Advertisements can be placed by property owners, real estate agents or by vacating tenants looking for someone to take over their lease before the notice period expires. You can find these offers in the Classifieds Section under Apartments for Rent.
Another possibility is to look at the specialized local publications that contain housing ads, such as For Rent magazine, the Apartment Guide or the Rental Guide Magazine.
In big cities and university towns, there are regularly published free papers which contain classifieds for accommodation (as well as things for sale, which can be useful if you need to buy things when you move in). Rental guides are also available in major supermarkets, chambers of commerce and in banks.
Note that in areas and times of high demand you should buy the newspaper as soon as it goes on sale and start making phone calls immediately. Attractive apartments are quickly rented, and if you call a day later the best properties are often gone. In many cities the property section of Sunday newspapers can already be bought on Saturday afternoon (the New York Sunday Times is one example), so plan accordingly and get ahead of the competition.
There are also numerous websites which offer apartment classifieds, such as www.forrentmag.com , www.homes.com , www.rental-guide.com and www.aptforrent.com .
We highly recommend you to get acquainted with the typical vocabulary and abbreviations used in property classifieds by checking out our glossary.
Placing your own ad
You may also place your own ad in a paper, stating that you are looking for a place to rent, although this can be a waste of time and money during periods of high demand. However, if you’re looking for a shared flat, it makes sense to do this as people look for flatmates that fit the ‘profile’ of the other people living in the apartment. You can post a free ad in the Just Landed classifieds, as these are searched by people looking for housemates from abroad.