I moved house on the weekend.  It was a big move this time; leaving my much loved, sleepy, coastal town to relocate to Sydney.  

Packing up and shifting camps is always a drag, fortunately I have the procedure down to fine art. As well I should, this being my 13th move in the past 10 years. 

How lucky am I! 

I reckon that just about makes me an expert on the changing face of the rental market. Maybe I should become a consultant?   

As part of my services I could set people up with a perfect tenant profile on Facebook. Invite all their ex-agents, ex-landlords & ex-neighbours to be friends.  Then post a few blogs about how much they love cleaning the oven, unblocking the gutters and mowing the lawn on the weekend.  Proudly display before and after photos their gardening triumphs. Provide links to their banking records, income insurance policy and a statutory declaration from their parents offering to guarantee the lease if it will get their 28yr old out of the nest.  

I'm only being mildly facetious.  

Renting a property used to be a fairly straightforward transaction, but nabbing a lease is an increasingly difficult task, and the actual shortage of housing is not the only reason. Accessing what little is available is another layer of the problem. The whole process of how owners, agents & prospective tenants communicate with one another has changed.   

If you haven't had to rent in a while, you probably think you can just buy the paper on a Saturday morning, call a few real estate agents, go have a look at a few places, find one you like, fill out an application and find a place to live.  

Don't be so old-fashioned.  

Of course the advertising is internet based now, which is a great development. I love looking for houses online.  It's quicker, searching is easier, it's more up-to-date, best of all there are pictures; but that is just the starting point.   

The influence of technology on the next step of the process is not so user friendly. There are so many people looking to rent that agents just don't need to try very hard to attract tenants.  

Ringing up and making an appointment to view a property is almost impossible now. Most agents don't let you organise a time with them directly. You are invited to register your interest. Only when they have about 20 or more people listed as interested in the one property is it deemed worth their time to do an "open". You find out about this when you receive a text message along the lines of "Viewing 1 Smith St 2-2:15pm today".  

Is it really necessary to waste so many people's time; they only need one successful applicant? And shouldn't they be trying to get "good" tenants?  Being employed is the first quality owners are usually looking for in a person (so they can afford the exorbitant rents). Isn't it obvious that most employees can't just drop everything and nip out to inspect a property at a couple of hours notice?   

Finding out if your application has been approved can easily take two weeks.  Co-ordinating the timing is a nightmare. Then there's always the worry that somebody else will usurp your place in the queue with a "better offer".   

Try discussing if any of these practices are less than convenient for you and I can predict the answer you'll get - "sorry, it's standard".  

Thanks to practice, I've figured out how to work the system - by completely bypassing it.  This time around, I just drove to suburbs I was interested in, walked in to Real Estate Agent's offices, made eye contact, shook hands and started talking. I got the same story at first, but I persisted. Ah, the personal touch, it's so under-rated.  

I now have a great place to live, one that wasn't officially available for inspection yet. I had to take a day off work to achieve this, but it was the only way.

Removalists, bonds, steam cleaners, pest control, time off work, and paying double rent for a crossover period all make moving a very expensive exercise. At the moment, I feel like I just threw a thousand dollars away. It hurts, and I really don't want to have to do it again for a while.  Hopefully I won't have to, but there's no guarantee.  I'm only on a six month lease...another new "standard".

I have a tendency to be a bit "tight" about paying for services I think I can do myself, but in all seriousness, I'm sure there's a burgeoning market for rental-property brokers. As more people can't afford to buy their own home, the need will only grow.