Need help relocating to Ft. Lauderdale area (Gainesville, Sunrise: foreclosure, hoa)

[GoGators11]

My girlfriend has just taken a job offer from a pretty big company in the Ft. Lauderdale area. We're both pretty young, mid 20s, and just recently graduated from UF. Neither of us know much, if anything, about the Ft. Lauderdale area, besides where her office will be (which I believe is off of Commercial Blvd. about 10-15 minutes inland from the beach). The only places I've lived have been in Sarasota and Gainesville for school. I never pictured myself living in the South Florida area, but I guess you never know what life will throw at you!

Anyway, like I said...we're both young and enjoy the beach, so being somewhat close is important to us. Also, while we both work hard, we also enjoy going out to eat and enjoy the nightlife on occasion. We've both recently graduated from college and can't afford a house yet, so we've been looking into apartments/condos. From what I've heard/read online so far, many of the places on the coast near A1A are older, and the further West you go in the area, are the newer built areas....is this true? While we would like to be close to the beach, we definitely don't want to live in a run-down area of town.

It's going to be difficult because we're only going to be able to make a few trips down there before we have to decide where we're going to live. When looking on the apartment finder websites, it breaks down Ft. Lauderdale into so many different areas; Lauderhill, Davie, Plantation, etc etc. We really don't know where to start without first getting an idea of the different parts of Ft. Lauderdale. Any help/advice from people on the forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[runswithscissors]

If you click on my name and select the option to view all posts you can find some postings I made about that when I was going to move there. I suggested Port Royale Apts above Commercial at around 65th and Federal. Not "cheap" but you can also get shorter term not a year there. They have a website you can google. They are decent AND on the water. My office was going to be there. (I ended up not moving to FLL (Bell South/AT&T) I also cautioned about Craigs List and suggested Realtors although it's very tricky and they just send you a list and you really can't see much of course. This time of year you can get several condos that are privately owned too. Using a realtor hopefully the private owner will not go into foreclosure. That area is the northern part and FLL proper. NO to North Lauderdale, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill imo. Tamarac (near suburb) is ok but a commute of 20-30 minutes, stay west of University. I wasnt interested in that commute. Half the fun is being near the beach and action of "downtown" when you move there especially at your age. Hopefully you can use SW Air or Spirit with reasonable fares. And no, it's not an issue about the age of the place on the East near the beach. East of Federal Highway is usually higher the closer you get to the beach but it depends on your budget. East of Federal is the line of demarcation so to speak. There are excellent beach area rentals it's all relative to what you can spend. Condos, duplexes and houses.I would advise against Oakland Park Blvd complexes which is "out that way", my son, 28, rented in a complex there a couple years ago and hated it, sketchy residents and privately owned so the equally sketchy condo owners do things like leave you stuck with a broken fridge, and other major appliances etc lol and you can do better even if you have to commute. Appliances and plumbing are not the landlord responsibility in the lease.

I liked Lauderdale by the Sea alot, would be convenient to that area it's a beach town north border FLL and less city than FLL. when you're driving up A1A it just seems like part of FLL not like a whole different town. These are small distances. Then you can have beach and be near her job. There are several condos there, some are age 55 + though. Try to find a realtor that's a go-getter, several are mad now lol. And several have their own properties you could rent. I don't know anything about Plantation. I'd try hard to stay in FLL if you like some type of city feel or beach, imo.

[GoGators11]

Thanks for the help. Port Royale was one of the apartments that we'd been looking at online actually. It's tough to get a real feel for apartments/condos through the ratings and reviews websites (it seems that most people that go on those sites, just on to complain). So we've heard/read some mixed things about the Port Royale complex. Lauderdale by the Sea is actually one of the few areas that I've been to, and it seemed like a pretty cool little town.

My girlfriend is actually there today scouting out some stuff, so I should find out more tonight. Hopefully by the beginning of next week we'll both be able to make a trip over together and make some decisions.

Also, what do you know about the Tamarac/ NW area of town? It seems that most of the newer developments are over in this area, but it's obviously further from the beach. Anyway, thanks for the help....I'm sure I'll be back on the forum for some more help!

