the blog

Everyone has used Craigslist, Rent.com, and other marginal websites to find a rental. I rarely come across spectacular rental sites, but here my list of useful websites that most people never heard of.

1) www.mapskrieg.com

Founded by a good friend and ex-programmer, MapsKrieg is a Craigslist and Google Maps mashup. Useful for people who want to browse Craigslist by location. And if you are interested, check out www.housingmaps.com, www.byownerport.com, www.cribq.com, and the dozen other copycats.

2) www.backpage.com

Okay, I’ll admit that millions of people know about this website. But this Craigslist knock-off provides a small advantage through partnerships with local newspapers. Though Craigslist offers more listings, you can find some deals on Backpage and offers the same simplicity and speed.

3) http://mullinslab2.ucsf.edu/SFrentstats/

This website is tracks history from Craigsist and provides heat maps, rent stats, listing density, and other useful information. This website is only in San Francisco, but I have seen other ones for other cities. It is a fairly simple website, but definitely useful for researching purposes. For homes sales, http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/ has a pretty good mapping resource.

4) www.rentometer.com

Not the greatest or most intuitive website, but basically tracks rental rates from users. Simple premise, you enter your rent and see what other people pay. Though MLS data is far more useful, I enjoy their play on the network effect.

5) www.roomster.net

I may take this off of the list because of the lengthly sign-up process, but they have a good amount of roommate listings. Obviously Craiglist and Roommates are the best, but Roomster offers some nice options. Rent.com has a roommate section, www.roomclicks.com is okay, and www.sublet.com can have the occasional suitable listing. Does anyone know of a great roommate website?

If anyone has a recommendation for a website that should be on this list, let me know. I still need to find a great legal resource for tenants.