Moving to Rochester, MN

MegaMan001

I recently got a job at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN at their Medical ICU. I'm totally psyched. They paid for me to drive up and interview (I am from DeKalb, IL - Northern Illinois University) and have a laundry list of great benefits for the graduate nurse.

So, I start there February 11th and am attempting to find an apartment up there. Does anyone currently live in the area and have any suggestions? I've been looking online (Craig's List, etc.) but am having little luck on finding real information about apartments. Even places like ApartmentGuide.com don't have any up to date listings.

Alternative question, does anyone have any info on Oakwood apartments? http://www.oakwood.com/ is the website. It appears to be a lot more like an Extended Stay establishment, but I have no idea if they have year term leases or anything.

EggyToast

I'd strongly suggest simply getting a list of names, calling and scheduling a few days of appointments, and driving up there to see them. ApartmentGuide.com and the booklet is a sham, craigslist or local rochester papers are the way to go. StarTrib and PioneerPress are too twin-cities oriented.

Rochester is a nice place, so you probably won't end up in a pit, but even a good recommendation can be outdated or fall through. When my now-wife and I moved 1000 miles away from MN, we took a week to drive down and research apartments, simply because it was the only way to do it and be sure we'd have a place to move in to. My sister did the same thing when she moved to Colorado Springs this summer -- she made a mini-vacation out of it and scoped out a few places. It's really the only way to get a feel for what's going to work.

The alternative is to look for roommate openings or sublets, so you can get up there, put your stuff in storage, and spend a few months scoping the place out to see what the most convenient place to live would be. Often you need to live somewhere a few months to really "get" it, anyway. Rochester is pretty small, IMO, but I could see you changing your mind and wanting to move elsewhere after a few months. Minnesota, and in my opinion most of the midwest, has an odd mix of housing options. Some old stuff will be very architecturally interesting, but woefully out of date for a young person living by themselves (despite asking a high price for the dwelling), for instance.

YodaTuna

The worst part about Rochester is that it's like an hour from the twin cities. Otherwise it's a good town. If you like movies, the two movie theatres there are great and both are run by a good friend of mine. But the above poster is correct, there are not really any bad places to live there either.

MegaMan001

Do either of you have e-mail addresses of people I could get in contact with? When my brother moved to Chicago he had an apartment hunter help him out, are there any programs like that?

I've found a few really nice places around Mayo from Craig's List and am waiting on responses. It looks to be a great city, not to big and not to small (the last thing I wanted was to be near a place the size of Chicago, I like the smaller town feel). Plus, Mayo is just gorgeous.

MichaelLC

Congrats.

Rochester is great city. Homes looked very nice, downtown has some decent cultural activities, and the shopping (while no where as great as Chicago) is still pretty good. Plus it's not that far from Minn/St. Paul, so if you really need something, Mall of America isn't that far away.

I went to WSU (Winona, MN), and we'd head out to Rochester pretty frequently. A little farther than LaCrosse, but more variety.

As for spartments can't help too much, but think you'll have better luck with local classifieds than the Interweb:

http://postbulletin.com/

http://www.startribune.com/

http://www.rochestermn.gov/visitors/media.asp

Thanatos

What I did when I moved to Seattle was planned out a weekend, flew up, and scheduled a shitload of apartments all on a couple of days. Looking back, I would have been insane to trust to getting a place sight-unseen.

precisionk

Rochester is a decent place to live, biggest place around in south Minnesota.

www.rent411.com

www.apartments.com

are going to be your friends.

Rhino

Also do you know the address of the place your working? If so, then try and get a place close to work if possible... look at those apartments first. (hint googlemaps) Could say you from having a bad commute every morning.

MegaMan001

Thanatos, I do plan to check out these places. Mayo pays mileage + lodging + food for you to go up for 3 days and scope out apartments, this is just the preliminary stage where I am filtering out places I'd like to live.

From what I've seen, Rochester is like - built to serve Mayo as the town kind of surrounds the campus. Thanks for the links guys!