Moving to KCMO area from Michigan (Kansas City, St. Louis: fit in, sales, real estate)

[billduprey]

Young 40's couple w/ 7 year old daughter seeking relo information.

Here is the situation: this is a relo for employment purposes. Husband is in sales and will covering a 4 state territory: MO,KA,AR and OK plus the city of Memphis.

Looking at KCMO due to concentration of accounts; this is a somewhat central location.

We have lived in Orange County, Ann Arbor, and now near Flint, MI. Our daughter is in first grade and is an avid swimmer and ballet dancer. Husband and wife are cyclists and runners. We are looking for the best of all worlds: first rate schools, nice neighborhood w/ friendly people, close to cultural places, not too far from upscale/trendy coffee shops, restaurants and Whole Foods type grocery store.

I will probably move first and rent until January time frame; wife and daughter to follow. Would be interested in hearing apartment locations that would be conducive to travel for my job and allow me to look for permanent residence on weekends/evenings.

Housing seems much more affordable than in Michigan. Looking on Realtor.com it appears reasonable to get a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in the $200K range. Let me know what I am missing or not seeing.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

[lifelongMOgal]

Will you be driving or flying for your work travel? If you will be flying you'll probably want to be North of Downtown KCMO. If you will be driving, the S. Side of town is likely more conducive to your interstate access needs and to good schools.

As far as apartment areas it really depends on your rental allowance. Apartments in North Kansas City will allow you to be close to both shopping and the airport. Apartments on the Plaza will put you in the center of what is best about Kansas City and a beautiful setting for Thanksgiving thru Christmas (as long as you have parking included and not on the street). Apartments on the KS side along the I-35 and I-435 corridor will be less expensive and give you good interstate access. Apartments along College Blvd and 119th again will put you near shopping, parks, etc. but the rent will likely be higher.

It is possible to get a 3-4 BR/2+BA home in the 200's in many good areas about the metro area. It is a buyers' market here.

What else would you like to know?

[famusdarlin]

Since schools are a concern and you want to be close to cultural center I suggest looking in NKC or Prarie Village. Prarie Village may be out of that 200k price tag, but I have not looked at real estate in that area in quite a while.

I am more familiar with the are north of the river and I know there is a great ballet school called Ballet North up north. There is also the Kansas City ballet with classes downtown and in Prarie Village. Next year classes will be in the new Kaufman art center. Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As far as swimming I beleive Liberty and Gladstone have recreational teams that swim year around.

I'm not sure about biking and running trails, I am neither a runner or biker, but I do walk alot and IMO the best area around town for trails is the area around Longview lake.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by billduprey

Young 40's couple w/ 7 year old daughter seeking relo information.

Here is the situation: this is a relo for employment purposes. Husband is in sales and will covering a 4 state territory: MO,KA,AR and OK plus the city of Memphis.

Looking at KCMO due to concentration of accounts; this is a somewhat central location.

We have lived in Orange County, Ann Arbor, and now near Flint, MI. Our daughter is in first grade and is an avid swimmer and ballet dancer. Husband and wife are cyclists and runners. We are looking for the best of all worlds: first rate schools, nice neighborhood w/ friendly people, close to cultural places, not too far from upscale/trendy coffee shops, restaurants and Whole Foods type grocery store.

My favorite part of the metro for suburban living is Johnson County. It's great for families, has my two favorite school districts (Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley) and everything else you mention above including a plethora of homes in your price range.

Prairie Village is great, you just pay a little more per square foot. Lots of options in Overland Park.

Several threads here where people bicker about what's "best" in schools and burbs. Hopefully you will have plenty of time to check them all out before picking JoCo

Welcome to KC!!

[billduprey]

Great to know there are such friendly and helpful people in MO I suspect that we'll fit in just fine being from the Midwest.

I may have some more questions but will definitely take the advice all three of you have provided and do some research.

How about traffic in and around KCMO and KCK? I assume there are bottlenecks and traffic slowdowns. Is it usually in a particular area?

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by billduprey

Great to know there are such friendly and helpful people in MO I suspect that we'll fit in just fine being from the Midwest.

I may have some more questions but will definitely take the advice all three of you have provided and do some research.

How about traffic in and around KCMO and KCK? I assume there are bottlenecks and traffic slowdowns. Is it usually in a particular area?

In the morning rush hour (6:45am-8:30am):

West bound: I-435, I-470 (Missouri), I-435, K-10 (Kansas)
East Bound: I-70 (Missouri)
South Bound: I-35 (Kansas & MO)
North bound: 71 Hwy (Missouri)

^^^In the evening rush hour (3:45pm-6pm) just reverse the above.

Someone else will have to chime in about W. bound I-70 on the Kansas side and S. bound 169 and I-29 in the morning and North bound in the evening.

Add extra commute time with ice & snow. No doubt you'll be more skilled than the idiots here at driving in adverse winter conditions. You'd think here that no one had ever driven in it before until we get through the 3rd storm of the season.

Please check the other various threads discussing transfers to the KC metro area and you'll find all the school/neighborhood opinions without having them repeated again.

[kcmo]

lifelongmogal, I think your a little confused on the traffic thing.

In the morning it's westbound I-70 and eastboud K-10. 435 in JoCo can back up in both directions depending on which side of Metcalf you are on. I-35 backs up NB in the morning from KS and SB in the morning from the Northland. 69 backs up NB in the mornings from south joco.

169 typically backs up to about the north end of the downtown airport in the mornings and I-29 does't really back up although it can get slow in the Tiffany Springs area NB in the mornings.

Then it's the reverse of that for evenings only you can add 470 in LS which now backs up between Lee's Summit and Blue Springs and SB 435 between the river and I-70 in the evenings.

70 in KCK is rarely congested in either direction. Same with 635 in KCK except right around I-35.

I'm sure this is all far too much info for anybody from outside KC to comprehend so I will just stop.

Basically anything going toward downtown KCMO from the MO side or JoCo and anything going toward the Overland park for AM and anything going toward the Northland, eastern Jackson County or Johnson County in the evenings.

OP, check out Lee's Summit as well.

[cp1969]

Just curious, but why not Tulsa? It would seem to be a more central location.

[xanzzz]

As a fellow former Michigander from your lifestyle comments I would recommend Johnson County. Not sure what your travel schedule is like as in if take days away or you are planning on having day trips to your territory. But if most of your business is located in KC, St. Louis and Memphis then might want to look in the Blue Springs area as that will save a lot of time on trips to St. Louis and Memphis.