At the moment, many people relocating to Silicon Valley are reporting that it’s harder to rent a home than to buy one. What’s the reason for that?
Two things are happening that create pressure:
- There are a lot of companies hiring, and many high tech people, especially, are moving to Silicon Valley
- People who have lost homes in foreclosure, or who had to do a short sale to avoid it, are not able to buy for at least a few years. They may double up with family or friends for awhile but eventually do rent.
With demand increasing like crazy, rents are increasing like crazy too. It’s the old tale of supply and demand: more demand than supply exists in the rental housing market today.
Just watch out for the scams! If a price sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I wrote about this not too long ago, please have a look:
Finding a place to rent – how do people locate one in Santa Clara County? Where can you find properties to lease or rent? I have a list of resources on my Valley of Hearts Delight blog – please click on the following link.
Finding Rental Housing in San Jose, Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley
What about a broker or agent? Can a Realtor help you to find a rental home in Silicon Valley? Most of the time, a real estate sales person will not be of much help in finding rental properties, and that’s because they aren’t usually listed in the MLS (and the MLS is the way in which we are paid).
Sometimes, though, a rental is listed on our Multiple Listing Service (MLS). You can check it out directly at www.MLSListings.com – just select rental under “type”. The vast majority of rentals are online via Craigslist, though, and a real estate agent has no role in that type of rental property. Just beware of the scams, mentioned above, and always google the address of the property that looks interesting to see if it’s for sale also. If it is listed as for sale, the odds are that it’s not really for rent.
On occasion, members of the real estate community will know of a “courtesy rental” property, meaning that a client wants to rent it out but not necessarily put it on Craigslist or the MLS. Instead, it’s word of mouth. You do not need to call every real estate professional in town to ask if they have any courtesy rentals. Instead, turn to your trusted Realtor and ask him or her to inquire for you. Most agents are very happy to send out the request within their company and to top agents or managers of others nearby to ask on your behalf (but it’s no good if 10 Realtors are all circulating the same request, so please don’t give in to temptation and ask everyone for this favor.)
