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Moving to Seattle
Sarksus
ATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered User regular
ATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered User regular
Currently I live in Upstate NY, near Albany. I've lived here my whole life and I've never considered it anything special. There's nothing tying me down to the place, I'm pretty bored with it and I want to move to a city. Initially I considered NYC, then Boston and I've finally settled on Seattle. NYC is very expensive though I have friends there, Boston was a good middle-ground but then I decided maybe the west coast was better, so Seattle.
It's been a year since I attended school, I was enrolled in a community college. I'm working on getting the money together for the move and if it works out I'll have enough time to transfer to a community college in Seattle and get an apartment. If that doesn't work out I'll stay in Upstate NY for another year and then transfer to the University of Washington. I'll attend school and live off of my financial aid though I may get a small job. I've looked into the requirements for becoming a resident and I'm unwilling to work the necessary 30 hours a week while attending school to become a resident and receive in-state tuition. The difference between in-state and out-of-state is significant but I'd like to concentrate on school after putting it off and working for so long.
My first question is which community college to attend? Right now I'm considering North Seattle and Seattle Central. I'm not sure about my major yet besides that it will definitely be a science, either biology or physics most likely. I don't know much about either school academically, all I know are their locations and that North Seattle has a God awful website whereas Seattle Central's website is much more informative. North Seattle is also situated closer to UW and one of the apartments I was looking at is also in that area. Seattle Central is in Capitol Hill, a neighborhood I'll probably be visiting often and one of the other apartments I'm looking at is nearby. I'm leaning towards Seattle Central right now because of the website but if North Seattle is better academically I'd go with them.
My second question is, how should I go about finding an apartment? What I'm doing right now is using Craigslist and Apartmentratings.com to find something good and then looking to see if the apartment complex has a website. Sometimes though the apartments aren't rated or the ratings are mixed. I'm not sure how to figure out what apartment might be good and what might be bad. Eventually I do intend to make a trip to Seattle to look at these places in person but how do I decide if I'll have a good or bad experience in a particular apartment? Many of the apartments on Craigslist are independent and aren't really affiliated with a big company and they don't have fancy websites or ratings to go off of. Are these viable options?
My third question is about neighborhoods. Which neighborhoods should I be looking at? The apartments I've liked so far are in Wedgewood, Central and Beltown. My mother is really worried about safety. She doesn't like the idea of me living in Central only because she's found a wiki with uncited information saying it was unsafe. I also intend to keep my car, at least initially, and Wedgewood seems more spread out than central Seattle though on the other hand central Seattle is an area I'd be in a lot anyway and it would be cool to live there.
Going back to apartments, my budget is around 800 a month for rent. I'm looking for studio apartments. I researched what it would cost to live in student housing at UW and it's very expensive, a complete rip-off if I decided to live in the student apartments (I don't think I could live in a residence hall). If my rent was 800 the utilities and other monthly expenses would bring my monthly expenditure to about the same as a UW apartment, maybe a little bit more, but the place would be much nicer. I've found Wedgewood Estates up north in Wedgewood, Legacy at Pratt Park in Central which is near Pratt Park, of course, and I also found Archstone Belltown in Beltown. Wedgewood is north of the U District, the rent is cheap (less than 700), it looks nice enough from the pictures and it's very well reviewed. It's far from the center of Seattle, though. I think while I'd go to school in the U District eventually most of my time I'd like to spend further south. Legacy at Pratt Park is 815 a month, the apartment building is less than a year old, and it's close to the middle of Seattle and Capitol Hill. The studio apartments are also very nice with a very modern look, W/D units in the apartment and there's underground parking available. There aren't any reviews for it, though and I'm not sure of the area. Archstone Belltown I don't know much about, I just found it. It doesn't appear to have W/D in the apartment which is important to me and I'm not very familiar with the Beltown neighborhood.
