Montreal apartment advice needed!

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196ful
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I'll be in Montreal mid-May to September and need advice on the best way to find a furnished apartment.
I'm looking for a comfortable, quiet one-bedroom in a safe and walkable neighborhood (I won't have a car). I'm just there to enjoy the city for the summer, so I'm flexible on neighborhood. I've been checking out CL and Kijiji and wondering:

  1. Can I show up in mid May, with an Airbnb booked for two weeks, and count on finding a good apartment to start renting in June? Or will everything good be gone by then? If so, how do you suggest I find a place?

  2. I live in a major US city where most online furnished apartment ads are fake/scams. Is this true in Montreal? If so, where else should I look?

  3. What other tips do you have?

All advice welcome!

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mclarjh
mclarjh

If Montreal is like Ottawa, then a lot of university students vacate their apartments between the end of April and beginning of September to return home. I think it should be easy to find a furnished apartment in downtown Montreal during this period. Besides the usual websites, you should check with the universities; they rent out rooms in their student residences during the summer.

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reporter
reporter

A possible complication is thatsome apartment leases come due on July 1 so there is a fair amount of moving. But you would probably be dealing with a sublet and not necessarily affected. Just a heads-up.

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ftottawa
ftottawa

reporter is right, many leases end July 1, but mclarjh is right that you are looking for a timeframe that is very good for students who want to sublet while they are not at university. You are looking on the correct Web sites, but yes, you do have to beware of scams. Asking for a deposit is one giveaway. A too-good-to-be-true price is another.

Would AirBnB list some places available longer term? And is there much on VRBO for Montreal? In some places that tends to be the spot to look for medium-term furnished rentals.

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196ful
196ful

Thanks for all this advice! I just checked out Airbnb and VRBO as ftottawa suggested. Saw a couple of possibilities, but nothing jumped out as a must-have. Based on the other comments, I think I'll take my chances to show up in May and find something. Thanks again!

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