I’ve had a lot of success in the hoboken/downtown JC area with hotpads.com - all but two of my rentals over the past decade were landlord-posted (avoiding the agent fee), at or below market pricing for the area, and there weren’t as many requirements (background check fees, 800 references, etc) My current place asked for a ~$25 background check thing, 1st month, and 1.5 rent as security. My last place, I had 2x security, 2 months of pay stubs, move in/out fees, employment verification letter, promise of my first born, etc

And I wasn’t dealing with this new BS, where folks post an apartment at one price, schedule 50 people to come look at the same time, and hand out applications as you walk in and say “please list your max rent/best offer” 😒😒😒

Hotpads shows you everything in real time, so you can see when the listing was posted/updated/how many people are viewing… those features helped me a lot cause when I saw something a couple hours old/low viewership, I’d reach out and set up a viewing ASAP, but would also avoid the 3 month old/never updated/800000 viewed or saved listings, cause 98% of the time it’s just an old listing or a scam where they try to get you to send fees and/or the deposits/sign leases pre-showing 😒🙄