Adventures in Apartment Hunting, part 2
Sigh.
Still no luck. Went out with Locator Two yesterday and two places were much farther south than I wanted and the other two were good, but poorly rated on apartmentratings.com. I liked them though, they were both nice…one of them was GINORMOUS and the other was cute.
That’s so annoying, that website. I mean, sure, it’s helpful to know what other people think about the place but usually it’s just where people go to bitch about their landlords and stuff. It’s not like it’s mandatory that people leave a rating for wherever they live so you have these really extreme reviews for the most part.
I have one more locator to go with today, which I feel good about. They’re the kind of company that says if they can’t find it, it’s not there. So maybe we’ll find something today and I won’t have to live East of 35. Is it really as bad as people say? Wish me luck!
I don’t know how long you’ve been in Austin. People told me when I first moved here “DO NOT LIVE EAST OF IH-35”, as if it was a war zone.
I grew up outside of Cleveland, then lived in Liverpool (UK) — bad neighborhoods in both those places are, for certain, places you DO NOT want to live. However, while pockets of East Austin seem sketchy, most of the East side seems safe, fun, and affordable, FYI…
Check out the neighborhood East of 35 and South of Cesar Chavez (Holly St neighborhood)…
Your best bet by far is going to be driving or biking around an area you like and looking for signs – the areas where people want to live are going to be primarily comprised of (too expensive, but listed with apartment hunters) and (cheap enough, but not listed). My area (North University), for instance, is full of tiny little apartment complexes and garage apartments which constantly have for-rent signs up; and I have a hard time believing any of them are big enough operations to pay to be listed.
Yeah, I need to ride around looking for signs, I just haven’t had time. But my moveout date just got kicked forward a notch so time is now of the essence! So I’ll be doing that.
I don’t like apartmentratings.com either. A place I lived and liked had real bad ratings and one I just signed a lease at has so so rating which has kind of bummed me out.
I looked in the Statesman under their apartment listings and didn’t use a locator.
What Jonathon said…
Like anyplace else, it depends where in East Austin you’re talking about. There’s still some sketchy stuff in the 12th street area as you get farther east, but then everything between 6th and the river all the way to Pleasant Valley seems to be fairly safe. There’s all kinds of development on 6th and you can see all the stuff happening along I-35 between 15th and the river. The areas around the Longbranch Inn and Dandelion Cafe are seeing a lot of development.
If you go farther south, Riverside has some sketchy areas just to the north and south of it. The Parker Lane area has some nice stuff, but was experiencing a rash of burglaries last year. My neighborhood south of Oltorf is also hit or miss with my street being nice and then, a few blocks away, Misson Hill getting a story in the Statesman about how bad it is (it’s not that bad).
If you’ve ever lived in a larger metropolitan city, it won’t bother you. Practically speaking though, I’d advise a little more caution being that you’re young, single and a woman.
Also remember most locators should give you some money back when you use their services. I got an apartment last year, and the guy gave me $125 out of his commission! Not bad!
The best place to look for a place in my opinion is on craigslist. You can do a keyword search and how many bed/baths you want.
Hey Lauren, it was neat to see someone I read everyday at the shop. BTW, i was the project runway obsessed stylist. :)
Anyway, good luck with your search. I am going to have to go through the same thing soon, so i have been reading this little series with interest.
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