Author Topic: Need Advice on Apartment Hunting in Sacramento -- Daughter Moving There  (Read 1535 times)

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Offline Neurotic Guy

  • Dave Cowens
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Hi all, I know it's a longshot but with the diversity of readers here I thought maybe I could get some help.   My 22 year old recent college grad is moving to Sacramento for a job with CityYear to begin late July. My daughter has a platonic male friend who will be moving out there too, and they want to find a place together.    Have been looking for apartments on the internet for an August 1st start date.  The process makes me and my wife nervous as we'd like to see the place in person -- mostly to assure us that the neighborhood seems safe.   I have no experience with finding apartments remotely and am not sure the best way to do this.w
Here's what I'm hoping for with this post:

1. Anyone familiar with the Sacramento area -- downtown or neighboring areas -- I'd be interested in your take on safe and affordable areas.   They'll have very little to spend, but are not in need of anything large.  Though platonic, they are very close friends and fine with tight living quarters -- even a studio if necessary.  Probably $1000 month as a max.

2. Anyone familiar with real estate rentals, I'd love advice about the best way to find properties and to get information.  I'd be glad to start a lease on July 1 even though her arrival won't be till July 25th.  Am I best off finding an agent there?  If so, how do I find someone trustworthy?  Am I best off just looking on the internet and calling -- I'd have to trust picture and internet queries about the apartment and safety of the area...

Anyway, hoping for this great Cblog community to give me some advice.  Thanks!

Offline FatKidsDad

  • Al Horford
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Sorry I don't have any Sacramento-specific advice but I do know a little bit about CityYear, having a daughter who served for a year.

The Corp members tend to be more interdependent than in the typical workplace. They will come from all over, be culturally diverse, and not have a lot of local connections.  As a result, they tend to form their own community and rely on each other, both in and out of work. It isn't unusual for them to find an expanded room-mate situation, with multiple people sharing a place. This can be a comfortable (and comforting) model for those recently out of dorm living.

Ther CityYear web site gives some hints here:

https://www.cityyear.org/locations#sacramento

She might do well to reach out to the local Corp leadership in Sacramento and see if they have any tips and resources. If she is the is the outgoing type, she may even want to try to contact some of the other incoming Corp members and try to organize a group housing situation.

Congrats and good luck with her community service. It will be an adventure!
"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." - George S. Patton
   
"Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity,they think of you." -   H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Offline celticsclay

  • Reggie Lewis
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Hi all, I know it's a longshot but with the diversity of readers here I thought maybe I could get some help.   My 22 year old recent college grad is moving to Sacramento for a job with CityYear to begin late July. My daughter has a platonic male friend who will be moving out there too, and they want to find a place together.    Have been looking for apartments on the internet for an August 1st start date.  The process makes me and my wife nervous as we'd like to see the place in person -- mostly to assure us that the neighborhood seems safe.   I have no experience with finding apartments remotely and am not sure the best way to do this.w
Here's what I'm hoping for with this post:

1. Anyone familiar with the Sacramento area -- downtown or neighboring areas -- I'd be interested in your take on safe and affordable areas.   They'll have very little to spend, but are not in need of anything large.  Though platonic, they are very close friends and fine with tight living quarters -- even a studio if necessary.  Probably $1000 month as a max.

2. Anyone familiar with real estate rentals, I'd love advice about the best way to find properties and to get information.  I'd be glad to start a lease on July 1 even though her arrival won't be till July 25th.  Am I best off finding an agent there?  If so, how do I find someone trustworthy?  Am I best off just looking on the internet and calling -- I'd have to trust picture and internet queries about the apartment and safety of the area...

Anyway, hoping for this great Cblog community to give me some advice.  Thanks!

This part sounds pretty interesting.

BTW, one part that may be useful for the apartment search is you can do google street views of the address if you are able to get one. That can give you a really good idea of how safe a neighboorhood looks by doing a virtual tour of the street with real images. I have used that to check neighborhoods here in Oakland (which can be a lot more dangerous than Sacramento)

Offline jpotter33

  • James Naismith
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Finding an agent is definitely preferable, especially if you can find an agent/real estate group that specializes in rentals over buying. This is certainly true if you're looking for rental houses over townhouses, condos, and apartments.

I'm in the process of moving my family from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. In the past, I always searched all of the rental sites (Zillow, HotPads, Craigslist, etc.) and set up showings by myself. If you're moving across town that might be fine, but if you're moving quite a distance, which I assume Sacramento is for your daughter, then having an agent with connections is so much more helpful and practical.

For example, with our busy schedules, we were only able to go to Cleveland for one day to look for houses last week. The agent that I'm working with is excellent, because not only did he compile a list of approximately 40 properties to choose showings from, we saw 8 different properties in the span of three to four hours that day. And he has done all of the legwork with contacting the other agents or landlords for questions and showings schedules, and the best part is that he's paid by the landlord, not us. So this is essentially a free, extensive service that we couldn't have done without. There's no way we could've seen the number of quality properties on our own.

So I'd definitely recommend Googling to find an agent or real estate group in the area that you could work with to find a good property for your daughter, especially if you're relocating across the country.

Offline Neurotic Guy

  • Dave Cowens
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Thanks for the responses!  Will pursue CityYear resources and will try to connect with a broker out there.  Thanks also for the tip on the virtual tour - will definitely use that. 

TPs for you. Thanks.