Where to look for good rental homes? (Seattle, Bellevue: apartments, leasing)

[LitoMama]

My family of 2 + a baby is looking to get out of our Kirkland apartment and move into a larger rental house or townhome (as in, min. 2+ bedrooms, more than 900 sq. ft) in or around the "safer" Seattle area for less than say, $1600/mo. max. Looking around, it doesn't seem our expectations are too high but we have had problems finding one good place to find these elusive rental properties... any suggestions? We have tried the Seattle Times online, Craigslist, apartments.com, rentals.com... pretty much whatever you can find if you Google "rental houses."

Help us find our next house and suggest where to look?!

[texastrigirl]

You can contact a realtor and they can give you a list of properties for lease and even facilitate the process for you by showing you the property and writing a lease for you. The seller pays the leasing costs.

[eastwesteastagain]

LitoMama- I live in the Fairwood Greens area of Renton (we're renting a 1600 sqft SFH for 1350/mo). From your description, it sounds like the type of neighborhood you might be interested in. There are a TON of homes on the market here (at least 1 per block) and I know several have "for rent" signs out as well. Not sure where the owners have listed them, but it could be worth a drive around the neighborhood? Good luck with your search!

[LitoMama]

Thanks for the tips! I'll look into them! We haven't been here for long... what is south Seattle and Renton and Kent like? We are looking for a good safe neighborhood, and it seems the news depicts those neighborhoods as having somewhat rough/violent residents (no offense if you live there!) So keeping our baby in mind, where would you recommend or WANT to live if it were you? The hubby works in Bellevue and we are also hoping for somewhere that the commute isn't bad and where we can get into Seattle fairly easily...

[JupiterFire]

Try the North Seattle Area...

Shoreline and Lake Forest Park are nice areas, and you can usually find rental homes for decent prices.

For example, I just found these homes doing a quick search on Craigslist:

3 bedroom 2,500 sq. ft. home for $1,500 in Lake Forest Park. Just enter 1071263799 into the search box of the "apts/housing for rent" section.

3 bedroom 1,100 sq. ft. home for $1,395 in Shoreline. Enter 1070497607.

3 bedroom home for $1,400 in Shoreline. Enter Sunny Shoreline House.

3 bedroom home for $1,550 in Shoreline. Enter 1069002450.

There are tons more! I found all of these homes by entering Shoreline house in the search box. I put $1600 as the max and selected 3 bedrooms.

Good luck to you!

[eastwesteastagain]

Originally Posted by LitoMama

what is south Seattle and Renton and Kent like? We are looking for a good safe neighborhood, and it seems the news depicts those neighborhoods as having somewhat rough/violent residents (no offense if you live there!)

No offense taken

Renton is a big place and has a diversity of neighborhoods- Fairwood Greens is a private unincorporated part of Renton - very safe, family-friendly neighborhood (definitely not the part of Renton you've heard about on the news). It's actually part of the Kent school district, which is a plus if you plan to be there when your baby turns school-aged.

I can't speak to neighborhoods in Kent, but previously lived in South Park in south Seattle. I wouldn't recommend South Park at all for what you're looking for. It was called an "up and coming" area 5 years ago and as far as I can tell hasn't come up just yet. If I were looking in Seattle city limits, I would look at West Seattle rather than south Seattle. Though I'm not sure what a commute from W. Seattle to Bellevue would look like.....

I'm actually moving out of state (thank god) but if I were staying I would consider buying in Fairwood or in parts of Maple Valley. I'm not a Bellevue/east-side kind of girl, though depending on your preferences, you might find what you're looking for there.

[LongDawson]

Traffic is terrible from Fairwood and Maple Valley to Bellevue. And it will only get worse.

If your husband works in Bellevue you really don't have much choice. The least expensive area in Bellevue is Factoria east to Eastgate. Just find Factoria Mall on a map and go east a few miles. Afternoon traffic from Bellevue down south to Kent is so bad it's like we live in an undeveloped country, it sickens me. I wouldn't live like that, with a daily commute from Bellevue south. However, if you travel in odd hours it's a real breeze to get in and out. I like certain neighborhoods around Kent notably Scenic Hill and a few others. Kent has excellent public transit straight to Seattle. Advice to consider Shoreline is bad due to traffic, in my opinion. Good luck.

[Ira500]

How about Issaquah? Traffic on I-90 is far better than 405 or 520, and it's pretty easy to get into either Bellevue or Seattle, and has a good school district.