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So we have tossed up the idea of moving to the area for quite some time and have decided to take a plunge. I have been before but my SO hasn't. We are coming up at the end of this month (March 2015) to scope out the area and do some apartment hunting. We are currently in South FL.
He will be transferring to a location in Greenville or Spartanburg (Sam's Club) and we were wondering if anyone had any recommendations for realtors or for apartments close to any Sam's Club locations. One that is also in a decent school district and has many other businesses nearby that I could also start applying at as soon as we got there. We will have more than enough money to put down for a few months of rent to cover. We are looking for 2/2's that are spacious. Our official moving time frame would be the last weekend of May or the first week of June. The reason why we are coming up two months early is because there is school break that week here in Florida and I don't want my son to miss any school. The reason I state that is because I was wondering if making the trip would not be productive because some places consider that "too early" to tell if something will be available then. We would like to find an apartment while we are up there so we can better prepare beforehand.
Thank you for any help. Any other info you think I should know as well would be greatly appreciated.
Last edited by mom2Isaac; 03-03-2015 at 09:15 PM..
Reason: locations
The Sam's Club in Greenville is on Woodruff Rd; no shortage of businesses there. There are plenty of apartment complexes as well. Have you been on Apartments for Rent - Rent.com® Apartment Finder It is a great place to start your search. When we moved to Raleigh, years ago, we used the site to look at flooplans, etc and had our place picked out before we even moved down.
Welcome to Greenville! I think it would be a productive trip just to get ideas of what you can get. It maybe too soon to nail a place down but at least you can scope out some areas. It will also give your SO a chance to see what the area offers. It will be nice at that time and there will be stuff going on. As for a realtor for rentals, I'm not sure but I'm sure others can chime in.
I don't think it's too soon to start looking for apartments. You can at least get an idea of ones that you prefer, and then call back to see what openings they will have. My MIL came in May to look for apartments, found one, and put down the deposit that weekend...with a move-in date of August. They seemed to know already what would be available. But I would definately come sooner to narrow down your choices. There are ALOT of apartment complexes on the Woodruff stretch...and not all are as actually as nice as their pictures make them seem,lol. Personally, I'd chose from the ones that are block or two OFF of Woodruff, rather than the ones that are directly ON Woodruff. My teenage son has a friend who lives in an apartment with his family that is right on Woodruff. The friend complained that they can't really leave their complex, as far as going for a walk (or in his case, he wanted to jog) because the only place he has IS Woodruff Road. Not exactly safe in terms of traffic for a pedestrian. (Since you are out of town, you may not realize that Woodruff Road is THE MAIN road for Greenville in terms of retail/restaurants, and it's almost always busy, and almost always a pain to get from one end to the other.) If I were living in an apartment with children, I'd prefer one that is a bit off the main road, just so we weren't trapped in the complex,and could go out for a neighborhood walk if we wanted to. I'd recommend the ones behind Whole Foods (if you pull up Google Maps, you should be able to see it). We looked there with MIL...very nice...pricey...decent location in terms of access to Woodruff. Or there are a few on Verdae Road...which is just off Woodruff, but very wooded, so you don't feel like you are 3 minutes from the main strip.
Thank you for all the information already provided. It is truly appreciated.
I was also wondering what locals opinions are on internet providers, schools, and cell phone providers.
We currently have MetroPCS and their coverage map shows that they should have pretty good coverage in the area and was wondering how true this was?
I did some research and Charter seems like the way to go for the area in terms of speed and price+no contract. Does anyone know if this is a dedicated line or if it is shared with others? Or is AT&T the better provider overall? I have never had any experiences with Charter.
I am curious how schools are in the area or what would others consider a good school? Are children bused to schools closest to them or farther away? How is your child's school selected for them? My son is currently in the process of getting tested for gifted and was wondering how well schools work with you.
Schools vary a lot in quality in SC so if that is a priority for you, Id suggest doing some research. Greenville County is one large school district. Pickens County is also a single district. Spartanburg and Anderson County are both divided into smaller school districts.
You are zoned for schools based on address. You will generally go to the closest school but that isn't always the case. Greenville in particular has some odd shaped school zones where students get bussed past several schools to get to a school a bit further away. It seems this is mainly done to balance racial demographics. High schools in particular vary in quality. In general, if you find an area zoned for a good high school, the middle and elementary schools feeding it will be good as well (not always, so check to confirm). Some of the better high schools in Greenville include: Blue Ridge, Riverside, Eastside, Wade Hampton, and Mauldin. Spartanburg County has a number of good and not so good schools but I'm not as familiar with which are which. Pickens county schools are kind of average with the exception of Daniel High near Clemson which is very good (also a long drive from Greenville). In Anderson County, the schools in Anderson District One are convenient to Greenville and include Pwdersville (excellent), Wren (very good), and Palmetto (also good). If you are considering the Sam's Club in Anderson, TL Hanna in the town of Anderson is also an excellent school.
The SC School report cards are a useful reference: https://ed.sc.gov/data/report-cards/2014/
The scores there are based almost exclusively on standardized tests so they need to be combined with other info to make a good choice. That said, they do help to weed out schools that consistently perform poorly.
Charter and AT&T are both pretty crummy to be honest. If you just want internet, Charter offers a faster connection than AT&T but neither is anything to be excited about.
I don't know anyone that uses Metro PCS. The best coverage in the area is probably Verizon followed by AT&T. Of course, those are also the most expensive options.
Thank you for all the information already provided. It is truly appreciated.
I was also wondering what locals opinions are on internet providers, schools, and cell phone providers.
We currently have MetroPCS and their coverage map shows that they should have pretty good coverage in the area and was wondering how true this was?
I did some research and Charter seems like the way to go for the area in terms of speed and price+no contract. Does anyone know if this is a dedicated line or if it is shared with others? Or is AT&T the better provider overall? I have never had any experiences with Charter.
I am curious how schools are in the area or what would others consider a good school? Are children bused to schools closest to them or farther away? How is your child's school selected for them? My son is currently in the process of getting tested for gifted and was wondering how well schools work with you.
I know about Metro PCS from living in FL but I'm not sure about service here. I can tell you that you have other options around the same price if it won't work. Cricket, which uses AT&T or Republic Wireless which is is significantly cheaper. They both work well here.
I've had both Charter and AT&T for internet. Charter is by far better for speed.
I can't tell you about schools as my kids are now grown.
Not sure what grade your son is, but there is a brand new middle school near where "samiis" mentioned for apartment living (around the ICAR/Verdae area). The middle school specializes in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. Here is a little blurb about it:
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