Just relocated: Advice from a newbie (Belle Meade: apartment complex, rentals, house) - Nashville - Tennessee (TN) - City-Data Forum

abcathey30 · 01-13-2015, 12:01 PM

Hello,

I felt like I owed an update to everyone here and wanted to give my take on the relocation process from our recent move (hopefully it helps someone). This forum was super helpful during our process...sorry if this may be a little long.

My husband is working in the Belle Meade area and it was recommended here to live in the Bellevue area, which was spot on. Bellevue was close to his work and had everything we would need, with quick access to the rest of the city. We drove around for a couple hours and in and out of neighborhoods looking for something to rent that wasnt a large apartment complex ($250+ application fees, large complexes, etc. Wasn't what we wanted to do unless we HAD to, but there are many nice ones) we weren't able to find anything being rented privately so we moved on.

The area was loved the most was the Donelson/Hermitage area. We are from Tampa (grew up in the suburbs) and it felt most familiar and like what were used to. They had a Hobby Lobby, Kohl's, Target, Publix, etc. When we buy, we will definitely look there. There seemed to be some parts that were a little less than pleasing but I think that's anywhere you go. It ended up being a little more of a commute than we wanted so we didn't settle there.

We did not like the Nippers corner area like we thought we would. We went into our search convinced we would be in Nipper's corner or Bellevue. It is very nice and has everything one would need but it just seemed wayyy too busy and seemed like it took us forever to get around. I can see it being an area we will go to dinner or running errands in, but for us the traffic was just too much to deal with on a daily basis.

We ended up in an area called 12South, near a road called Belmont Blvd, which is an area we thought was way out of our price range. The first time we went down there we called on a rental that was $1900 for a 2/1 duplex (way out of our budget) but ended up stumbling on a 2/1 guest house rental for $1100. There is a large park and a small little downtown area with restaurants and shops at the end of our road, within walking distance. It seemed to be pretty hipster (we had heard this before we went up and we are most definitely NOT hipsters so we had ruled it out) but we also saw tons of young families pushing strollers and generally just out in the neighborhood. It was charming and we are excited to try something new, as far as being out of a suburb. My husband is 3 miles from work and doesn't have to take a highway to get there.

My best advice is to give yourself more time than you think you need and be prepared to be in the car. We drove and drove and drove over a 3 day period and it paid off. It got overwhelming and we felt swallowed up at times but we kept our goal in mind. It was redundant and time consuming to drive around so much but we felt like we really got a feel for the area and felt comfortable. Everyone is so so nice and more than willing to help/give an opinion, just ask! We talked to our servers at dinner and our Baristas when getting coffee and they all had lots of great information. It also really helped us to be open minded and look in many different areas. We didn't go into our search wanting to rent a guest house, and in fact, initially didn't even look at it because it was different for us. It ended up being a very affordable and neat living arrangement. We are away from the main house and we just feel like they are neighbors.

Hopefully this helps someone in some way. I got a lot of help from this forum and wanted to try to give back a little

now to find a teaching job!

brentwoodgirl · 01-13-2015, 01:35 PM

Thanks to the update! You gave some great advice to people moving here. And congrats on your rental! That is a really hot area, so finding a well priced rental was a good score.
Best of luck with your transition.

DonCorleone · 01-13-2015, 02:22 PM

Great find on the rental and thanks for the feedback. Great advice.

newenglandbetch · 01-14-2015, 10:02 AM

Great feedback! As someone who is planning a relocation, it is great to see you were successful with yours! Cheers.

livnluv · 01-14-2015, 12:29 PM

Question for OP....
Do you ever use "realtracs"? I was wondering if you found many more rentals by driving around than you would have just looking online?

BirdieBelle · 01-14-2015, 12:31 PM

Congrats on your success. I can't believe you "ended up" in one of the city's hottest areas!

Thanks for the update. We do get a lot of questions about rentals, so please post any specifics on what people/sites/mrthods you found helpful (or not helpful).

abcathey30 · 01-14-2015, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livnluv

Question for OP....
Do you ever use "realtracs"? I was wondering if you found many more rentals by driving around than you would have just looking online?

We did at first but didn't find them helpful simply because it seemed like rentals were just going so fast. Even driving around it was hard to find private rentals and several we called on told us they had listed their property that day and had already rented. We had to sort of weave in and out of neighborhoods...it caught me off guard a little. We really spent most of our trips in the car just searching and searching. It also seemed to me, and I could be wrong, that the prices on the online rentals were a little higher.

abcathey30 · 01-14-2015, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life

Congrats on your success. I can't believe you "ended up" in one of the city's hottest areas!

Thanks for the update. We do get a lot of questions about rentals, so please post any specifics on what people/sites/mrthods you found helpful (or not helpful).

We are surprised we ended up there still, it was a right place/right time situation. We were driving by as they were putting out the for rent sign.

What I found most helpful was someone ( wish I could remember who) suggesting visiting the city through the eyes of living there not just visiting, which may be common sense, but for me it was eye-opening. Not just looking at what was pretty, but what seemed realistic. I had that in my head when we looked and really thought about what would end up being annoying example: sitting in traffic/driving forever to get milk, places we frequent being close enough to get to quickly, etc. It was also really helpful reading all the advice about traffic and which roads get crazy busy. Also, the advice about the neighborhoods on this forum is spot on (from what we could tell). We knew what to expect and it was comforting.

livnluv · 01-16-2015, 09:01 AM

Thanks for all the great advice abcathey30..

nicshoe18 · 01-19-2015, 03:45 PM

Well said!! We were in the same boat and it's nice to hear someone had a similar experience that we did (just to know I wasn't too weathered and battered by many years of inner city life). Same situation, drove through every neighborhood and suburb for 3 days, thought that part of town was way out of our price range, I personally am not a big fan of hipsters, and like you we just "landed" there, for a great price, a beautiful apartment, and we love it, and glad you love it too!! Thanks for sharing a real truthful experience and welcome to the neighborhood!

For those looking for methods, driving around is a bit of a bust. Half of the listings on CL are shady thievery, so if you plan to use it, check for multiple listings on the same address and make sure the stats and rent line up, and use your street smarts. Neighborhood FB pages were very helpful. But in the end, the Padmapper app got us the place we have and showed us just about every corner of Nashville possible.