Moving to Kansas City Area - Need Advice! (Overland, Jackson: best neighborhoods, houses)

[Missy828]

My husband just transferred to Kansas City, Kansas and we need some info on the area. We are from PA and I have never been to KC and don't know anything about the city. We would like to find a 4 bedroom house in the rural area out side of KC with some acreage. If anyone can recommend the best neighborhoods and school districts to look at, I would greatly appreciate it. Also some names of excellent realtors that would represent us as a buyers agent. I've had Les Davis from Reality Executives contact me via HomeGain.com. Does anyone have anything negative or positive to say about him? I thought that Missouri and Kansas were suppose to have cheap property taxes, but from what I have been seeing they are very high. A $250,000 home averages about $3-4 grand a year in taxes?

I've read a number of comments on these forums about the weather but no specifics. Can someone decifer this for me? Is it the heat, humidity, or tornadoes? How are the winters?

I'm also looking to go back to school to get my teaching certificate to teach art. Can someone recommend names of some good universities or colleges in the KC area? I currently work as a classroom assitant at the elementry level. How hard is it to land a job at a school as a classroom assistant?

I have a lot of questions to be answered here. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank You So Much!!!

[kcmo]

What part of KCK? Fairfax? Do you really mean KCK or Overland Park or something like that. Do you even mean Kansas?

A lot of people new to the area call it Kansas City, KS, when Kansas City, MO is the primary city of the metro and that is actually the city they mean.

I ask this because the geography of the area is confusing and I want to make sure what part of town he will be working in.

KCK is pretty much a larger industrial and blue collar suburb of KCMO sort of like Camden is to Philly only Camden has actually done something with their downtown/riverfront area, KCK is still a freaking joke in their downtown area. Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee etc are white collar suburbs of KCMO on the KS side. Then you have urban KCMO, the suburban Northland, and the many suburbs in Jackson and Cass Counties to the east and south of KCMO.

If your husband will be working in Fairfax (the heavy industrial eastern side of KCK) then I would look into Platte County, MO, Johnson County, KS and Leavenworth County, KS.

Your best bets will be areas around Bonner Springs and Lansing up and down the K-7 corridor though because Platte and Johnson will be very expensive if you want acreage.

Wyandotte County (where KCK Is located), has very high property taxes, but you might be able to find something out along I-435 that fits your style of living since it offers a more rural lifestyle than other areas of the metro. You won’t find something rural in Platte County or Johnson County that won’t cost you a small fortune.

So western Wyandotte County and Leavenworth County would be a good starting point for homes.

I’ll let others explain the weather. It seems like that area of the metro in western KCK gets far more severe weather than just about any other area of the metro. I don’t know why, but western WyCo/LvCo has been hit by quite a few major storms and even a few twisters in the past few years.

The weather in KC doesn’t bother me though. Just a few strong spring storms will pop up and we used to have extreme summers and winters, but those don’t seem to be as bad any more.

[Missy828]

He is working in Fairfax and staying in Shawnee.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by Missy828

He is working in Fairfax and staying in Shawnee.

If I were you I'd be looking in the DeSoto school district area. That is the area around DeSoto and the western part of Shawnee. We just moved from that area after 11 years. It's a good school district and a growing area, so a good bet for opportunities.

Yes, Johnson County can be pricier, but IMO it's worth it, we moved within the county. Others disagree. For acreage that doesn't cost a fortune, you will have to go West and/or South. You will find cheaper land in places like Leavenworth County, but it is lower priced because it's not considered as desirable of an area.

[OneKC]

DeSoto is an up and coming area that you can probably still find a good deal on land on, but will probably be pretty well populated before too long. So if you want to be all by yourself, I wouldn't move there, but if you want a lot of land and you don't mind development over the next decade, its a good bet.

As far as weather, I think KC is like most midwest cities - pretty moderate. Our summers get blazingly hot in late July and August (although this year has been an exception, it has been amazingly cool this summer) We'll have about 2-3 snowstorms a winter, usually only one of them will be that bad. I have lived in KC for 20 years and I have only really had two tornadoes come even close to me. We have a lot of em I guess, but 99.9% of people don't suffer any major damage, and I don't ever hear of anyone getting killed.