So H/A, what have you got for me? The apartments I've found already are nice but do you have any tips for finding more? Maybe I'm being too picky and a few are slipping through the cracks? Any information you have on the community colleges in the area would also be helpful, in addition to whatever knowledge you can impart about the neighborhoods I've mentioned or ones that you like yourselves.
Thanks!
It's been a year since I attended school, I was enrolled in a community college. I'm working on getting the money together for the move and if it works out I'll have enough time to transfer to a community college in Seattle and get an apartment. If that doesn't work out I'll stay in Upstate NY for another year and then transfer to the University of Washington. I'll attend school and live off of my financial aid though I may get a small job. I've looked into the requirements for becoming a resident and I'm unwilling to work the necessary 30 hours a week while attending school to become a resident and receive in-state tuition. The difference between in-state and out-of-state is significant but I'd like to concentrate on school after putting it off and working for so long.
My first question is which community college to attend? Right now I'm considering North Seattle and Seattle Central. I'm not sure about my major yet besides that it will definitely be a science, either biology or physics most likely. I don't know much about either school academically, all I know are their locations and that North Seattle has a God awful website whereas Seattle Central's website is much more informative. North Seattle is also situated closer to UW and one of the apartments I was looking at is also in that area. Seattle Central is in Capitol Hill, a neighborhood I'll probably be visiting often and one of the other apartments I'm looking at is nearby. I'm leaning towards Seattle Central right now because of the website but if North Seattle is better academically I'd go with them.
My second question is, how should I go about finding an apartment? What I'm doing right now is using Craigslist and Apartmentratings.com to find something good and then looking to see if the apartment complex has a website. Sometimes though the apartments aren't rated or the ratings are mixed. I'm not sure how to figure out what apartment might be good and what might be bad. Eventually I do intend to make a trip to Seattle to look at these places in person but how do I decide if I'll have a good or bad experience in a particular apartment? Many of the apartments on Craigslist are independent and aren't really affiliated with a big company and they don't have fancy websites or ratings to go off of. Are these viable options?
My third question is about neighborhoods. Which neighborhoods should I be looking at? The apartments I've liked so far are in Wedgewood, Central and Beltown. My mother is really worried about safety. She doesn't like the idea of me living in Central only because she's found a wiki with uncited information saying it was unsafe. I also intend to keep my car, at least initially, and Wedgewood seems more spread out than central Seattle though on the other hand central Seattle is an area I'd be in a lot anyway and it would be cool to live there.
Going back to apartments, my budget is around 800 a month for rent. I'm looking for studio apartments. I researched what it would cost to live in student housing at UW and it's very expensive, a complete rip-off if I decided to live in the student apartments (I don't think I could live in a residence hall). If my rent was 800 the utilities and other monthly expenses would bring my monthly expenditure to about the same as a UW apartment, maybe a little bit more, but the place would be much nicer. I've found Wedgewood Estates up north in Wedgewood, Legacy at Pratt Park in Central which is near Pratt Park, of course, and I also found Archstone Belltown in Beltown. Wedgewood is north of the U District, the rent is cheap (less than 700), it looks nice enough from the pictures and it's very well reviewed. It's far from the center of Seattle, though. I think while I'd go to school in the U District eventually most of my time I'd like to spend further south. Legacy at Pratt Park is 815 a month, the apartment building is less than a year old, and it's close to the middle of Seattle and Capitol Hill. The studio apartments are also very nice with a very modern look, W/D units in the apartment and there's underground parking available. There aren't any reviews for it, though and I'm not sure of the area. Archstone Belltown I don't know much about, I just found it. It doesn't appear to have W/D in the apartment which is important to me and I'm not very familiar with the Beltown neighborhood.
So H/A, what have you got for me? The apartments I've found already are nice but do you have any tips for finding more? Maybe I'm being too picky and a few are slipping through the cracks? Any information you have on the community colleges in the area would also be helpful, in addition to whatever knowledge you can impart about the neighborhoods I've mentioned or ones that you like yourselves.
Thanks!
