Pre-Rent or Take a 1 week Gamble?

[Stephen]

Aloha All My Local and Native (and other dudes) Chums,
We're down to the wire, 33 days left on the mainland. I've found a small one bed/1 bath house in Makiki that my wife and I like - and it's over 500 square feet. (I think it's kind of funny that I'm okay with living in a seemingly small space) However, we haven't "seen" it - and we are still looking at other places. So to my question . . . we have a hotel lined up for a week - would you suggest trying to pre-rent before arriving or hit the ground running when we arrive?
Mahalo in Advance,
Ragin Cajun Stephen

[Menehune Man]

A couple of months ago, my wife and I had to move. We were lucky and fairly quickly found a one bedroom also in Makiki. We were in the McCully area before. I know that there are lots of people looking for places and even heard stories of close to 40 at showings. So, if Makiki is a good area for you then grab it for the year (lease?) and you can always see what else is out there after that. Just my suggestion.

[AbsolutChaos]

I concur with Buddy.

[kimo55]

trying to pre-rent before arriving
wot da hell does that...


or hit the ground running when we arrive?



huh?!
when else would you "hit the ground running..."?

[Miulang]

How do you pre-rent an apartment sight unseen? Wouldn't the landlord want local references and a local checking account?

Miulang

[kimo55]

met a guy who has a few homes behind his house; he put rental info online and had dozens.... of inqueries, many from all across the mainland. Some of these fools actually said. "Hey! Hold it for us till we get there!"

HAAAA!

I won't tell you who he prefers renting to or how someone swoops in past everyone else and grabs it...

[Stephen]

Everyone - thanks for the advice/tid bits of info. We're still undecided - we're struggling with idea of renting a place before we've even seen it. We will be likely paying our first 3 months plus deposit up front, so I'm hoping that will assuage any concerns regarding no local references/checking account. I'm currently a homeowner with excellent credit, so that should help too. The house we were looking at wasn't really the house for rent - and of course the landlord didn't have any pictures to show - so we're going to pass on it. I guess we'll keep looking.
Mahalo Again!
Stephen