I am afraid I have to disagree with Badscot to a degree. We contacted rental agents through the internet who happily sent us property they had. Yes, some of them were a little out of date, but a good agent will telephone you and make the initial contact.
We found on Premier Properties and a lady called Genevieve called us regularly to update us (and herself) on our situation. Once we had a date to visit, she lined up several properties for us to view.
It was so easy, we actually did this with 3 agents in different areas. You will never get enough time to look around areas properly until you live there, so renting is definately a good idea. We signed up for our villa on the spot and it worked very well. We then went to open a bank account and all was done - very easy.

We move to our villa in Alcalali on 12th Sept - can't wait.
Thanks
tony