Sarksus on
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You can also find some apartments within your budget on the hill. Some of them are within a block or two of SCCC.
Don't keep your car unless you end up moving out in one of the suburb neighborhoods. If you land a spot downtown-ish (Capitol/First Hill, Belltown, Queen Anne, Ballard/Fremont, maybe Wallingford) it'll be more of a hassle than it's worth.
Don't live in Belltown. Wedgwood is out in the middle of the sticks. The Central District is a little low-rent, but it's fine. Ballard & Fremont get expensive. Lower Queen Anne is centrally-located and cheap, with access to a lot of buslines and amenities.
We really do need a sticky for these sorts of things.
As for looking for apartments, either craigslist or NW classifieds. I would say the non official apartment places are perfectly valid, just ask the landlord to send you some pictures and map out the area with bus routes and such. Avoid school housing like the plague unless you just want to make some quick friends in your first year. It is way more expensive and restrictive than off campus housing.
Good luck!
Basic general advice: Buses are going to be your best friend. Generally, it is easier to go North-South than East-West in buses. There are tons of buses that go downtown/Capitol Hill to North Seattle and vice versa. You'll probably commute by bus. I-5 is pretty much the main thing in Seattle, so close to I-5 is also a big plus since more often than not when you drive anywhere in Seattle, you'll get on I-5 at some point.
Wedgewood/North Seattle: I recommend. Wedgewood in particular is a nice residential area. I bet the rent there is a little overpriced, though. If you think North Seattle is the general area you are interested in, consider Roosevelt, Maple Leaf, or Northgate. With the car, Green Lake, Ballard, and Wallingford are possibilities, with Fremont also a possibility if you a party kind of dogg who wants to live close to party spots and is willing to pay a premium for it. The University District is a special candidate. Rent will be really cheap, every kind of store you need to go to is in walking distance, excellent restaurants, excellent bars, and tons of buses, not to mention that you may be attending UW soon and would want to be within walking distance. On the other hand, it is kind of a dangerous neighborhood (compared to the rest of the city, it is still Candyland compared to the bad parts of Baltimore or something) and some people just don't click with the U District - I would regularly hear drunks carousing outside my apartment at 2AM on a Tuesday, sirens, occasional gun shots, there's not enough parking, etc. 15th Ave NE is the most important street in North Seattle. The closer you are to that, the closer you are to buses, which are the best way to get from North Seattle to downtown.
Belltown: No, too expensive and kind of lame anyways.
Central/Capitol Hill: Close to Seattle Central if that's what you are into. Ditch the car, there is no parking and as with North Seattle, buses abound. Rent will probably be a little bit higher. It might be a little more dangerous, but no more so than the U District and really not very dangerous. I'm not as familiar with specific points in the neighborhood as in North Seattle.
If you have any questions about particular locations, particularly in North Seattle, PM me. I lived in North Seattle for the first 22 years of my life and I can probably give you bits of advice like "That place is good, there's a grocery store 2 blocks away" kind of stuff.
If I did keep the car I'd stick with places in north Seattle like Wedgewood, I've heard good things about Green Lake. What about Lake City? In the past threads I've dug up Lake City wasn't recommended but I found a complex that looks alright.
More thoughts on apartment finding and the neighborhoods would be appreciated, thank you all for your help! I was also wondering about how to move. One of the biggest reasons to get rid of my car would be so I didn't have to drive it all the way across the country. For what little I do want sent to my apartment I could hire a moving company I'd guess? I don't know much about that. How is this usually done? I'm also wondering how I'll move large pieces of furniture into my apartment. Do most complexes have freight elevators? One of the complexes is pretty tall, whereas the others are more mid-rises but they would still be difficult to haul things into. I guess an advantage of living in the north is there's more room to spread out and the apartments are more accessible?
Thanks everyone.
Lake City is pretty out of the way; it's on the east side, though it does have bus service. Some complexes have elevators, some have freight elevators, and some just have stairs (mine just has stairs, but it's only about a dozen apartments, and four flours).
