You have to love where you live. Some people love living the apartment lifestyle and others are hoping for a home to themselves. Either way, searching for exactly what you want through hundreds of housing sites can be time-consuming, frustrating, and just not a pleasant experience. To lessen your housing search stresses, check out this quick reference guide to make your search simple.

Searching on a low budget

Plenty of sites feature tools to decide what price range you want your new home to stay within. That being said, plenty of us have experienced putting in your price and having the website come up with nothing. For more options, try craigslist. I know right away you may think it's just a sketchy site that won’t get you anywhere, but plenty of homeowners don’t want to deal with property management companies so they post for themselves on craigslist, thus cutting out the middleman and lowering your rent!

Shopping for a house to yourself

For those looking to have a little space of their own, it can be hard to find individual house listings on a lot of popular housing websites. That being said, some are extremely useful when it comes to looking for a whole house. Zillow, Trulia, and Craigslist are all great to check regularly for new listings and easily contact a property management company or the owners themselves with just one mouse click.

Looking for apartment living

When you try to search for apartments in your area, the only results you get are the higher priced, massive buildings that you weren’t interested in to begin with. Instead of searching for apartments, search for property management companies in your area. Most have a list of their properties and what will be available in your time frame and in your budget. Even though this is a little more work than using a popular website, you are more likely to get a response back and find apartments that aren’t listed anywhere but that management website.

No matter what you are looking for, there is a way to simplify your housing search and make your life easier. Just follow these tips for a simpler, less stressful search!