Best websites for apartment hunting in the Tacoma Olympia Seattle area?

December 16, 2020 6:09 PM

I've looked at Zillow, PadMapper, and WalkScore (which I was surprised to find has an apartment search). Where else should I be researching? Do real estate agents do rental searches around here?

I'm looking to move to a new apartment and would love to find a house or townhouse. Possibly a condo or traditional apartment, but it needs to have direct access to the outside. (Living in an elevator building has become a COVID stressor).

posted by travertina to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

There's also Trulia. When I was renting out my Seattle house, by far the most contacts came in through Zillow, so that's where I'd expect most of the landlords to be.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:28 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Don't leave out Craigslist! It's my favorite source for apartment hunting and where I've had the best results.
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:36 PM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is current as of Fall 2019. I found my rental (a duplex with yard) in Seattle the same way I have found every single other place in my ~15 years as a renter: Craigslist. It's old-school but the diversity of listings is IMO still unmatched, and the search tools make it easy to narrow down results. Trulia, Zillow, and apartments.com are good secondary resources especially if you want to get a sense of neighborhood-level trends but are biased towards larger apartment complexes.
posted by 4rtemis at 4:27 AM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Facebook Marketplace has outpaced Craigslist for me. Much fewer scammers, since all the listings are tied to a FB profile.
posted by ananci at 7:40 AM on December 17, 2020

Try apartments.com as well. Jeff Goldblum says so.
posted by lhauser at 9:04 PM on December 19, 2020