I found my apartment by choosing a few neighborhoods I wanted to live in (U-District, Wallingford, Fremont, and Green Lake in my case), set a price range, then set up appointments to tour as many apartments as I could. I flew out for a weekend, looked at 15 apartments on Saturday (right after arriving), then one apartment on Sunday (since that's the one I ended up taking). Saturday was a rough day, and my roommate and I split up a couple of times to check out different apartments, though it doesn't sound like you could do that.
If you want to fly out for a weekend on the cheap, there is a youth hostel downtown, or, depending on the weekend, you could probably crash on my couch.
You may want to consider getting a friend to move with you; I know that helped me a ton my first year here. Much like Upstate, it's very easy to just lock yourself in your room and never come out and see anyone. In addition, it makes rent way cheaper (I'm splitting a huge two-bedroom with a roommate for $1120, water/sewer/garbage included).
As far as neighborhoods go, north Seattle neighborhoods (Wedgewood, Fremont, Wallingford, Green Lake, Greenwood) are going to have cheaper, nicer apartments than Belltown or Cap Hill. On the other hand, Cap Hill is pretty much where the action is. There are some neighborhoods that are awesome, but less accessible (Ballard comes to mind). I tend to agree with Makershot that Belltown should be avoided.
The reason why I'm hesitant to try apartments owned by smaller companies or individuals is because with bigger complexes I can find reviews from people who have lived there for awhile. If I don't have reviews I'm not sure how I'd decide, even by touring the apartment, if there will be any problems with the apartment or the management. Any tips on how to critique a place when you only have 30-60 minutes?
I don't know anyone who I could room with in Seattle and I definitely don't want to find a stranger to live with just yet.
I found this place: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/1759025941.html
800 a month, utilities included, no deposit for the cat I'd like to bring, and it's extremely close to Seattle Central CC and there's a bus stop right outside. It kind of seems too good to be true. I've put it on my list to check out but is this place actually possible or must there be some kind of catch?
Edit: Hahaha, I found the complex's website. This place doesn't have stairs. It's all ramps! Should make moving in a snap!
There is nothing about that posting which seems like a scam to me (eg: price etc...). What those pictures don't show is that is right near the freeway so it will be a bit noisy from traffic. Also, It's a very good bet that none of the electical outlets in the building are grounded (eg: all 2 prong sockets).
Overall it seems like a nice place. I have friends who live a couple blocks from there.
btw: The only advice I have is to avoid any buildings owned / managed by a company called Coho. They mostly do apartment slums in the U-District.
On the plus side--hey, right across the street from Clever Dunne's.
Maybe I'll just have to get over it by being a part of the bar crowd every night
I've lived in the Cap Hill area for about a year and a half now, only the area immediately around Broadway tends to be noisy, the rest is pretty calm.
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So none of these options are very good! I'd like to start school as soon as possible, I don't think 6 credits a semester will be enough to boost my transcript so I can get into UW, and if I took a regular 15 credit workload I wouldn't enjoy working 30 hours a week very much. In addition it's not clear if I have to work this just the first year or if I have to continue working 30 hours a week the entire time I'm attending school. Once I start UW I want to be able to concentrate on school exclusively so I'd either not work or get only 10 hours at the most for spending money.
If, however, I were able to obtain residency and get the in-state tuition, I'd save almost 17,000 a year in tuition! I'm shooting for a PhD and I'm looking for ways to cut down on as much debt as possible. Should I forget about residency and just suck it up and pay or should I take an additional year off (it's been a year since I've attended college) and try to obtain residency?
And once I obtain residency the first time is that it or do I have to keep to these guidelines the entire time I'm attending school? If I only had to work 30 hours a week for the one year while taking on a full courseload I would be willing to do that if I could drop the job once I've obtained residency but like I said it's not clear if this is the case.
