Trying to find a place to live in Atlanta... (hotel, house)

[Atlanta_BD]

I've said for years (and posted in other threads recently) about how Atlanta businesses do not respond lol. It's true! Customer service there is horrible. Being that this is the case, the OP is going to have to be proactive and pound the pavement. You are right that the OP needs to do his search on foot. That's what I did there whenever I found an apartment. I'd drive or walk around then I'd go into the places to inquire. I also walked neighborhoods looking for "for rent" signs and I'd write the names numbers posted on buildings for management companies and go online and look up their websites.

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

LOL at how everyone jumped on the OP!

FWIW, I agree Atlanta businesses, including apartment complexes are very bad at returning phone calls. OP you will either have to use a service, and hopefully Promove will call you back rather quickly, or just do like I did and go to all the apartment complexes around you and ask if they have units available. You should also drive through neighborhoods and look for "For Rent" signs from individual owners or call a realtor company like Remax or Partner's Management both of whom rent homes and see what they have available.

But all the places I found, I just walked over to them and called/harrassed them until they called me back. Once it did take about 2 months for us to find a place. That is actually what made us go ahead and buy a house. And even dealing with realtors in Atlanta (not our personal one luckily but the selling agents) was pretty atrocious IMO. I recently moved away from Atlanta and am enjoying the good customer service and quick call backs.

If my house wasn't rented I'd send you the link to see if you like it but it is. We rented it within a couple weeks because we were serious about getting someone in it. Many times in Atlanta, I felt that in real estate people were just sitting on their a$$es all day. Our realtor was from Chicago and she was on her money for both us buying our house and renting it out when we moved away this past summer. She has the "hustle" mindset and my husband who is also from Chicago felt and still feels that many business people in Atlanta just don't have that sort of drive and are content to not make money where money can be made.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by lem1985

no way in hell every businesses or apartment complexes in Atlanta is not returning phone calls. Hell I did research online for some apartments and got calls and emails in a 20-30 min time frame. If a person is going to complain in a new area that they have never lived in should maybe just find another area to move to or go back to what they know. I know a few people that are realtors that I grew up with and we all are from Atlanta and they do not sit on they ass. They are bad and good apples everywhere maybe you came across bad apples or whomever you talked too probably got pissed off at you for whatever reason and said hell I'm not calling them back....... We will never know the other side of the story

I didn't say every business was like that but being that I did live in Atlanta nearly 20 years, I know what the culture in Atlanta in the business community is not the same in other parts of the country. I explained this phenomenon to people I knew who had recently moved to Atlanta or who were frustrated with the lack of good service as the "pass the buck" culture. I do truly feel that in general many businesses in Atlanta that deal with the public, and even government office locations have this same mentalilty. They always try to send you away or avoid customer contact instead of just handling the issue/call.

FWIW, prior to us having to look for a place for 2 months in Atlanta, we had rented a house where the landlord didn't pay their mortgage and we got an eviction notice from the county. We went to court and offered to buy the house from the bank/realtor and was given their contact information. We contacted them and they said no??? That house is still vacant and that was back in 2006. Where I live now if you call a bank or the county and say you want to buy a house they will ask "how much are you willing to pay" lol and they will close as soon as possible. Not so in Atlanta, things move much slower than other larger and even smaller cities IMO in regards to real estate transactions especially. The house I live in currently in Ohio, I put in an offer on 9/10, it was accepted on 9/11 and we closed on 9/26. It took nearly 60 days to close in Atlanta on our house there that we eventually bought.

Originally Posted by bhammaster

So that explains all your posts.



I wonder what kind of nut cases Atlanta creates on city-data that they spend their days posting vitriol with absolutely nothing positive on the Atlanta forum after they have moved away from here.


Some of these posters barely if even post in the forums of their new homes.


It's so weird and creepy that I don't see this behavior in any other city forum.

LOL, where did I post any "vitriol." I only recently moved from Atlanta and I do still own property there and will be making frequent trips there to check on my property and visit the many friends I still have in the metro. I actually do like Atlanta and if you search my post, like many of you like to do here, you will see that I have said many favorable things about Atlanta. You will also see I have posted where i currently live and in other localities and I post in other forums here on City Data too. So I'm not some negative vitriol spewing Atlanta hater lol

We all have different experiences there and I am not one to think any place is all great and fine and dandy all the time. I don 't live in la-la land.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by bhammaster

So that explains all your posts.



I wonder what kind of nut cases Atlanta creates on city-data that they spend their days posting vitriol with absolutely nothing positive on the Atlanta forum after they have moved away from here.


Some of these posters barely if even post in the forums of their new homes.


It's so weird and creepy that I don't see this behavior in any other city forum.

How do you know if these so-called atlanta haters aren't posting in their new city unless you're following them on the forums monitoring their activities so you can have something too say? You don't think that makes you look weird and creepy?

[Larry X]

Im in the same boat trying to find a decent apt in Smyrna or SW ATL for $700/mnt. Please help

[ATLTJL]

I can honestly say _ I never had a particularly difficult time finding nice apartments to live in in Atlanta. But then again, I used ProMove. So there's that.

Me too. Sometimes, I used ProMove. Other times, common sense. Both seemed to work fairly well.

[atl2chi]

I second or third or whatever ProMove. I moved back to Atlanta from Charlotte in August. I contacted ProMove around the 24th of July. I received an email and a call the next day. I came to Atlanta on Aug 2nd and worked with the ProMove agent who was very helpful in pulling complexes within my budget and preferred area. I viewed a ton of apartments as that was the only day I had to look, I found an apartment that same day. I worked with the Sandy Springs (Roswell Road) ProMove office.

[Larry X]

Yeah ill definitely use ProMove, heard they were great.

[Listennow32]

This thread is like one giant advertisement for ProMove

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by Listennow32

This thread is like one giant advertisement for ProMove

Haha seriously. I keep coming back to it but all I see is use Promove!

[YGB]

Originally Posted by magusat999

Its going on three weeks and I cannot seem to find a decent place - or any place to live here. The process is slow, the people are unresponsive (rental, leasing, realtors, etc.). When I do drop-ins its usually a horror story (dirty, bug infested units mostly). Im simply looking for a clean, pest-free, bug spray smell free, 2+ br apartment, townhome or preferably house. I have the money and my qualifications are okay - its this slow as a snail process thats killing me! If this was California I'd be in a place in 4 days tops! What is it with Atlanta? And whats with all the best properties under the rent to own program??? Im seriously thinking it was a mistake to move here, as I sit in this damn Hotel wasting my money that some landlord could have instead.

I was in a similar situation 2 months ago. I moved here with my wife and son from out of the country after just retiring from the military. It was hard getting a house to rent with no current rental history or job (taking a few months off to enjoy retirement). My cousin told me to forgo the usual places (Zillow, Rent.com) and try Craigslist. BINGO! I found a nice three bedroom in my price in an area we like. The landlord understood my situation and worked, did a background and credit check and we got the house within a week after making contact.

What I'm trying to say is, to just stick with it and you may have to hound realtors and companies to get back with you. I've never been in a place where realtors won't return your calls or if they do it's several days later.