Most renters and home buyers today start their search for apartment rentals, condos for rent or sale, and homes for rent or sale, by utilizing some digital medium or another. Whether it’s the web, social media, or any other digital platform.
In fact, almost ALL renters and home buyers these days start their search online.
As Canada’s #1 online Apartment Finder, our team here at RentSeeker.ca put together a list of the most common utilized search tools, with some great tips and ideas to help provide renters (and home buyers) find their next apartment, condo, or home as effortless as possible.
When starting the search process for a place to move, most people want to know quite a bit about about the property, the neighborhood, and even the property management company which owns and / or manages the property.
There is other information which is crucial for most people as well. For example, many people want to know where the closest coffee shops are, and depending on whether you’re a student searching for student rental housing, or a family making a move, you might want to know more about the proximity to public transportation, or how close the place you’re considering moving is to your college or university.
Thankfully today, the internet has made this process much easier than it ever has been!
Here are some great tips and ideas for utilizing the web, social media, and other great websites to help find all the information you need to make your move. And as the saying goes… “information is power” – so the more information you have access to, the better decision you’re most likely to make.
- The Web
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with Google and / or Bing 🙂
Most people today are at least somewhat web-savvy, so let’s start with the basics:
By using Google or Bing, you can search for a number for important pieces of information to get started with you apartment search. Whether you want to find an apartment finder like RentSeeker.ca for a large database of apartments for rent across the country, or whether you want to search an actual property address (if you already have a good idea where you want to move and just want to know more about the property and the neighborhood), by using the basic search engines, you can find out an incredible amount of information about the property and neighborhood, and many other interesting tidbits of information you might want to find out more about.
- Social Media
Although most Gen Y’ers, or Millennials are very familiar with Social Media.
But it is not as familiar to as many as are the search engines.
Many Landlords and Property Management Companies, Condo Developers and Home Builders today have a presence on Social Media.
By using the search engines once again, you can simply “google” the company name and “twitter” or the company name and “facebook” and you should be able to quickly locate their social media profiles. By reviewing a company’s social media profile, you can gather some pretty great insight into the type of landlord you’ll be either renting or buying from. How they respond, engage and communicate, can really tell you a lot.
In fact, social media profiles are being used in the work-force / job market in the same way. Here is an article from Forbes showing just how.
You can follow @RentSeeker on Twitter and Facebook to learn more social media marketing and contact us as well.
- Video Marketing
Many Landlords and Property Management Companies, Condo Developers and Home Builders have done a great job using videos to showcase their company, properties, neighbourhoods, and area amenities.
Videos are a great marketing tool for the Landlords and Property Managers. And they are also a great tool for the prospective buyer and / or renter. So a real win-win marketing tool for both.
You can find out a plethora of information by watching property and apartment videos and virtual tours on the web. And they are generally easy to find using the search engines, especially when they are hosted on YouTube which usually ranks very well.
So if you’re getting ready to move and feel a bit stressed…
