When looking for an apartment to rent in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa or Calgary, there are serious benefits to renting an apartment directly from a property management company vs. going through a third-party rental and property finder. Doing so can help you feel safer, save time, and experience more consistency. Keep reading to learn more!
It’s safer
Renting an apartment directly from a property management company ensures you avoid scammers and unethical landlords who frequent third-party rental websites.
While property management companies do post their available apartment units on third-party websites, hopeful tenants must then take the time to verify who has listed the unit: was it a scammer or a landlord that does not follow local laws and best practices, or a reputable company that will ensure all proper safety and ethics guidelines are being followed? The process of verifying this can be stressful!
This is why so many tenants feel safer searching for their next apartment directly through the property management company’s website: they can rest assured that essential safety precautions and legal guidelines are followed.
For example, renting directly from a property management company can help ensure that
- You can get receipts for items like your damage deposit and monthly rental payments
- Regular building maintenance is done through approved channels
- The landlord has properly vetted other residents through reference checks
- You will not have to deal with a high turnover of other residents because of minimum one year lease periods, which means you can get to know your neighbours
- Previous unit damage has been recorded so you will not be scammed out of a damage deposit by a dishonest landlord
Simply searching for your next apartment on the property manager’s website means you don’t need to worry about safety and can focus on finding your perfect home.
You won’t waste time on stale listings
When browsing the internet for an apartment, many people come across attractive units from private listings on third-party websites.
Unfortunately, though, these units are often already rented! This can happen for a few reasons:
- Many third-party rental sites will allow a person to upload one listing which is then distributed across multiple websites. Then, if the unit is rented, the poster may forget to take the post down.
- Some third-party rental websites illegally scrape data from other websites and automatically re-share the post to their own website without the lister’s knowledge.
- Third-party sites will often continue to list the property well after it has been rented out, even if the property owner notices the error and asks for the listing to be taken down.
However, when you search for apartments using a property management company’s website, you can see which units are truly available, complete with a list of building amenities, suite features, and even reviews from current or former residents.
You can even join a waitlist to know when new rental listings in your desired city or neighbourhood become available in your budget.
This way, you save time searching online and can rest assured that what you see is what you get!
It provides consistency
Moving cities? Why not check if your apartment rental company has units open in your new city? For example, if you were moving from Vancouver to Toronto, you could check for open Hollyburn units simply by looking at our website! That way you get to experience the consistency of sticking with the same management company whose processes and culture you already know and appreciate.
Bonus tip: you can get to know the culture and management style
One of the many benefits of using a property management company’s website to look for your new apartment is that you can quickly and easily get to know their culture and property management style, and see whether or not the company excels as a property manager. You may be able to read a bio from your future building manager, read testimonials from current or past residents, and see any awards the company has won. For example, at Hollyburn we have been honoured to win awards for property management excellence several years in a row from the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA)!
We all want to feel safe and secure and have peace of mind while looking for an apartment to rent in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto or Calgary. Searching directly on the property management company’s website allows you to achieve this by helping you feel safe, save time, and experience consistency.
Ready to find your perfect apartment? Check out our available units or contact us today!