Possibly moving to area, are there nice homes to rent for under $1000 a month? (Kansas City: sales)

[dicedealer76]

I might have a good job opportunity from a casino in North Kansas City but I know nothing about the area. I was hoping someone could tell me where the nice suburbs are and if you can find a nice 3 bedroom house for rent for under $1000 a month? From some of the posts I have read I dont know if I should be looking on the Kansas side because of the schools since I have 2 teenagers? Once again someone please help me!! THANK YOU!!

[kcmo]

Why would you look on the Kansas side because of the schools? The schools in the Northland are great. That has been said over and over on these forums by countless people. The Northland is the fastest growing area in metro KC and the schools up there are a big reason for that.

It would be silly for you to live clear out in Johnson County if you work at the Casinos.

Just north of any of the casinos are very nice suburban areas with great suburban schools in the North Kansas City, Park Hill and Liberty districts. If you want something more rural, you can go to Kearney, Smithville, Platte County etc, but they won’t offer quite as much as the bigger suburban districts.

You were looking for rents under 1000. I think that’s doable in the Northland. I would guess it is since you can buy a 150k home for that much a month. I would think that anything in that general price range would be pretty decent, it wouldn’t be anything amazing, but a nice quiet, modest area.

I would probably focus on Gladstone. It’s an older suburb, but it’s nice and it’s loaded with slightly more modest housing than many of the newer areas of the Northland. There are some areas south of Gladstone that have very small homes, probably too small though. Gladstone has great schools and is close to everything in the Northland including all of the casinos.

Plus if you work at Harrah’s in NKC or Argosy in Riverside and live in Gladstone, you will avoid the KCMO 1% Etax. It’s not a big deal to pay the tax, but if it’s easy enough to avoid, why not? Plus, Gladsone itself has one of the lowest sales and property tax rates in the entire metro area.

I think the best casino in KC is Ameristar, But that’s just my personal opinion, I don’t know how the casinos compare in tips, but here is a wild guess.

Argosy caters to KCK (closest to them), a very poor county. I would guess they might get less in tips there? I don’t know. It’s a decent casino though, but it's not as big of some in town.

Isle of Capri is a small casino with no hotel or anything and it seems like it draws some of the lowest of the gambling demographic and it’s also the closest to much of KCMO’s poor neighborhoods south of the river. I think Isle is a total eysore and I wish they would tear it down or build something nicer like Lumiere in St Louis. Ugly boat next to the interstate. My opinion...

Harrahs and Ameristar are both large casinos with large hotels and I think both of those tend to be more regional casinos that draw people from all over the metro and beyond. They also have far more entertainment and dining options etc.

Out of those two, I like Ameristar myself. But again, I’m not a gambler, might go to a casino once every year or two.

But look at Gladstone really hard for a rental house. If you can’t find something there, the rest of the Northland is fine too (northland is anything north of the river and most of the Northland has a KCMO address, so don't worry about that, still good schools.). Typically the further south you go, the cheaper. Except over by Parkville.

Good luck.

[dicedealer76]

Thank you so much for your input . nothing is for sure yet but im talking with harrahs right now, but like I said i know nothing about the area and this is the first time i was using the boards. I think you gave some great insight and i really appreciate the help!

[kcmo]

No problem. Keep this forum informed on what you end up doing!