[compelled to reply]

If your work is located fairly well inland on Commercial Blvd and you are looking for a newer condo/townhome for rent around other young people for a reasonable price, I would suggest Sunrise. Work would be a straight shot down Commerical and the lights are timed great on that road ever since they fixed them. 15 to 20 minutes depending on how far east. Sunrise itself is a little boring but there is the Sawgrass Mills (which I'm not into personally) and it's a convenient location. Look into the Welleby CC area.

Tamarac is mostly fine and would also be convenient but it is a lot of 55+ communities and a lot of the all ages communities are kind of slipping. Not a great area for you guys.

Port Royale is good but might put you at a disadvantage commute wise. US1 is not horrible but draggy.

Plantation is good and a little nicer looking than some of the western area with the trees but getting too far south to be convenient.

Davie is also good but very family-ish and even further south.

Avoid south Lauderhill ("deepside") at night. Nuff said. Inverrary CC isn't that bad.

North Lauderdale isn't bad and it's very convenient. There is a small bad side off of Kimberly Blvd that has been talked about on this forum but the rest of it is just working class.

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

If your work is located fairly well inland on Commercial Blvd and you are looking for a newer condo/townhome for rent around other young people for a reasonable price, I would suggest Sunrise. Work would be a straight shot down Commerical and the lights are timed great on that road ever since they fixed them. 15 to 20 minutes depending on how far east. Sunrise itself is a little boring but there is the Sawgrass Mills (which I'm not into personally) and it's a convenient location. Look into the Welleby CC area.

Tamarac is mostly fine and would also be convenient but it is a lot of 55+ communities and a lot of the all ages communities are kind of slipping. Not a great area for you guys.

Port Royale is good but might put you at a disadvantage commute wise. US1 is not horrible but draggy.

Plantation is good and a little nicer looking than some of the western area with the trees but getting too far south to be convenient.

Davie is also good but very family-ish and even further south.

Avoid south Lauderhill ("deepside") at night. Nuff said. Inverrary CC isn't that bad.

North Lauderdale isn't bad and it's very convenient. There is a small bad side off of Kimberly Blvd that has been talked about on this forum but the rest of it is just working class.

I agree except for North Lauderdale. My son has been around lol. His last rental in 2006- 1Q 2007 was on the south side of McNab a block or two west of University and I forget where but close to Tamarac. Technically North L. I want to say Belmont Ln but maybe wrong.

He hated it there. He said sketchy neighbors and the icing on the cake was getting a foreclosure notice in month 9. The landlord refused to fix all the appliances that were broken including the fridge LOL. That dump cost us a fortune (as the bailout mom). I didn't see "bad" "bad" but got his point. People fixing cars outside etc. And some questionable stuff like people going in your garage saying they were confused LOL.

For your age, as a mom, I'm voting downtown or beach, have a ball. It's better to be in sketchy on the beach than sketchy in the burbs LOL.

I loved Mainlands Tamarac before, some have all ages not 55+ but again, old people territory, suburban, has a commute and boring for you, IMO. And Mainlands is deteriorating as Compelled said so you get a whole house with a whole posse of people next door and their cars, dogs and kids lol. You'd have to go further and north, imo to the condos in Tamarac and that's adding 10 min to your commute.

And yes, Port Royale is draggy, Fed is draggy. I sat at lights over about 2-3 blocks at lunchtime for 20 minutes on a workday.

There are some nice duplexes (maybe out of your range) up there by Federal near Port Royae area, the neighborhoods are called Coral [whatever} , Coral Ridge, Coral (other stuff I forget).

Problem is they look good online, like you said, then you get there and the neighbor has a mattress on the porch LOLOL And all for the bargain price of 1600.00!

[runswithscissors]

I just thought of something else. you're SOL if there's a hurricane that messes up your place and have a bad building or landlord or HOA. Have a backup plan (like make sure you get renters insurance) and try and screen for that.

[GoGators11]

Yeah...renters insurance is something that we're definitely going to be looking into, especially with 'cane season coming up. My girlfriend went down the past 2 days and started scouting things out. We're going to narrow it down a bit, and then hopefully make a trip this coming Mon-Tues. Thanks again for all the help...