There's two sides to the coin of recognizing "un-winnability". One is frustration, the other is a sense of peace that comes with recognizing that there's no ma

There's two sides to the coin of recognizing "un-winnability". One is frustration, the other is a sense of peace that comes with recognizing that there's no marginal reward to trying so hard. Just avoid the obvious scams, which isn't too hard. A third option to skirts the coin, is to really embed yourself in a local community, renting in the meanwhile. There actually are "winner" situations and good deals if you go this way, but they generally come on the back of who you know and are friendly with – variously referred to as cronyism and nepotism, but it's how humans work.