You took the job. The start date is set, the house back home may not be sold yet, and you get one shot at a neighborhood you've never lived in. Buying blind is a six-figure guess. Lease a verified home there first, drive the real commute, live a season on the street, then buy when you're sure, with the broker who already knows what you want.
Corporate moves get planned months ahead, but rentals don't hit the market until the current tenant gives notice. Reserving early closes that gap.
Tell us your move date, preferred areas, budget, and must-haves. No obligation to join.
We reach out to landlords and property managers about homes coming open, and match what we find to your needs.
See homes by live video tour from wherever you are now, with honest answers about the neighborhood and commute.
Apply and sign ahead of time, with a lease start that lines up with your move.
Read the moving guide · Town-by-town guides: schools, utilities, commutes · Coming from Chicago or Cook County? Same job. Same time zone. Lower taxes.
Relocating for work? Five short videos on the questions newcomers ask most, and how a local broker helps.
Many professionals working in Chicago choose to live in Northwest Indiana for more home for the money, lower taxes, and an easy way into the city.
Share your office location on the reservation form. We'll match you with homes that fit your commute, whether you'll drive, take the train, or work hybrid.
We work directly with HR teams and relocation managers. Your transferee gets an early start on quality rentals near the office, and you get a single point of contact who knows the Northwest Indiana market.
New hires who have a home lined up arrive settled and ready to work.
One broker handling search, tours, and lease coordination for every transferee you send.
Ask about invoicing through your relocation package.
A vacant home earns nothing, and that month can't be made up later. Tell us about an upcoming turnover 60–90 days early and we'll work to place a tenant before it sits empty. If we do, the fee is one month's rent: the same month you'd likely lose to vacancy anyway. If we don't, you owe nothing.
nwi2rent is a service of Flatland Real Estate LLC, a licensed Indiana real estate brokerage based in Crown Point. Broker Douglas Willems: licensed since 1997. A landlord himself since 1998. Placing tenants for owners since 2008.
When you're ready to buy in Northwest Indiana, the same team that found your rental can help you find your home.
A lease-purchase pairs a regular lease with a separate option to buy at a set price. The owner collects rent now. The tenant gets time to settle in, save and qualify before buying. If the tenant doesn't buy, the owner still has a lease and can renew, re-rent or sell.
Your new job starts before your house sells. Rent covers the payment while a tenant-buyer decides.
Keep the house cared for and paying its own way while the family decides, without anyone driving in to meet the plumber.
Buyers liked it but couldn't get the loan yet. Let one of them rent it until they can.
Relocating and want to test the neighborhood before you buy? Check "Show me homes with an option to buy" on the reservation form.
Most relocations take two moves: into a rental, then a year later into the house you buy. The second one costs another truck, another round of packing, utility and address changes, days off work, and sometimes a school change in the middle of the year. A lease with an option to buy turns that into one move, and lets you buy a house you already know from the inside.
Every option is negotiated and put in writing. Have your own attorney and lender review it before you sign. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Relocations go wrong in the gaps: between the offer letter and the start date, between the house you're leaving and the one you'll buy, between what a listing shows and what the street is like at 7:30 on a school morning. Closing those gaps is the work I've done since 1997.
Indiana real estate broker for 29 years. Your rental, a lease-to-own option and your purchase all go through the same person.
I know what makes an owner say yes: a 6-month term, a start date that matches yours, a pet, an option to buy. I negotiate from the owner's side of the table because I sit there too.
Eighteen years of lining up homes before they hit the market, with written screening criteria applied the same way to everyone, so a complete application moves fast.
Lease-to-own when the old house hasn't sold. A rent-first year when you want to be sure. When you're ready, I already know the streets you liked and the ones you didn't.
Reserve a home Text me or call (219) 440-2828
No cost to you: the owner pays our placement fee. HR and relocation teams: how we work with you.
Prefer to talk?
Call or text (219) 440-2828
willems.realtor@gmail.com
Rentals and homes for sale in Northwest Indiana, straight from the MLS.
Homes for rentHomes for saleListings from the Northwest Indiana REALTORS® Association MLS, shown by Douglas Willems, REALTOR®, Flatland Real Estate LLC. Opens a live MLS search in a new tab.