Single Professional 30 Yr Male Moving to Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood: for sale, apartment)

[Gator CPA]

Hey All,

I've just been offered and have accepted a new position in the Fort Lauderdale Area. My office will be located on Commercial Blvd. between I-95 and Dixie Hwy and I start in 2 weeks!

I will be making somewhere in the $50k range and I don't mind spending a little extra in order to find a nice apartment/condo in an upscale area among other single professionals.

I'm coming over from Naples and I know nothing of the east coast! Please help!

Thanks everyone!

[retiree1]

Numerous threads on this site have pointed out that there is a large concentration of young, single professionals in the downtown area along Las Olas Boulevard (zip code 33301). You should be able to afford at least a nice one bedroom and perhaps more. Young people seem to enjoy living there. That should be your first choice. Another area to consider would be along the beach (zip codes 33308 or 33304). Good luck!

[Nolefan34]

I agree with retiree that the largest concentration of younger singles is the downtown area, known as Las Olas. But it is also a very expensive area to live on a budget of $50,000. If you want to pay 1/2 of your paycheck in rent, then live there. Rents at the cheapest in those buildings are $1500/mo.

You may want to look for a private beach condo in Lauderdale By The Seas, Pompano Beach, or Hollywood. You can find some good, decent buildings with rents around $1000. You may also want to check out a community called Port Royale on US1 in Fort Lauderdale 15 minutes north of downtown. It is all younger people and the rents are affordable compared to other communities. You will pay somewhere around $1000/mo, but the units are also very small.

[lulutastic]

Hi and welcome! I wanted to respond as I am also a newcomer to the area, mid-twenties professional (a Canadian Chartered Accoutant... assuming from your username that you're a CPA?). The one area where I've had a LOT of exposure in the past couple weeks is with apt/condo-hunting. I am renting, and with a budget of around $1,500, was able to find a 2 bdrm/2 bath in a lovely spot in the Victoria Park area, just a few blocks from Las Olas downtown.

Here's the approach that worked for me, really just consisting of two main elements:

1) Get yourself access to the MLS listings. This is a database that lists all properties, for sale or rent, listed by realtors. All realtors have access to this db; knowledge is power, and you can empower yourself by checking out the listings yourself, cross-referencing properties you're interested in with a quick Google search, and presenting buildings that you would like to visit to your realtor. This guy has a pretty good site for searching the MLS listings -- you can sign up for free and browse the listings, with no obligation to use him as your realtor and a minimum of spam (I actually tried to contact him, but he didn't answered his phone and never returned my vm, heh): Apartment Rentals | Condos for rent - Fort Lauderdale

2) Hook yourself up with a hard-working, reliable realtor. You'll need a realtor in order to gain access to physically visit the properties you're interested in, if they come off MLS. If you want to be a bit more hands-off with the hunt, they will also scour the listings for you and propose properties within your price range that meet your criteria. Your realtor will also be able to give you an idea of what parts of town you want to be looking in, and they take care of all the running around to chase down listing agents. I had a great experience with my realtor -- direct message me if you want his name/contact.

Finally, to elaborate on Nolefan's remark about Port Royale above: this property is a gated community, and was near the top of my list of a long time. I visited and it appears to be a well-kept community, with the main management building as well as a pool on the Intracoastal (very pretty). Once I got into the units, I found them to be a little underwhelming, felt a little old (despite recent renos to the interior), and there was a distinct lack of natural light. The deciding factor for me was the fact that my office is downtown. Given your work location, Port Royale could be an awesome option. There are a bunch of restos along Commercial, as well, and you'd be right on the Intracoastal and very close to the beach.

One last point on finding a place here: there are two types of buildings -- rental and condo. Rental properties have units that are rented out directly by the management office, then there are condos being rented out by the owner, not the management office. If you're looking for a quick turnaround to move into a place, just know that condos are slower to process applications because the condo association will have to approve you. This could involve background checks into your criminal and credit history, as well as a whole whack of personal/character references; most places will tell you that they require at least two or three weeks, though if you work with a good realtor who's willing to go to bat for you by calling up management offices and hammering out solid target dates (like mine did!), you may be able to pin it down to a week and a half. Renting is much quicker; I believe Port Royale said they could approve in about 20 minutes.

Whew, that was a lot longer than I intended! Just wanted to pass along some of my recently-gained wisdom. Good luck!

[Nolefan34]

Yeah Port Royale units are small and a bit underwhelming. No storage space and there are dogs everywhere. These are things that kept me from renting there. But for the $, it is hard to beat Port Royale if you want to live inside of the city of Fort Lauderdale.

[casualobserver]

[quote=lulutastic;20783226]Hi and welcome! I wanted to respond as I am also a newcomer to the area, mid-twenties professional (a Canadian Chartered Accoutant... assuming from your username that you're a CPA?). The one area where I've had a LOT of exposure in the past couple weeks is with apt/condo-hunting. I am renting, and with a budget of around $1,500, was able to find a 2 bdrm/2 bath in a lovely spot in the Victoria Park area, just a few blocks from Las Olas downtown.

quote]


Ah-ha, those enterprising Canucks again! We might as well annex ourselves to the Province of Ontario and get it over with.

Just kidding......welcome to Vic Park

[Gator CPA]

Thanks for all the great tips guys. Nolefan, I had a buddy of mine who lives in FLL mention Port Royale to me earlier today, so I'll definitely have to check them out. Lulutastic, awesome idea with the MLS listing and yes I just passed the CPA exams! I'm a dual citizen (Canadian/American) and my father is a CA as well. THOSE exams are supposed to be REALLY brutal. BTW there's a move a foot to merge the CA and CMA designations. Hope that doesn't happen!

Anyway, I begin work on the 19th and my plan is to rent an efficiency for the next 2-4 weeks while I figure out what I want to do. I'm tossed up between getting into a furnished beach condo, or an apartment rental such as Port Royale. Does anyone have any insight as to beach condo living? Would there be other professional singles around, or would I likely find myself in a retirement community? In general how are the commutes off the beach area? Thanks for any further insights guys. I appreciate it!