Renting in Eugene (Dallas, Coburg: apartment complexes, renters, crime)

[orgonebox]

My girlfriend and I are moving to Eugene in July. We currently own a home right now. While we plan on buying a house within six months or so, we're going to rent first to check things out.

What property management companies should we trust, and which come with heavy caveats? For example, on craigslist I've seen lots of properties listed by Emerald and Umbrella. Are they okay? Anybody have experience either listing a property to be managed by these folks or experience as tenants? All advice and references are welcome.

Also, if any readers happen to have a property they want leased, or know someone, pm is cool. Keep in mind we're looking at July sometime for our move-in. We've got some dogs and cats, but we've negotiated with someone to watch a few of them until we get settled in a permanent home. However, we have to have pets, so there's that.

[haggardhouseelf]

We've never leased a home through any of the area property management companies - so hopefully someone else will reply to your post. I will say that I have heard really negative things about Bell from a few of our neighbors who have done business with them in the past, though...

You can sometimes find more info on yelp.com and also yahoo local reviews Dallas City Pages on Yahoo! Local. Find Businesses, Services and Events near Dallas, TX (I don't know why taht sways dallas... just type in 97402 or another eugene zip and you'll find local eugene info)

There are actually some really nice three bedroom apartments called Boulders on the River who allow dogs and cats. They have a really nice three bedroom floorplan that feels roomy like a home, with two fairly large balconies and views of the river (it's right off the bike path and within walking distance of Valley River Mall). There are other apartment communities like that around town, you might save a little money that way since you're just renting long enough to find a home to buy. We are a family of four currently renting an apartment while we find our home and we're actually very happy currently. We're saving a lot of money by renting an apartment instead of an entire house. Utilities are much less, monthly rent is much less, and move-in costs were much lower.

[Englishman in Eugene]

We tried to communicate with Umbrella but fou we were nd them generally unhelpful. They won't work via email, and we were in London UK and not able to made daily visits during office hours.

We ended up with Heron Meadows, just off Danebo and Roosevelt, and are very happy with them. They were good at communicating, understood our situation (moving to Eugene from the UK so we could not see them in person until we arrived), accepted that we wouldn't have an income straight away but had sufficient savings to cover our rent for months. They allow pets, we brought a cat with us and have adopted a second one since, and several neighbours have dogs.

I wuldn't hesitate to recommend Heron Meadows if they are in the price range you are looking for.

Welcome to Heron Meadows Apartments!

[raeaela]

There are a lot of great apartments here in eugene and then some loud, awful complexes. I usually check forrent.com and then apartmentratings.com to see what people really think of them.

I like Jennings property management and Bell Propertys.

Depending on your price point will depend on the apartment. Having lived in quite a few, i can honestly say that my favorite is The Heron Club on Goodpasture loop-central to everything!
Cresent Village is a new gorgeous upscale complex i really want to move into though.

Best of luck!

[orgonebox]

Thanks for the suggestions, but we're really trying to avoid apartment complexes. We're not totally misanthropic, but I like to play loud music (instruments and stereo) now and then, and the less people around to complain about it, the better. Rent isn't so much a factor as location and pet-friendliness - and a reasonable landlord. We'll probably only sign a six-month lease if we can, as we don't want to rent for very long. Sometimes a landlord is a human being, and other times a fiendish parasite suitable only for the purpose of being staked to the ground near an anthill and covered in honey. But generally, all any petit-bourgeois parasite wants is money, and so long as they get it, and there aren't any maintenance problems, the deal works.

[strudel42]

Many of the more affordable rentals I see are listed as being in W. or NW. Eugene. Why is this area less expensive? The homes look nice, although not very convenient to downtown. Is there anything else all of us potential renters should know about that neighborhood? Thanks!

[1208]

It is just a cheaper, lower income area.

[haggardhouseelf]

Crime is much higher in those areas as well. Just the other day I was speaking with the wife of a Eugene police officer and she was explaining to me why they left the west Eugene area and moved to the Sheldon area. Evidently things are getting much worse over there. She said something, too, about how they also closed a police station there and now rely solely on patrols, which she and her husband felt were bad ideas. There's a feeling there, she said, of a lack of police presence and people don't feel as safe.

I think those areas are more affordable, too, because of being so much closer to the industrial sites as well as the train tracks. There was the creosote issues a few years ago in that area as well... I'm not sure what the latest is on that. It's just not as desirable an area to live, really. There are much better areas of Eugene to live in, most definitely. But if you keep going west out to Bethel or Danebo... Bethel can be nice. Good luck with your search.

[strudel42]

Thanks for the info. Will keep it in mind! I saw the train tracks on Google maps and wondered if it was an industrial area.

So... for non-college-y, quiet neighborhoods, seems like we should look in the N. and S. of town? We also really prefer not to live by too many young families. (Yeah, pretty much totally misanthropic, at least when it comes to our living situation! Having noisy neighbor children wake us up at 8:00 on a weekend is a bad thing.) I think I read somewhere that S. was hillier and so not as bike-friendly; is this true? Would prefer to live somewhere near the river, but not sure if we're gonna be able to find anything there to rent that's within our budget.

[haggardhouseelf]

I see people biking - and walking their bikes uphill - in the S. Hills/S. Eugene area. It's done, but I've never done it so I don't know how convenient or easy it is.

Coburg and Lorane are sweet little towns that are just outside of Eugene but feel like they're out in the middle of nowhere. Especially Lorane. If you want to be near Eugene for all the town has to offer, but be in a quiet and away from it all situation, that might be worth checking out. It's a flat area, too, so good for long bike rides. You'd most likely have to drive into town, though, when you wanted to do your shopping and such unless you're one of those serious longer distance type bikers.

Families with kids tend to stay outside of the college-y area but inside Eugene city limits because of the schools. So if you want to stay away from both 20-something's and the younger snot-nosed happy little boogers then you might consider that.