young family needs help! (Tampa, Orlando: apartments, rental, crime)

[willus772]

hey guys,
My girlfriend and I are in our early twenties, with a 3 year old little girl. We currently Live in State College PA (penn state nittany lions). We are both locals and have never Lived outside the area, We have both spent some time in Central Florida vacationing and we love it. We Decided to Move down there. But heres the problem, because we do live in State College, we have been very spoiled. Our town was voted third safest in the country and we have the best school district in the state. So moving is scary, but because of the college the whole town is focused on the students and there isnt much to do here exept party or go to bars. Were not interested in that, so we want to find something new. Our lease is up at our apts in August, so we would like to move then.
I have been searching for over a month for apartments, but every time I find something that looks good I start hearing bad things or that its in a bad area, so i keep going in circles here.
So I guess Im just asking for now, What towns should we be looking at. Keep in mind that we are young but family oriented. Were not rich, we probably cant afford mor than $900/month rent on a 2 bdrm apt. Im afraid that we wont find a good area in that price range. So if anybody can help I would greatly appreciate it. All I really need is some direction on where to be looking.

thanks guys

[HisaRania]

Well, I went checking around and there are a few things for rent in your price range with 2/2, some in nice areas like Lake Buena Vista and Tuskawilla (and my lovely area down here in Southchase ^_^, sorry, bias bias), but it depends on where you will be working too (though I still don't have the problem with traffic that everyone else does, even though my businesses depend on driving around continuously). Did you know where you're gonna be working?

[BeenAroundTheBlock]

Hey Willus, my son goes to Penn State too! State College is a great town and you're probably aware that Orlando living will be the complete opposite to small town life. But if you're set on it, I live in East Orlando and it's a great place for young families. Do your rental search on zip code 32828. The area is called Waterford Lakes. There are some very nice newer apt. complexes in the area but probably more like 1000 a month. There are some specials that I see on signs on my way to work like one month free. Anyway this area has a suburb feel and away from the tourists and attractions. Lots of great shopping and from what I hear good schools. I also agree with the other poster, Tuskawilla, Winter Springs, plus Oviedo are all nice areas too.

Will you have a job before you come? Please say you will because it could take some time to find a decent job. There are a lot of people moving here so that makes for a lot of competition. If you do have a job lined up it's probably best to focus your housing search based on where it is located because Orlando is very large and can be very frustrating if you live on one side of town and work in another. Gas and tolls will take a big bite out of your paycheck. If you search on my area and want more specific questions answered, just shoot me a PM! Glad to help!

Go Nittany Lions!

[AJ67]

Stay Where You Are!

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by willus772

So I guess Im just asking for now, What towns should we be looking at. Keep in mind that we are young but family oriented. Were not rich, we probably cant afford mor than $900/month rent on a 2 bdrm apt. Im afraid that we wont find a good area in that price range. So if anybody can help I would greatly appreciate it. All I really need is some direction on where to be looking.

thanks guys

Always will recommend the apartments I lived in in Winter Springs. Pretty neighborhood and pretty safe (though I did have my bike stolen, but then I had it sitting there without a lock for 4 straight months... Ooops). Check it out, it's right in your price range I think...

www.sevilleonthegreen.com

Good luck with your search.

[willus772]

well no, we dont have jobs lined up yet. I was hoping that starting out in the orlando area would help with that because of the touristy stuff. Right now is the time to move for us because we havent really started any careers yet. My resume consists of mostly resturaunt management but I am currently working as a server (more money in that up here beleiveit or not) and she is in banking for now. Ive been submitting my resume to jobs over monster.com but have not secured anything yet. Its seems as though resturaunt managers are payed better down there though. My plan was just to pretty much get in a resturaunt as a server when we get down there untill I can get into someting better. She also has serving experience as well so she may end up doing the same. Does anybody know how servers do down there? I know it depends on the resturaunt, but right now I work at a local resturaunt (kind of like dennys) and im making 500-600 a week, which is fine for now. do you think I can expect that down there? As far as area I have pretty much narrowed it down to windermere or oviedo, but will definatly look at the places suggested.

[BeenAroundTheBlock]

There are a lot of really nice restaurants in town. Focus your search on Sand Lake Rd. near I-4. It's referred to as "Restaurant Row". There are a lot of really nice restaurants there. My daughter is a server at Timpano Chophouse. She typically makes between 100-200 a night but oftentimes make even more. Two nights this week she made 350 and the other 240. Just drive down and go from one place to the next and apply. You'll find Timpano, Samba Room, Roy's, Jeffrey's, Morton's, there are a bunch more. My girls came down from PA in January and were employed the first day went looking. Timpano was the first stop and they were hired. It may be good to get in now because a lot of kids have left for the summer because they are students. It can also be slower during the summer months because there aren't many conventions in town. I'm sure the other restaurants at the attractions are busier during the summer. I have heard that servers at Planet Hollywood make really good money and I've also heard the the people who do banquets on the Disney properties do well too. You have TONS of options if you are in the restaurant biz.

Good luck!

[info please]

try renting a towhouse there our a lot for rent due to there sitting empty. you need to come on down ride around 535 in windermere tons of stuff for rent. there a new mall comming up the road on 535 so there should be jobs good luck

[browneyedbeauty]

Orlando is Crime Infested why would you move from some where safe. Plus unless you have a degree in something There are no jobs unless you want to work for the mouse (Disney World) I worked there for 5 years and they don't pay well. If you want to move to Florida move to The Tampa area. I moved here two years ago and It was the best decision I have ever made. My daughter who is 10 goes to a really good school. There are lots of jobs here. i found a job my second week here. your only an hour and a half away from disney, seaworld, and universal. and 20 min from Busch Gardens (depending on where you live).

[willus772]

great!!
Thats what I was hoping to hear, that really sooths my nerves. Thanks for letting me know that. I wish I could get down there sooner, but were really crunching just to make it down in August. It would help if we could look around in person, this internet searching is driving me crazy, lol. I checked on a map to see where this street is, and the towns around it. It looks like windermere and lake buena vista are close, would those be good areas to check out? Also it seems like as we get closer to that end of the city things start getting cheaper. Is SW orlando bad? I wouldnt mind living closer to the city, I was just worried about the crime?