Since it's landlord week -

[vanillacourage]

When did you get serious about looking for an apartment (in terms of how far out from when you wanted your lease to begin)?

One of my tenants is moving out, lease concludes March 31st.  I feel like last time I started publicizing it too far ahead of when it was available for move-in, and wasted a lot of time showing it to people who wanted to move in on that date, but were still in the just-looking-and-keeping-options-open phase. 

[yellowbelly86]

I would say about 1 month,this gives me enough time to tie up any loose ends and to make sure the property is "move in ready".I have never been in the situation where I am ready to move in the next week or so.

[kwynn]

Feb 6, 2013 9:37:16 GMT -5 swizz said:

We've been looking for a rental since Jan. 1, for a March 15-April 1 move-in, and it seems we're just now finding rentals looking for March 1 move-ins.

I think a month seems right.

Yes, me too...I am still open to the idea of renting and want to start my lease April 1st, and I'm going to be looking the last week of February if I don't find a home to buy.

[aspentosh]

I'd probably aim for a month to month and a half, depending on how quickly places in your area go. I say month and a half because I would THINK most people looking for a rental don't start 2 weeks before they need to move. Could be wrong

[monpetitchou]

I wanted to list mine about 45 days before it was going to be available, but my realtor took one look at the place and said it was in no condition to be shown and we'd be better off waiting until it was empty. It took about 10 days after it was empty to get everything cleaned up and fixed and all the paperwork ready. We had a good application 3 days later and the people will be moving in ~3 weeks after they first saw it.

[LoveTrains]

It totally depends on your local market. In the Boston area, September 1st is "moving day" and most landlords require 60 day notice (including me). This means that if my tenant doesn't renew, I am going to start publicizing my apartment on July 1st for a September 1st move in date.

I would start to FREAK OUT if I didn't have a new tenant signed by August 15th.

[awkwardpenguin]

Feb 6, 2013 11:18:35 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

It totally depends on your local market. In the Boston area, September 1st is "moving day" and most landlords require 60 day notice (including me). This means that if my tenant doesn't renew, I am going to start publicizing my apartment on July 1st for a September 1st move in date.

I would start to FREAK OUT if I didn't have a new tenant signed by August 15th.

This is a SUPER weird thing about Boston.  Most rental markets aren't like this, but some are. 

Here in Chicago, it's one month to six weeks for most neighborhoods.  In "hot" neighborhoods, you can start more like 8 weeks out, because it is hard to find apartments in those neighborhoods and people will be happy to apply and sign a lease ASAP to get something in the neighborhood.