How on earth to find a large house to rent in a hurry?

[grannyslippers]

I'm helping a friend to house-hunt as she's looking to move into my area from the other end of the country. She's looking to rent before buying - but needs to find a 5-bedroom house in under a month's time, due to other arrangements falling through.

I think a lot of rented properties don't even make it onto the internet - let alone unusually large ones. I suppose I'd need to try and cultivate estate agents. Would it be better to visit estate agents in person (even with toddlers in tow?) or just phone around, or try property papers etc?

I'd drop in to the estate agents and get the lists off them.

I think they expect toddlers if you're looking for family homes. We found phoning very productive when we wanted to rent a 4 bed house, but we weren't close enough to pop in. I'd avoid going in on Saturdays, sometimes they employ Saturday staff who are easy on the eye rather than knowledgable about the stock to let.

You can search Rightmove for rental properties by area and number of bedrooms.