I really don’t know if it’s much better in other areas, but one thing the Kansas City area real estate agents have always struggled with is finding rental properties for customers.
You know how it goes…a customer calls and they’re relocating to the area, but they’d like to get to know the area before they commit to purchasing a home. Or…you have customers going through a divorce and a spouse needing a rental. Or…you have the couple that would like to move out while their home is on the market to make it easier to show and sell. There’s 100 scenarios for needing rentals and we get the calls non-stop.

The problem? Rental properties are not listed on our MLS. Nor are they all in any one place…or so I thought.

So, I was tearing my hair out the other day explaining to a gentleman from out of town how our rental market works. The property owner or manager puts a handwritten “For Rent” sign in the yard and then posts it to some website like Craig’s List, the classifieds or their personal rental site. And, for the most part, real estate agents don’t get paid anything when they bring a renter to a property. So, this poor guy had called around and was terribly frustrated at the response he was getting. Doesn’t anyone want to rent him a property? So, yours truly, did her good deed for the day and explained why all the agents he had encountered seemed ‘uncaring’ about his rental needs.

I told him I would happily try and search for places and ask around to see what I could find for him.

That’s when I found it….

OODLE!!
OMG, this has changed my whole outlook on rentals. Oodle is a website that pulls information from other websites to compile the information in one place.

And now, I’m putting my hair back into place and sharing this great tip with my friends.

P.S. Please don’t brag if you’re in one of those awesome markets that embraces rental property. I just can’t take it! 🙂