Young sisters moving to the Atlanta area (Decatur: apartments, rentals)

[AyzaliWali]

My sister's whose 19 and I are looking to move to the Atlanta area either the start of February or perhaps March. I've done quite a bit of research on my own but felt the need to gain additional information for those who're current residents. She wants to attend the culinary arts school while I want to finish my education in business management and engineering. We both have jobs, and we've already started the process of transferring. Neither of us have much in establish credit history so we figure it would be hard to gain approval for certain housing. We've shared an apt for almost a year now with little trouble so we're capable.

1. Budget: 1,000-1,300
2. House/Condo/Townhome?: any would be fine
3. Employment Status(commute/work from home): commute
4. Children(public school vs. private): No Children
5. Suburban or Urban lifestyle preference or a mix of the two: Doesn't matter just want a sense of security
6. Easy access to public transit, important or not?: Not important but would be nice in case of trouble.
7. Preferable demographics of desired neighborhood.: Doesn't matter

[testa50]

Is there something specific you're wondering about?

Just find out where your jobs will be and then try to live as close as possible. Schools shouldn't matter so you'll have plenty of options. If you want to live in a trendy area, you'll run into some trouble on that budget, unless you don't mind sharing a 1/1. 2/2s are not available in that budget in most parts of Atlanta.

[AyzaliWali]

Well our jobs are both within the city of Atlanta we do know that much. We'd like to live around young professionals and we're also open to a possible third roommate to cut expenses. My primary question is; are their rentals companies that are open to people with little credit? More so directed at college students whose just starting out on their own? I don't want to waste our time applying and having our credits ran constantly only to be told we don't have enough established.

[testa50]

Do you have bad credit or simply not much credit history? I would think between you and your sister if you both have jobs it shouldn't be that difficult given a lack of credit history. You can always explain the situation upfront and say you're willing to put down a larger security deposit. If you're struggling to make payments on big CC debt then that's a different story.

Most college-focused apartments don't expect the tenants to be working and usually require parents to cosign in the absence of a job. With a job I'm not sure, but they probably lean towards having parents cosign anyways.

Given your new budget:

You can definitely find a nice 1/1 in your price range in a nice area (Inman Park, Midtown, Decatur, Virginia Highland, etc). 2/2s will tend to be in somewhat more marginal areas intown or in suburbs, but they definitely exist in that range. Having a third roommate won't necessarily lower costs because you'll need to have an extra bedroom for the third roommate, but there are definitely houses you can rent out for $1500-$1800 that will accommodate three people. The credit situation might be tough though.

[CollegeStudentinAtl]

Also try Promove.com

They are a free company in helping you find a great apartment. Promove help me out a lot when I was looking.
Also I would try craigslist/apartments,housing. Craigslist usually have posts on some great deal on apartments Promove might have missed.

[AyzaliWali]

My sister has none, and I have minimal not bad. We figured we'd have one of our parents cosign and are already speaking on them doing such for us. We typically prefer to do it on our own so it's a last stitch thing to rely on them. Thank you for the sites we're going to look into them. Cheers!