Possibly moving to Houston - Worried about finding safe Apartment (Richmond: apartments, rental)

[kemal86]

I may be moving to Houston for a new job in the next 1-2 months. I've been looking around online on places like apartments.com and rent.com.

I can't find -any- apartments that don't have tons of bad reviews about roaches and crime. Almost every apartment I've checked out has had people talking about how terrible the crime is, breakins, thefts, unsafe parking lots, ect.

My job would be in the Montrose area in the 77006 zipcode. The max. commute I'm willing to do is 20-25 minutes one way. Can anyone suggest a complex to me? I'm starting to get worried that I won't be able to find a safe / secure place to live anywhere near my (potential) new job. Looking for a 2BR in the sub 850$ range.

The best place I've found is a house rental near the Astrodome.

Thanks!

[modster]

First of all, don't believe everything you read on that apartment ratings site. A lot of times it is disgruntled tenants who got charged a late fee or trashed their apartment when they moved out and were rightfully charged for it, and then take their revenge on line against the complex.

Obviously that is not always the case, but I wouldn't take that stuff on line as gospel.

I would check craigslist too. Your best bet would be if you could find a duplex or something like that on a good block in Montrose. I think those are better than the big "complex" environment.

Most of the complexes do suffer from parking lot crime. Cars broken into, etc. Even with gates. There is only so much you can do.

[RPEP09]

yes, you can't believe everything your read on those apartment sites. I moved almost a year ago and was really worried about a lot of those things. Well I moved in and haven't had a single problem.
If you can visit the apt complexes first you can get a better idea of what type of area it is.

[westres1]

In the Montrose area there are lots of garage apartments, duplexes,fourplexes that are nice and well kept. Others not so. You really need to just drive around and find one with a sign out. Look at streets like Mandell,Bonnie Brae,Dunlavey, around Lanier Middle School and around Hazard and Richmond. If you go to far East on Westheimer or Richmond it gets dicey.