The best university in the city is UMKC. Its mostly a commuter school, so they're good about night classes and they give in-state discounts to metro Kansas residents that are part-time.

The University of Kansas has a campus in Overland Park that is supposed to be pretty good.

Park University in nearby Parkville is a pretty good school although I don't know how extensive their programs are.

Other good area schools - Avila, William Jewell, Rockhurst, although they are all small schools.

And I believe there are a few schools with branch campuses for career development here like University of Mary, University of Phoenix, Webster University and Central Michigan University.

[NJShoregirl72]

OMG I am moving to KC area from PA!!
What part of PA are you from?

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by Missy828

My husband just transferred to Kansas City, Kansas and we need some info on the area. We are from PA and I have never been to KC and don't know anything about the city. We would like to find a 4 bedroom house in the rural area out side of KC with some acreage. If anyone can recommend the best neighborhoods and school districts to look at, I would greatly appreciate it. Also some names of excellent realtors that would represent us as a buyers agent. I've had Les Davis from Reality Executives contact me via HomeGain.com. Does anyone have anything negative or positive to say about him? I thought that Missouri and Kansas were suppose to have cheap property taxes, but from what I have been seeing they are very high. A $250,000 home averages about $3-4 grand a year in taxes?

I've read a number of comments on these forums about the weather but no specifics. Can someone decifer this for me? Is it the heat, humidity, or tornadoes? How are the winters?

I'm also looking to go back to school to get my teaching certificate to teach art. Can someone recommend names of some good universities or colleges in the KC area? I currently work as a classroom assitant at the elementry level. How hard is it to land a job at a school as a classroom assistant?

I have a lot of questions to be answered here. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank You So Much!!!

Realty Executives should be fine. They sell a lot of houses here. You can also look for houses at www.reeceandnichols.com I think they have all listings for the city, even if they are not the ones selling it.

Schools - there is UMKC like someone mentioned, but the University of Kansas is only a 45 minute drive at most from Johnson County, less if you are going from Shawnee/Lenexa. KU does have an Overland Park Campus, the Edwards Campus, and they have specific degrees you can work on there. Education is one of them but don't know if they would have specifically what you need. There is also the K10 Connector - you can park your car at Johnson County CC and ride the K10 connector to KU in Lawrence.

Weather - don't worry about it! We have wind, we have thunderstorms. We have heat/humidity mostly in July and August (although it was much cooler this year). The winters aren't that bad. There are tornado watches/warnings in the late spring/early summer mostly, but don't worry! I've been in Kansas and Mssouri all my life and I have yet to see an actual tornado, or to have anything destroyed by a tornado, or know anyone who had. Yes, it can happen, but most likely it WON'T, and there are warnings when a tornado is headed in your direction so you can take cover. Last time I actually had to take cover I was about three or four years old.

[famusdarlin]

I've been looking into teaching myself lately, just sick of the corporate thing. I've found most schools are still looking for teachers. You can always find a job as a substiture. The KCK district has a program to certify teachers, I think you only need your undergrad degree.

Another option is AAE. They will certify you with only a test and no extra classes. From what I hear alot of teachers use this route for certification. Welcome to AAE TEACHERS, The Association of American Educators

In regard to weather. You will get it all here. It is cold out now and I would suspect we are going to have a cold winter. By November here I find you need a coat and maybe a hat. By December we usually get one snow and 3-4 more snows a year. Most of the time you can drive through the snow and it may slow you down, but it's nothing like the Northeast. We thaw out in March and have really nice weather through June sometime when it gets pretty hot. During the Summer we have several over 100 degree days, but this summer was extremely mild. We also get tornados, but they tend to affect the outlying areas more than the city and suburbs.

[MrsMo]

Tough adjustment moving here from PA. We moved from Pitt when I was 5 years old and I still miss PA. We make quite a few trips every year I get so homesick. My aunts will be here the end of this week for my DD's wedding. I called them and gave them my grocery list. So many things from PA we can't get here.