If you got a job in a new city, or if you’re going to school there, or even if you just want to move there, you’re going to have to find a place to live.

Searching for an apartment in a different city is not easy.  You probably don’t know the different neighborhoods, the average rental price or the details of the rooms your scoping out.  You can try to find a place place blindly, but it’s time consuming and imprecise.  It’s better to focus your search.  Here’s how:

Pick a Neighborhood

Before searching for an apartment, you should know where you want to find an apartment.  Do some research and pick out a few neighborhoods that interest you.

• Break down your options – just do some basic Internet searches to identify the different neighborhoods in the city.  Get a map of the city by running an image search, such as “neighborhoods in San Francisco”.

• Read up on some neighborhoods – if you know of landmarks, see what neighborhoods they are in.  Read the local paper to find some events and see where they’re taking place.  If you have a neighborhood in mind already, see if it has its own newspaper or website and check Wikipedia, which could tell you about demographics, events, places of interest and general vibe of the neighborhood.

• Yelp – Yelp allows you to search for places by neighborhood.  If you have something that you need in your neighborhood, check Yelp to see which neighborhoods have it.  If you have a neighborhood in mind, check to see what’s in that neighborhood.

• Crime maps – all cities have crime maps, which can be found through the local law enforcement agency’s website.  Newspapers often have such maps as well.  Use these maps to gauge how safe specific neighborhoods are.

Locate Apartments

Once you have a neighborhood or two in mind, start checking out apartments.  Here are some resources for finding apartments:

• Craiglist – if you know the neighborhood(s) you want to live in, Craigslist is a great resource.  It will let you narrow neighborhoods, prices and size of places so that you can quickly find what’s available that suits your needs.  And it’s free.

• Apartment services – there are companies that collect apartment advertisements and that allow you to narrow your searches based on price, location and type.  They come at a price, but they can be of great use, especially as a complement to Craiglist.

• Hire a realtor – you can pay an actual person to search for you.  This can be especially helpful if you are moving to an area that is competitive for good rents and locations, like the San Francisco bay area or New York.  A realtor can be an advocate that gets your application to the top of the pile, so to speak.

Make sure you check out numerous apartments so that you can get a general idea of pricing.  You can also use Rentometer.com to help identify what a reasonable price for an area is.

Check Out the Apartment Before You Commit

If you find an apartment that you want, don’t sign the lease without checking it out.  Usually you can simply sign the lease the day you move in, but the landlord might require you do commit earlier (such as if you aren’t moving in for another couple of weeks).  Here are things to do before committing:

• Check out your landlord – there are a lot of rental scams out there, especially in big cities.  Before giving your landlord any money or personal information, get some references and conduct an Internet search on his or her name.  Be very wary before committing to a person you’ve never met or spoken to and know little about.  Get his or her name, number and email and make sure he or she has an existing office address.  Talk to them over the phone or better yet over Skype.

• Get pictures or video – ask the landlord for pictures of the place.  Some more technologically advanced landlords advanced might be able to provide you with video of the place.

• Google Street View – google street view is a great way to experience an area. You can type in the apartment’s address and see what it looks like from the street as well as the homes and businesses around it.

Of course, actually seeing a place before you sign a lease is you best option by far, but if you can’t, get what information you can so that you make the most educated and safest decision.

Subleasing

If you don’t have a job yet, you might find it very difficult to locate a landlord willing to lease to you.  Additionally, you might be reluctant to commit to a year’s lease without ever stepping foot in a place.  Fortunately, you can sublease.

Subleases are leases where you rent from the renter, not the landlord.  Often they are just for a couple of months, providing you with flexibility to move elsewhere once you find a job or a more-permanent place to live.

Here’s more information on subleasing apartments.

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