By Sarah Kuper
On March 18, hundreds of medical students across the nation will find out where they will spend the next few years training as resident physicians.
It’s called Match Day, and until noon on that day, these trainees have no certainty about where they will live come June 1.
After the envelope is opened, medical students will start internet searches and pour over real estate listings to quickly find a place to rent or buy.
Many new doctors prefer to rent a home due to the rigorous residency hours and unpredictable schedules that make homeownership difficult. Plus, they are likely in the area for just a few years.
Because many Birmingham health systems offer graduate medical education, rental homes in good neighborhoods are in high demand.
Brooke Tarrant moved to the Hoover area with her family when her husband, Zeke, matched into an anesthesiology residency. Since they had been living in Columbia, Missouri, all of their house hunting had to be done remotely.
Tarrant said she used every resource she could think of, including ad sites like Craigslist.
“I found the problem with Craigslist was not knowing exactly where the homes were located – distance from the hospital with traffic and what schools were like etc.”
Tarrant said they resorted to looking at apartments but found that the school districts weren’t always desirable.
In the end, Tarrant and her family decided to rent a small apartment until they learned the area and were able to buy a home.
“We ended up renting a two bedroom, two bathroom for a little more than we wanted but it has worked out and now that we know the area, we are buying a home,” she said.
Many transplant families find that word of mouth or simply driving around neighborhoods in the spring is the best way to catch a good rental home before it disappears.
Social media sites such as “Doctors’ Wives of Birmingham” offer inside information into houses coming up for rent, and hospital residency departments may publish ads for rentals before they are posted online or signs are put up in the yards.
But it isn’t just young medical families who are grappling for rental real estate.
Matthew Whitaker is a team leader with gkhouses – a Homewood based property management company.
“We are seeing baby boomers who can’t physically perform the maintenance on a home anymore or they just don’t want to – maybe they’ve got grandkids and they want to be able to travel and not be tied to it. They want to be able to go and not worry about cutting the grass,” he said.
Whitaker said baby boomers are looking more like millennials when it comes to their approach to housing.
“It’s no longer ‘sexy’ to own a home. As generation X gets out of school and has a family, they don’t want to live in an apartment but they want the same benefits of apartment living. They’ve got kids and they want to be able to travel on the weekends and not fool with fixing the toilet. It’s a similar story for baby boomers.”
While the rental market is competitive in Birmingham in general, Whitaker said a family rental home in an Over the Mountain area is an especially rare find and it doesn’t stay listed for long.
“As soon as we get them, we can’t keep them. We have people competing for them, homes get multiple applications. People are crawling over each other to find a good property and then when they do, they don’t move because they know how hard it is to find something else,” Whitaker said.
Spencer Sutton, director of marketing for gkhouses, said this kind of demand makes for a great opportunity for Over the Mountain homeowners who are considering renting out their houses.
“It can be a great investment to hang on to your property rather than sell it. We know what a good renter looks like and we help our homeowners find them. But it isn’t profitable if you have to turn over your home every year – that’s why it is important to celebrate the tenant so you have a long-term rental. It works out for everyone.”
Sutton and Whitaker say a large component of their work at gkhouses is making sure both renters and property owners feel understood and appreciated.
While they believe the supply eventually will catch up with the demand for nice rental homes in good school districts, until then, there are a few tips that can give renters an edge when they begin hunting in Over the Mountain areas.
“I would suggest already getting preapproved and have recommendations. It will give you a leg up on everybody else who hasn’t done that,” Whitaker said.
“Even if you don’t have a house in mind, go ahead and get the logistics taken care of so you don’t lose out to someone else while you wait,” Sutton said.
