[JasonandBranka]

My husband and i are about 40 years old and struggling financially in CA so have decided to pack up and move to Omaha next spring. Neither of us will have jobs. I've done administrative work all my life and he's done anything from bug spraying to carpet cleaning to working maintenance in a park, dry cleaner, and now he's copying medical records, job he dislikes as he prefers to not do office work. He wants to work hard and needs to be able to provide better, he's open as long as it's not inside office or the dry cleaner We're quiet Christians, no kids, no parties, hate apartment living, want to rent a small house or duplex in a quiet safe neighborhood for under 1000/mo. Since we won't have jobs but have excellent credit we hope a landlord will still be willing to rent to us if we prepay first 3 months. We're confident to find work as we're willing to even do temp agency to make quick $ while we look for better work. We've never been to NE at all. Are aware of the weather and are fine with it. NE is good in our eyes.
Our questions are:
1. Considering our needs and likes, what areas can you suggest to live in? We thought maybe Papillion but prices maybe a bit steeper than we can initially commit to, not sure.
2. What areas are bad, please name streets?
3. What are the best avenues for jobs in your area?

4. What are the best avenues for rental? We know of Criag's List, but that's all.
Thank you so much.

[rezfreak]

I find bellevue to be a bit cheaper than omaha/papillion personally, so that's where i'd look. I rented a duplex there, it was 600 a month, and another time i rented a house there (1500 sq feet) and that was 725. For the general bellevue area, its pretty safe, the only iffy areas are the ones closer to South Omaha.

I found those listings either through craigslist or through realty websites directly. If you go to century21 you can actually search through their houses available for rent.

careerlink.org is a great website for searching for jobs, though a good portion of them are temp or temp to hire. If you're looking for temp companies, Aureus was a good company to work for.

[MountainMen]

For rentals try padmapper.com - http://www.padmapper.com

[JasonandBranka]

Thank you MountainMen and rezfreak, we'll check that out. Anyone else please feel free to chime in, we value your opinions.

[Robou]

Originally Posted by JasonandBranka

My husband and i are about 40 years old and struggling financially in CA so have decided to pack up and move to Omaha next spring. Neither of us will have jobs. I've done administrative work all my life and he's done anything from bug spraying to carpet cleaning to working maintenance in a park, dry cleaner, and now he's copying medical records, job he dislikes as he prefers to not do office work. He wants to work hard and needs to be able to provide better, he's open as long as it's not inside office or the dry cleaner We're quiet Christians, no kids, no parties, hate apartment living, want to rent a small house or duplex in a quiet safe neighborhood for under 1000/mo. Since we won't have jobs but have excellent credit we hope a landlord will still be willing to rent to us if we prepay first 3 months. We're confident to find work as we're willing to even do temp agency to make quick $ while we look for better work. We've never been to NE at all. Are aware of the weather and are fine with it. NE is good in our eyes.
Our questions are:
1. Considering our needs and likes, what areas can you suggest to live in? We thought maybe Papillion but prices maybe a bit steeper than we can initially commit to, not sure.
2. What areas are bad, please name streets?
3. What are the best avenues for jobs in your area?

4. What are the best avenues for rental? We know of Criag's List, but that's all.
Thank you so much.

Hi jasonandbranka... My wife and I just moved to Omaha from Los Angeles this week... got here on Wednesday, today is the 3rd day being in Omaha. While I haven't been here long enough to really drive around and check out omaha yet, it seems like a great city... it's completely different here both in weather and culture from Los Angeles and that's not a bad thing. Unlike you both I came here for a job after being unemployed and unable to find a job in California. Actually my wife is still in LA putting in the last month of her job before coming to Omaha to join me.
Please feel free to PM me I'd love to hear from you and by the time you move here I'm sure I can be of more help in answering your questions...BTW my wife and I are in our early 40's as well...

