Apartment Hunting General Discussion

[IllogicalJake]

GENERAL OBSERVATION: Regarding views, I was in my apartment on the 16th floor of my building facing away from the skyline for a long time, and had been pining to move the skyline side of the building for ages. After 25 months in that unit, I hopped over to the 20th floor on the skyline side, and it has a very nice view of the city. After a month, I...don't really notice it anymore? It's cool having people over so they can be wowed the way I was the first few days, but it's pretty much just a desktop background at this point. The rent is ~$100/month more, which isn't that big of a deal, but I don't know that I'd, say, take out an extra $50,000 of mortgage to be on floor 30 vs. floor 15, or whatever.

My opposite experience - last time I was on the 24th floor with a view of downtown Indy, I spent more hours window-gazing than I can remember. I'd pay extra for a nicer view than I have now anytime.

[nBode]

Hey everyone, my roommates and I (either 3 or 5 of us) are hunting for apartments for next fall. We'll all be seniors at the U, so we're looking for cheap options in the area around the University. Of course, we're looking into all the advertised places, but I'm curious if anyone knows of anything else (individually owned, etc)?

EDIT: It's almost certain there will just be 3 of us. And we'd probably actually prefer a 2 bedroom if possible, to save money.

[Silophant]

Give Cardinal Properties (UofMhousing.com) a miss. Not for nothing did my roommates and I call the guy "Scumlord Nick".

[xandrex]

With five people (and often with 3, assuming you all want your own bedroom) that kind of pushes your search out to neighborhoods like Como. I know when my group of five in college was looking, a lot of those houses just had lawn signs in front to call or else posted on Craigslist. For what it's worth, our experience absolutely sucked. House had a lot of hidden problems, and we never got our deposit back (despite leaving it spotless). Turns out our landlord had more than one felony.

So definitely screen any landlords if you're going individually owned. Probably wouldn't hurt to asking the U's legal people who deal with student housing what's up. As soon as we approached them about our problems, they already knew our LL's name very well.

[FISHMANPET]

I'm thinking it's time for my wife and I to get out of our apartment (though my lease isn't up until next October, I want to have an idea where to go, and I also could break it early).

Currently living in Seward, and I like my proximity to the Blue Line, having a few restaurants (Tracy's and Pizza Luce), a place to get food fast when I'm lazy (currently Taco Bell) and also a gas station/convenience store type place to get some basic staples (currently the Holiday station). I'm thinking probably South Minneapolis, but I don't know any of the nodes around blue line stops to say which would meet my needs best. I like 38th because it's got the Cardinal right there, and a nice little streetcar node a block west with a good number of things. What about some of the other stops?

[mattaudio]

But wouldn't 38th be too far from Taco Bell?

[MNdible]

Pretty sure that your Taco Bell Walksheds don't accurately reflect the impacts of the local street grid.

[VAStationDude]

The downtown Taco Bell is has been closed for a while.

[tab]

I own a duplex, and one of the apartments will be available starting December 2, 2014. It is about 1,400 s.f., but only technically a 2BR I believe. One of the bedrooms has a second room that can only be accessed by walking through the bedroom. Asking $1,500/month. The apartment has a large dining room & a large living room, and is has been rented by 3-4 people in the past. (5 people live here currently). Location is in Seward, on 29th Avenue, almost a block south of Franklin. We are looking for renters who want to stay until June (with some flexibility on move-out date between April and July.) Could also roll into a fall lease that picks up again in September.

Basically, it's the ideal apartment for someone who won't be in town over the summer, and doesn't want to have to deal with a sub-lease or breaking a lease.

If interested, send a PM

[David Greene]

I'm thinking probably South Minneapolis, but I don't know any of the nodes around blue line stops to say which would meet my needs best. I like 38th because it's got the Cardinal right there, and a nice little streetcar node a block west with a good number of things. What about some of the other stops?

I might consider 50th just for Cap's.

[twincitizen]

MINE: http://www.krcapartments.com/property_d ... ertyID=162

If not for winter move-out clauses, I would be getting TFO of my place and heading here Jan. 1

[Realstreets]

I'm thinking it's time for my wife and I to get out of our apartment (though my lease isn't up until next October, I want to have an idea where to go, and I also could break it early).

Currently living in Seward, and I like my proximity to the Blue Line, having a few restaurants (Tracy's and Pizza Luce), a place to get food fast when I'm lazy (currently Taco Bell) and also a gas station/convenience store type place to get some basic staples (currently the Holiday station). I'm thinking probably South Minneapolis, but I don't know any of the nodes around blue line stops to say which would meet my needs best. I like 38th because it's got the Cardinal right there, and a nice little streetcar node a block west with a good number of things. What about some of the other stops?

What's your budget?

[TheUrbanGopher]

Hey everyone, my roommates and I (either 3 or 5 of us) are hunting for apartments for next fall. We'll all be seniors at the U, so we're looking for cheap options in the area around the University. Of course, we're looking into all the advertised places, but I'm curious if anyone knows of anything else (individually owned, etc)?

EDIT: It's almost certain there will just be 3 of us. And we'd probably actually prefer a 2 bedroom if possible, to save money.

I would first check out Zillow.com for basic rental searches. Because of the mass influx of L-word apartments going up near campus, there is a large stock of homes in SE Como that are waaaay cheaper than they were a couple years ago. I lived in Como for 2 years and had a fairly good experience with my landlord. It was an LLC under Marty Morgan Properties and they did a decent job of upkeep, maintenance, etc. I have a friend that lives in the one remaining house across from Dinkytown Liquors on the north side of 5th St SE, and he just renovated most of the units and rent is cheap for them. I'd take a look into that too.

[TommyT]

I've found the Craigslist map feature to work pretty slick too, it's nice that you can pinpoint the area you want using a map instead of having to plug in a zip code and hope for the best.

[Nick]

Because of the mass influx of L-word apartments going up near campus, there is a large stock of homes in SE Como that are waaaay cheaper than they were a couple years ago.

The system works!!!!!1!!

[Nick]

re: the system working!!!!!1!!

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/a ... 27823.html

TWO months free at Eitel for a 2 bedroom that's $1600/month for the remaining ten months.

[MNdible]

That may be the system working, or it may be like a department store that overprices its clothes so that it can offer 25% off without giving it a second thought.

[Nick]

Could be! I've heard mixed things about the building, I've only been to Loring Kitchen + Bar. Either way, that works out to $1,333/month for a two bedroom unit on Loring Park with in a building with lots of trimmings. The two bedrooms in my relatively low-frills building max out at like $1,290, I think?

[Tyler]

They weren't offering these types of discounts (with similar pricing) 5 years ago.

[MNdible]

It would be fascinating to see the pro formas on some of these projects. Without that, it's just conjecture as to what a given rent means for these properties.