Need to rent a house while looking to buy-Help! (Jacksonville: for sale, apartments)

[ReniHope]

OK it's official...we are moving to FLA...Want to look around Fruit Cove/Julington Creek area before actually buying...so want to rent for a few months to get lay of land and not make a purchase mistake..is there any suggestions where to look for house rental in that area??? All advice welcomed!!! I have 2 kids so anxious!!!

[EricBoyd]

Congrats on your move! Julington Creek is a nice area. All rentals on the MLS will feed to Realtor.com, so you could start there. A lot of landlords and property managers, myself included, also post rental listings on craigslist: jacksonville classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events. And, you can also find them on Rentals.com and FirstCoastRentalAds.com.

Good luck!

[sue629]

Have you been down there yet? Jacksonville is huge and has many different sections. Not at all like New England area, where things are close and more compact and there are walking districts and down town areas. In Jacksonville you drive for miles to get anywhere. Jacksonville is made up of Huge stretches of 3 lane roadways with tons of strip malls, big box stores, chain restaurants. Hardly any downtown walking spaces or walking centers. The only walking centers I found was in San Marco, very small, 5 corners, Avondale( I think it is what it is called) also small, and riverwalk in downtown Jacksonville, pretty sketchy at night, though very beautiful river and lit up at night it is very pretty. Nice on a sunday afternoon, restaurants along the river and usually live music. In general downtown Jacksonville is a dead city. The broker from there can correct me if wrong with my observations.
Smart to rent first to get accustomed to it. Mandarin is also a nice area as well as San Pablo and then into San Marco. all these areas run off of San Jose Blvd. There are plenty of rentals as the for sale market is depressed with plenty of vacant homes. Look on Craigslist for rentals. Drive around look for for rent signs- there are plenty of them. Also cross the river, go and explore Fleming Island which is in Orange Park, nice area to bring up kids. Fleming Island only, not Orange Park in general. Go into Eagle Harbor and Fleming Island Plantation, take a tour of the communities they are impressive. Schools are on the grounds and everything you need is right there for entertainment, shopping, eating etc. All off of RT 17- exit 10 over the bridge. People say traffic is tough, I did not find it to be so bad. Living in Boston, New York or any other northern city, the traffic down there is nothing in comparison.
Rents are much cheaper there then up North.You can probably rent a home for between $1100-$1400 a month depending on the area and size of the house. In Boston that is a 1 or 2 bed apartment, so it is depending on your viewpoint, Cheap. Make sure you like the area before you buy. Hard to unload a house once you buy it and decide the area is not for you. Jurlington Creek, do not know much about it, but did drive through Jurlington Creek Plantation, huge housing project. Was not that impressed with it. Found it very congested and very cookie cutter type housing. You need to go down there and spend time cause each area has its own pros and cons and only you can tell which area will fit best with your lifestyle and expectations.