Canadian moving to Dallas area (Plano??) (rental, chapel, best place)

[canadiannurse]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my thread, all of your suggestions have been very helpful. I guess my daughter will be going to elementary school, she'll only be in grade 6.....so I was wrong about looking into middle schools.

The apartment complexes we have been considering are Townes of Chapel Hill, Livingston, Bentley Place, Mission gate, Villas of Spring Creek and Camden Legacy. If anyone has info on these it would be great, keeping in mind I need a 3 bed, have a young family and would really like an attached garage, in the price range of $1500/month.
Can't wait to finally be there, it's coming soon!

[Pintea]

We rented a three bedroom townhouse at Towns of Chapel Hill, it has an attached two-car garage. Rent was less than $1400, but that was a couple of years ago. We were there for almost one year, very pleased overall.
Your other choices are in the same general area, I am assuming they are just fine.
If your daughter is going into sixth grade she will be in middle school. Bentley Place is probably closest to Renner, I think she can even walk to school from there.

[BigCanada]

Originally Posted by canadiannurse

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my thread, all of your suggestions have been very helpful. I guess my daughter will be going to elementary school, she'll only be in grade 6.....so I was wrong about looking into middle schools.

The apartment complexes we have been considering are Townes of Chapel Hill, Livingston, Bentley Place, Mission gate, Villas of Spring Creek and Camden Legacy. If anyone has info on these it would be great, keeping in mind I need a 3 bed, have a young family and would really like an attached garage, in the price range of $1500/month.
Can't wait to finally be there, it's coming soon!

I posted yesterday on moving from Omaha to Arlington (Dallas) and the incredible task of finding a place. Some things that helped me out was I used apartmentguide.com to find the complexes that had what I was looking for, then cross-referenced them with apartmentratings.com.
For example, apartmentratings.com has a page on Camden Legacy. Here it is...
Camden Legacy Creek Ratings, Reviews, Map, Rents, and other Plano apartments for rent from ApartmentRatings.com

If you have it narrowed down to certain communities, often times the local PD will have a website with very valuable links regarding crime and property statistics. For instance I found these from the Arlington PD.
http://www.arlingtontx.gov/codecompl.../apiscores.pdf
http://www.arlingtontx.gov/codecompl..._checklist.pdf (broken link)

They rate all of the apartment complexes based on a series of values that all properties should have.
Let me know if there is anything I can do locally to help. (I have only been here a total of 7 days.)

BTW where in Canada are you from? I am originally from Barrie, Ontario.

Hope this helps!!

[canadiannurse]

I'm coming from London, ON. So not that far from Barrie! we are getting pretty excited, and nervous about the move.....but we'll look at it as an adventure. I have been using some of the rating websites, and all the complexes seem to have negative ratings (usually about the management though) so it's hard to pick over the internet, without actually seeing the grounds, apts. etc Oh well, we'll see what happens. Thanks for the info!

[austinnetx]

Originally Posted by longhornfan22

OMG! It is not an hour from Plano to Dallas Children's Hospital! It is only about a 30 minute commute in traffic. I know many people that work there that live in Plano, and they have said it only takes about 30 minutes in traffic. They said that when there is no traffic, like at night, they can be there in 20 minutes.

No, it is not. I live in 75056 and have done work at Childrens over the years. I have to leave at least an hour before my appointment to make sure I make it on time. If its going to be rush hour, I leave 90 minutes prior.

People, keep in mind that giving someone like this the wrong advice will lead to a lot of misery on their part.

If you want to live in Plano, you might look at working at Plano Presby, McKinney Medical Center, or Baylor on PGBT. All three are easy commutes if you live in Plano.

[rentingindfw]

There are lots of nice apts in the Plano area.
There are 10 that have opened in the last year.
You should use a agent to help you with your Search.
Makes life so much easier!

[rentingindfw]

the apartment ratings isnt a place to look.
thats where everyone goes to complain
there is no way to verify anything written there
the management companies change here a lot to so more than likely it was the old managment.

our last 3 clients move here site unseen

[rentingindfw]

Originally Posted by Pintea

Windhaven comes to mind. There are a couple of apartments on Chapel Hill, behind Willow Bend Mall. There are others in the area, by Parker and Tollway. They all feed into Renner Middle School, which is very good. You are also right by the tollway, so it should make things easier for your commute.

Windhaven isnt all that
The property is 15 years old.

[Lakewooder]

6th grade is in middle school in some districts.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

6th grade is in middle school in some districts.

Correct. Some districts have "middle schools" and some have "junior high school".

Here is how it USUALLY goes in and around the Dallas area:

Junior High - this school will have 7th & 8th grades.

Middle School - this school will have 6th, 7th & 8th grades.