Honestly, I doubt anyone here is gonna be able to answer that
Personally, I would say you should get residency if it's going to save you that much money. A year off school vs crippling debt (unless you are rolling in dough, then all bets are off) seems like an easy choice to me.
Once you establish residency for Washington per the guidelines of the school (for purposes of the state it's much easier), unless you establish residency somewhere else, it's yours, and you can become a full-time student.
Make sure that when you move out here, you get at least one utility put in your name, because they won't accept any other sort of mail as proof of residency.
To illustrate, my wife and I will be moving in to a place with brand new gym, pool, and tennis courts, a gated community located a few blocks from the highway and right next to a grocery store, 1045 square feet with recent model GE appliances for $525 a month - and it's still only rated at 44%.
Then again, when I was hunting, it was really hard to find a place; now, not so much.
If getting to and from UW is a primary concern then I'd check out Wallingford and Ravenna as two other neighborhoods to consider. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorites spots are in Capitol Hill, but it wouldn't be my first or second choice for location to live.
Buses don't run all night, right? At least initially I'll probably be out late and I'd like to live someplace where I can walk to my destination and walk back home. 20 minutes isn't very far for a commute, either. My commute to the community college in my area now takes 30 minutes and I have to drive.
What don't you like about Capitol Hill as a place to live?
In all seriousness, the Capitol Hill party scene does get a little hipster and/or gay at times. I didn't mind the gays so much as the hipsters, but it wasn't my thing. Maybe it's because I'm young and I can ignore frat guys with ease, but I preferred the U district bar scene better.
Keep in mind Seattle is not that big in terms of area. Even without a bus, its usually no more than 2 miles to anywhere (though there are a lot of hills).
How much would a moving company cost?
It would be an adventure, in both senses of the word,but you could rent a U-haul truck* and drive over there yourself for roughly $3K including gas. U-haul has a section of the sign-up process that lets you hire a couple of guys for a certain number of hours to help you move the big stuff. You can hire people for loading and unloading if you need, just have it all packed and ready to rock when they show up. They usually charge something like $30-75 per man-hour (e.g. $170 for two people for two hours) to help but they don;t pack for you.
I recently helped my Dad move from NH to OH, and if everything is packed in boxes already you could probably load an apartment's worth of stuff in an hour. He had a 30-foot storage unit of furniture, boxes, and cast-iron railroad paraphernalia (plus another unit with 10-feet of stuff and a 41 Ford Coupe). We hired 3 guys and we were done with all that in 2.5 hours.
*which could tow your car if you want to take it.
Some neighborhoods have a more distinct feel than others. Capitol Hill is definitely hipster. I don't mean to suggest you're going to drown in a sea of skinny jeans--and as I said, it's got some of my favorite spots. I just wanted to make sure you knew the vibe your new neighborhood was going to have before moving there. If that's your thing, then awesome. Enjoy.
I mean, I love it, too, but it's basically a little piece of Portland transplanted to the middle of Seattle.
As for moving, I've had the idea of renting out one of those PODS, stuffing all of my crap in them (mostly books, computer equipment, a few other things), having them ship it to my new apartment (a service they do provide) and have it meet me there at my apartment. As for furniture, I think I've settled on IKEA to furnish the place for the most part and they'll deliver everything right to my apartment door.
Thanks everyone for the advice so far, it's been ridiculously helpful.
I've been keeping the area that cheap apartment (with utilities included) was in in mind, looking for other places nearby, but I've also been checking out the Pine/Pike triangle. There are three places I've found that I liked, though they're a little more expensive (much more modern and they're managed by companies), and one of them is actually above a Trader Joe's which would be pretty damn convenient for me. I imagine this area is probably kind of noisy? I've heard mixed things.
I'd check the actual shipping costs on that. It tends to be prohibitively expensive particularly when Ikea is just a 20 minute drive south. If you're contemplating buying anything bigger than a plate I'd recommend making friends with someone that has a pick-up truck.
Good point. If I can't find anyone I can probably get a truck from Zipcars too I think?