[JasonandBranka]

Hello Mr & Mrs Robou,
Thank you for your reply. Hope things go well for you. What industry are you in Omaha? In reading these posts it seems like there are a few Californians in Omaha, hopefully the culture stays Midwestern tho. Glad to hear there is a Trader's there now tho, makes things a lot more at homelike. What area of Omaha did you move to? Hopefully we'll get more replies between now and May about the areas so we'll have a good feel for it.
Another helpful thing to know if about winterizing the cars. I've lived in Milwaukee for a few years long ago and the last winter i was there with the windchill it was 70 below ..BRRR! My car battery got stolen on that day, it was an oooold Pontiac without a locked hood. Car weatherization will have to be another post i guess
Please keep us informed how thing go for you & any helpful hints you come up with.
Thanks again,
Branka & Jason

[Robou]

Originally Posted by JasonandBranka

Hello Mr & Mrs Robou,
Thank you for your reply. Hope things go well for you. What industry are you in Omaha? In reading these posts it seems like there are a few Californians in Omaha, hopefully the culture stays Midwestern tho. Glad to hear there is a Trader's there now tho, makes things a lot more at homelike. What area of Omaha did you move to? Hopefully we'll get more replies between now and May about the areas so we'll have a good feel for it.
Another helpful thing to know if about winterizing the cars. I've lived in Milwaukee for a few years long ago and the last winter i was there with the windchill it was 70 below ..BRRR! My car battery got stolen on that day, it was an oooold Pontiac without a locked hood. Car weatherization will have to be another post i guess
Please keep us informed how thing go for you & any helpful hints you come up with.
Thanks again,
Branka & Jason

Hey! Things are going ok for me here in Omaha... it's been a bit of a culture shock though coming from Los Angeles... the wife is ready to be here and wants me to come get her as soon as possible although she knows that she will miss California... I have to admit that I REALLY miss California a lot but for the first time today I was able to get out and go drive around quite a bit. I'm in the hospitality industry and was hired as the Executive Chef in a nice Hotel and the area that I'm in is about 108th & Dodge. It seems to be a nice area and I saw some really nice neighborhoods and houses today that could easily match up to anything California has except here you get that nice Midwest touch with all the colors of fall which I love to see. Right now and for the next 90 days I'll be staying in the hotel where I work which is great, giving me the chance to save some $$.
I have a feeling winter here will be brutal and I have the worst car in the world for it... I have a convertible rear wheel drive 350z sports coupe... need to get a truck I think!
There is a trader joes I saw it today and that made the place feel somewhat "homey" which is good.
There seems to be a good amount of jobs here and I think there are quite a few other Californians here as well but the strange thing when I was out driving today was that I not once saw an out of state license plate... not once! Not even from neighboring Iowa!
I think you guys will grow to like it here when you come... may take a bit of getting used to at first but... and this applies to me right now as well... if you give it a chance and some time I think you will find yourself calling it "Home" in no time!

[mostie]

I don't know that the winter will be too brutal, we were there for three years and the first winter there was a lot of snow-well, more than is normal I think. Other than that, the last couple of winters were relatively mild- I mean, there was snow, just not tons of it, lol. However you want to be careful on a lot of the streets with hills (which there are a lot of..), Dodge was pretty bad-cars have a tendency to just sort of slide around, and it's a busy street- the side streets are pretty bad as well, as they don't plow or anything-just on the main roads. At least that was my experience. As a former Cali native, I had a tough time acclimating myself- California it isn't, it's different in just about every aspect. Not "bad" different, just...different.

If you want a bit of fun, head to the zoo- it is a really, really nice zoo- I haven't seen one that comes close other than the San Diego Zoo, and nothing beats that one, lol. If you have kids, try the Happy Hollow neighborhood for trick-or-treating---or even if you don't have kids, take a walk over there on Halloween- lots of very classy, old homes and they decorate all over the place- it really is nice.

I hope all of you from CA like Omaha, as i said I had a really tough time of it and couldn't wait to leave- it was just a "me" thing, I doubt any of you will have problems!

[mostie]

For Branka, you might want to try the UNO website for jobs- I worked there for a while, and did the same sort of work that you do-

[JasonandBranka]

Thank you so much Mostie! I've worked as an Office Admin in big real estate companies such as Coldwell Banker and then Prudential, but got laid off 4-1/2 years ago so now i'm working in a CPA office answering phones, nothing brainy but the pay is ok, it's a specialized place charging high prices. I don't like it much tho since i seem to be losing all i knew in terms of my computer knowledge etc and have not learned anything new. My husband is having a tuffer of a time but we think that jobwise he'll be better off in Omaha.
A Question for anyone who knows, how does real estate purchase work there. Is it all done by lawyers or by Title and Escrow. Here in CA we use Escrow and Title companies who put it all together. I've heard of Lawyers doing it in some parts of the US but i don't know what that might look like.