pros and cons of each.

Number one in the market has to be Craigslist. It is something of a mystery how such a simple website became such a titan of classified ads, but it’s hard to argue with the blunt simplicity it offers. Free rental ads and a huge userbase make it your number one place to check, and there is a section of the site specifically for Calgary. When I was searching for my last rental, I kept 5 tabs open for a month, each displaying a different search term in the craigslist rentals section. Then I’d simply click ‘search’ a few times a day to get the most up to date listings possible – because there is such a huge userbase, places get rented out quickly! But there is a dark side to being popular as well – scammers are often attracted to Craigslist because of the number of desperate people involved. There are a few key things to keep in mind when avoiding scammers, and you’ll be able to have a safe and productive renting experience. Most importantly, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If the place you’re looking at is far cheaper than similarly-equipped homes, that’s the first red flag. Secondly, if the landlord claims they are out of the country and need to ship you the keys via courier, this is DEFINITELY a red flag. While I was applying, I went through many great listings, that wound up being from someone pretending to be an Anglican bishop in Zambia, who had a “rental application form” included within the email. Even if they don’t successfully scam you with the rental, they are still collecting information that could be later used for identity theft. Report these people to craigslist as scammers, and help out the community. If you’re careful, Craigslists is a great tool – just be on your guard.

Second most popular is ViewIt – although I really am at a loss to explain why. I guess it’s because they are one of the few rental sites that has an offline component – as a landlord listing a property, you can get a sign placed outside the property, which has great sticky power. While the site covers rentals Canada-wide, the website is a nightmare to use, and seems to have been designed in the mid-1990s and never updated. Far too few listings appear, and the site is slow to access its database and display the listings you’ve searched for. Additionally, you’re unable to search by keywords, which is of prime importance for those of us with a lot of rental experience. ViewIt is really best for finding a place run by larger landlord companies who own high-rise apartment buildings (or a string of them). If you’re looking for a place for rent by the owner, then be sure to check out Craigslist, but you can occasionally get lucky with ViewIt.

The other decent thing about ViewIt is that the listings must be approved, so there is a greatly reduced risk of being scammed. Don’t let your guard down completely, but it’s not as much of a Wild West as Craigslist has become.

Finally, the other big player in the Calgary rental market is RentSpot. This site is Canada-wide, but also features a ‘zoomed in’ section on Calgary specifically. It has a decent number of listings and search filters, but again it doesn’t let you narrow down your selections the way Craigslist does using a keyword search. Savvy Google users will know about the site: operator, but if the company can’t bother to design a decent user experience, they don’t get my business. Filters were a good option, but not quite enough. One good thing about RentSpot is that it allows you to build up a ‘favourites’ list that can be very useful when you’re not sure what places you want to investigate further.

So there you have it – Craigslist is the clear winner, with Rentspot coming in a distant second. Don’t bother with ViewIt unless you’ve run out of other options – remember, there’s always the Calgary Sun!

So you’ve decided to move to Calgary! Whether you’re coming from the US or elsewhere in Canada, be prepared for a unique combination of Wild West ranching history and high-tech innovation. Calgary is one of the fastest growing cities in North America, and with good reason – Alberta charges no provincial sales tax, has abundant oil reserves in the form of the Tar Sands, and the city itself is surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscape on the continent in the form of the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps most importantly, the people are friendly and the jobs are plentiful!

When you’re looking for a house rental in Calgary, there are a few crucial things to keep in mind – the most important being that you find a house rental in a nice neighbourhood. It can be hard to choose a place to rent remotely, but we’ve got the scoop on the hottest neighbourhoods. Tuscany and Rosedale are great neighbourhoods in the North West quarter of the city, and have some great views of the surrounding mountains, but the crème de la crème is found in the South Western quarter of the city. Avoid renting a place in the North East, as this is where the airport is located, and is a fairly industrialized sector of the city. This does, of course, lend itself to cheaper rent, however.

In terms of the average pricing for Calgary house rentals, as of this writing (February 2012), a decent-sized house in a nice neighbourhood could be rented for approximately $2000 CAD per month, although many large homes are available for less (and some for more, of course). Calgary is currently in a bit of a bubble phase in its real estate market due to the recent influx of new money and development opportunities, but rental pricing is generally still comparable to any mid-sized city in the United States. Check popular websites like Craigslist and RentFaster to get a sense of the current market before you dive right in and join us in one of the sunniest places in Canada! We’ve got jobs aplenty, and our standard of living is among the highest in the country!

Calgary is a great spot to live; it’s loaded with lots of enjoyable things to do.

There are lots of options for seeking an apartment or other rental properties in Calgary. The most usual techniques are looking through the classified ads in the local newspaper, on-line through classified listings and going for walks through the area to check out all the “For Rent” signage.

Many organisations in these days promote on the outside of the home, linking it to a webpage where you can see pictures of the spot plus information on the services of the house – if it’s a condo or kitchen appliances are provided, etc. I have found that to be very valuable whenever I search for homes to rent, due to the fact I normally choose as many as I am able to. This offers me a large amount of selections, because 40% of the places which look really good on paper don’t really look great close up. A further 40% of those I selected were inside neighbourhood but I was not so certain of, because I didn’t love the house or it really was not my style of rental, but there is a possibility of me truly loving some areas in that 40%. So my point is: Options, options, options!

A different factor in searching for rental residences is you must check out the place by yourself, as mentioned the spot might look fantastic on paper, but when you investigate it you may observe little information the owner neglected to mention in his/her advertising. If you are planning to see a lot of the landlord, you ought to be friends with them also, but in some cases men and women are complicated. When the place has a fantastic fee and you love it, you might be able to get over the property manager’s tough temperament. And lastly: compare costs. Many places might provide you with the equivalent amount of size at unbelievable price disparity. Check the fine print and question why their charges are much higher, perhaps you get cable TV and also other amenities with that higher price.

Hi, I’m John Smith!
I live in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
I’ve been involved since January 14th, 2012!
I could write more about myself here if I wanted, to trick people into thinking I’m not a Disney character! (Just kidding – people always make that joke!)

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