Buying a home in/near Cobb County GA, need advice on RENTING first! (Roswell: apartment complexes)

[lanjvc]

Hello all,

My husband and I are moving from New York City in July. We have visited GA twice with intentions to purchase our first home. Unfortunately, we have not found the right home as of yet, and our employment for GA is not in place as of yet either. However, we didnt want these things to spoil our move because we really fell in love with GA. We have decided to rent an apartment first in Cobb County. We are also open to renting from apartments around this county. Please if you have any suggestions to share regarding great apartment complexes, with great schools, and family friendly (and reasonable rent rates; cause we still are furture home buyers) neighborhoods it would be very helpful. Also if any one wants to share any tips for our transition; maybe because you rented first too before purchasing, that would be great! Thanks

[Twinkletoes]

No job? You will be asked to verify your income. In general, your income has to be 3x your rent.

If you have enough in savings, just be prepared to prove it.

[Go Blue 99]

Don't forget to ask each apt complex about their broken lease penalty. If you find a great house, you may want to break your lease and buy the home.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by Twinkletoes

No job? You will be asked to verify your income. In general, your income has to be 3x your rent.

If you have enough in savings, just be prepared to prove it.

This is especially true of all of the "Post Properties" - as a matter of fact I think some of them require you to make MORE than 3X the rent plus have a pretty high credit score on top of it. To be honest most of them are built pretty shotty as well (thin walls) and you're basically paying for elaborate landscaping and ammenities that you may not even use. While others may have more specific names of communities in mind, my advice would be "avoid Post".

Once you do have a list of communities, check out apartment ratings at: Apartment Ratings - Apartments for Rent with Ratings and Reviews from Actual Renters . You can read opinions from actual renters in those communities. Keep in mind that people tend to write more when they're angry rather than to just give praise, but if you see a lot of complaints about a particular problem (same issue) amongst many renters, it may show an issue with that community. Likewise sometimes employees will sneak in there to write bubbly reviews of their own places, but you can usually spot them as they're a bit overly done on the good side. Either way, it's one resource at least.

[lawmommy]

If you care about good schools (i.e., you have kids who will be attending school in the fall), you'll want to be looking in East Cobb. There aren't many apartments (perhaps none!) in the good school districts of East Cobb. You might want to consider renting a condo or townhome. There are a few clusters of condo/townhome communities in the Walton school district behind Parkaire Crossing shopping center off Lower Roswell Road. Also a few more down near the Chattahoochee River off Johnson Ferry Road and another cluster behind the Old Towne shopping center off Johnson Ferry Road. I believe all of these condos and townhomes go to either Sope Creek or Timber Ridge Elementary, and to Dickerson Middle School and Walton High School. I'd recommend a trip down for a weekend of driving around in these neighborhoods and calling realtors who have posted rental signs in the windows. Or, you may want to see if a buyers agent might be willing to help you find a short-term rental in the area while they help you find a house to buy.

[gimafab]

Originally Posted by lanjvc

Hello all,

We are also open to renting from apartments around this county. Please if you have any suggestions to share regarding great apartment complexes, with great schools, and family friendly (and reasonable rent rates; cause we still are furture home buyers) neighborhoods it would be very helpful. Also if any one wants to share any tips for our transition; maybe because you rented first too before purchasing, that would be great! Thanks

Hi,

If so how did you go about your find? We are looking for occupancy effective 9/1. Your insight would be helpful. Thxs