What am I doing wrong?

tradhead

Hi guys,

I've been searching for the last month or two for a shared room within handy enough cycling distance to town. I'm on rent.ie first thing every morning when I get to work (no internet access at home and no smartphone) and have found quite a few places that would be perfect. I apply to them all, trying to get my personality across as much as possible in a short message, and include e-mail address and mobile number, saying that I can be contacted anytime on either for a viewing any time at all that suits them (within reason).

I have a good job, and honestly can't think of anything that could be putting prospective housemates off, and yet I haven't had a single reply to the dozens of e-mails I've sent. For any places that have left a contact number, I call straightaway and either get no answer or am told the viewings are already full. To be fair, the no internet thing is likely part of the issue with these particular ones as I'm just not getting to them in time, but there have been ads that I have answered literally within minutes of them being posted that I still get no reply from.

Apologies for the long post, but I really need some help! Has anyone recently found a housemate that could give me some insight into what they were looking for? Or has anyone been in my position and found that anything in particular made them stand out?

Any advice at all would be hugely appreciated.

correa cristobal

Maybe you should try Facebook as well. Usually, people spend more time/pay more attention to FB than their email. There are a few FB pages you could join and post/reply to messages about renting (The Ideal Flatmate Dublin, Rent in Dublin, Alquiler en Dublin -this one is in spanish- and if you feel up for it most hispanic nationalities have their own pages which usually start with "Clasificados Dublin para xxx", x being the denonym in Spanish, so Mexicanos, Venezolanos, Españoles, Argentinos, etc).
Just be aware that some people will give inflated prices since you might not be dealing with the landlord themselves (and since Dublin's rent prices are already high, you'd be way overpaying).
Cheer mate. Hope you get a place soon!

on_my_oe

When in London we used to run our house share viewings over email as a vetting service. Anything too short and abrupt, we dismissed as not enough information, anything too long was desperate. Ultimately we were looking for someone of a similar age group, gender depending on balance/who was moving out, and employment.

I'd suggest something along the lines of

Hi,

I'm interested in viewing the room you have for rent. I'm 27, working for an IT company, single, non smoker and have lived in Dublin for 5 years. During the week I go to the gym and see a movie, and on weekends I like to head out for a few beers.

My number is 0871234567 and I'm free most nights to come round to see the room and meet you.


Mostly they want to know you have enough of a life that you won't always be home, but home enough that you'll do your share of the domestic stuff, plus pay your bills.

Good luck

Mrs OBumble

How old are you? After a certain age, people are less marketable.

indigo twist

I assume you're using daft.ie as well as rent.ie? Daft would be the big one. Also, there's a section on Daft where you post an "ad" (for free) that you're looking for a houseshare, and give some detail about yourself. In my experience, quite a few landlords and owner-occupiers just browse here so that they can handpick their tenants, rather than actually advertising their property in the rental section of the site.

TheBandicoot

indigo twist wrote: »

I assume you're using daft.ie as well as rent.ie? Daft would be the big one. Also, there's a section on Daft where you post an "ad" (for free) that you're looking for a houseshare, and give some detail about yourself. In my experience, quite a few landlords and owner-occupiers just browse here so that they can handpick their tenants, rather than actually advertising their property in the rental section of the site.

If I'm not mistaken, rent.ie is just a mirror of daft.ie, they have the exact same listings. They are both owned by the same company(that also owns boards).

_oveless_

I started looking for a place to rent in january, only got one finally in late august. Be patient but especially dont let yourself become desperate, as I essentially took the first place that said yes without thinking it through properly and now I'm regretting it big time.

tradhead

Thank you everyone for your help! Especially indigo twist, I had no idea that daft had that section on the website, within about 2 days I had 2 calls and have 2 other ones as well for today and tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

tradhead

Went to see a lovely place in Fairview yesterday evening, they had a load of people coming to see it but I got the call last night to say it was mine if I wanted it!

Thank you Boards!!!

Incidentally, I think the profile on daft was a great idea, but what I think swung it for me was- I had my iPhone stolen a few months ago, and so was smartphoneless up until last week. Having the internet in the palm of my hand meant that I could obsess merrily over refreshing the websites every 5 minutes, and was ultimately the difference in getting a viewing and being too late! Just something to think about for anyone in the same position

Thanks again guys, you're the best!