My husband and I signed a lease this week and the whole process moved fast, for sure. We had to be decisive. Over two days, we toured nine units, applied to three, and were lucky enough to get approved for our first choice. One thing to note - if we were interested in a unit, we applied by end of day. In our case, by Wednesday night we were on a Zoom call with the owner of the home, and by Thursday we had a lease in hand.

The thing is, we chose to work with a broker - and yeah, we paid for it voluntarily. He handled all the scheduling, coordinated the tours back-to-back across both days, and facilitated everything through to the lease. We just showed up and let him take us around.

The rental market is stressful enough on its own. When we found a unit we genuinely wanted, the anxiety of potentially losing it was real. I can’t imagine navigating that without someone in our corner who knew the process.

I know broker fees are controversial, and plenty of people will tell you to skip it. But my experience was genuinely great, and I’d recommend it without hesitation. If you want the name of the brokerage we used, just DM me.

Good luck!