A Better Way to Look for Rentals

I’d rather go to the dentist than look for an apartment or house rental, and I consider myself a fairly seasoned renter. I know what I want in a rental and which Honolulu neighborhoods I prefer, but spending hours scrolling through one vague, poorly photographed Craigslist listing after another is painful, annoying and, now, unnecessary, thanks to PadMapper. A mash-up of Google Maps and rental listings from Craigslist and other sites, such as Apartments.com, PadMapper has been popular on the Mainland since it launched in 2009.

The site delivers on its promise to “make apartment hunting suck less” by allowing you to view local listings (available in about 70 cities) on a large Google Map so you can immediately zoom in on the rentals in your target ’hoods. Plus, you can nix listings that don’t meet your criteria right off the bat by utilizing the filter options—price range, number of beds/baths, pet-friendly, listing with pictures, etc. And when you click on one of the listings, it brings up the essential details, photos (if included), contact information, a price comparison of nearby rentals, street-view map, the area’s walk score and a list of nearby amenities. PadMapper also recently released Apartments by PadMapper, a free iPhone app that’s available through the iTunes Store. It’s so gosh darn handy, I only wish that they would have thought about it sooner!