Moving to Olympia from DC (Seattle, SeaTac: for sale, apartments, rental)

[Long Gone Day]

I see a lot of ads for house and apt. shares on Craig's List for Olympia but when looking for my own 1 or 2bdrm. apt/house, all I see listed on Craig's are complexes.....Is there any other publications in Olympia to find 1 and 2bdrm. apt/houses that are not in any of those apt. complexes?

Also, opinions on areas to live (I am satelliting the areas as well): I'm a single 54yr.old female, artist, smoker (outside) looking for an affordable place with space for gardening and peace. Don't want to be with conservatives but don't want to live next to crack heads, either....want to be close to things, to walk, but don't want to be around constant noise or any violent crime, yadda, etc.

[Sandy Nelson]

Try these rental sites:

Commercial and Residential Property for Sale or Lease
Home
Homes, Apartments and Duplexes for Rent
Olympia Property Management Rental&Landlord Service Olympia WA

and the classifieds section of Front Page - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

Good luck!

Sandy

[Ultrarunner]

Here's one more site to give you price comparisons in the Olympia area...

Home

[fatboy8]

My wife and I just went through this. Nice places in Olympia seem to get rented _fast_. We mainly used Craigslist to find our place. We lucked in to a tiny little house in the Wildwood neighborhood (South Capital.) But it seems impossible to find a place if you aren't in the area to jump on it quick. I'd recommend you come out and find a place, or move here and stay in a hotel until you can find a spot.

Every house we looked at had about 10-20 other people scheduled to look at it as well.

[Nisini]

fatboy, good to know about that. Where I'm from there are a minimum of 100 applications for each so 20-30 isn't too bad I'm looking at moving there as well and have been doing research. Does anyone know why there is a higher concentration of registered sex offenders in Olympia than many other WA cities?

[NW Crow]

Long Gone Day. if you want to be close to things by walking then you'll probably want near downtown, or west Olympia or in-between them. There is a very good bus system if you want or need to add that to your plans. You can find houses or maybe duplexes with gardening space.


Nisini, I won't try to research or explain the sex offender issue in depth but I will guess that it is might be somewhat easier to blend in and not get a lot of attention in a city like Olympia compared to smaller ones near to Olympia so it may get more than those places and it probably gets some from the bigger cities to the north too because it has cheaper housing and might be a new start. I believe you can get information about nearby sex offenders for neighborhoods you are considering from local law enforcement.

[Long Gone Day]

This was very helpful. I was getting the feeling that I had to come out there first. So thanks fb8 and NW Crow. Also, I guess one flies into Seattle first? Any recommendations on cheap travel from Seattle to Olympia? Will have two roller luggage with two bags on top, four altogether. Would bus be the cheapest? Train?

[NW Crow]

Yes, you would probably want to fly into Seattle (SEATAC).

(If you have trouble getting a cheap fare into Seattle, sometimes Portland is worth a look for comparison but then you'd probably need to time it with the train and a longer train trip with transfers and I wouldn't recommmend for this trip. No commercial flights into Olympia.)

To get from Seattle to Olympia with 4 bags you could use this shuttle service
Capital Aeroporter - Seatac Airport Shuttle
and they would take you right from the airport right to any hotel / motel in the Olympia area at pretty much any time of day or pretty far into the night. They are professional and reliable.

To take the train, with your bags, you'd have to take a cab to the Seattle train station, take the train, then take a cab from the station down here to a hotel. I haven't priced this option but I would think it would be more expensive and less convenient and more time consuming than the shuttle service.

Greyhound would be a similar 3 step process and probably cost more overall than the shuttle.

Going all on city buses is possible too and the very cheapest (a few bucks) but the most time (2-3 transfers and 2-3 hours) and I wouldn't recommend it with 4 bags.




When you get here you can use the local bus service
Welcome to Intercity Transit

I would recommend going out to the Olympia's Farmer's Market
Olympia Farmers Market

And some combination of

Priest Point Park (north of downtown on East Bay Drive)
Priest Point Park

Capitol Lake

and the small but pleasant Japanese Garden
Yashiro Japanese Garden


For neighborhood hunting, you might try to ride thru or walk thru these areas:

Eastside
east of Eastside St between Legion Way to the north and say 10th St to the south and as far east as maybe Fir St. to get a flavor for it.

Westside
west of Westbay Drive and off of 4th Ave West to the north or south as far west as say Decatur St.

But there are many other nice neighborhoods.

Another option that might be quieter and less dense and maybe safer than these urban neighborhoods would somewhere in the northeast part of Tumwater.


If you plan to use the bus, pick a house near a busy bus-line.

[Long Gone Day]

Flew in on June 7th. Had taken your suggestion for the Aeroporter shuttle down to Olympia and staying at a Quality Inn while searching for apt. Thanks so much for all your advice. I had made a reservation ahead of time for the shuttle and it went like clockwork. It was the only solution with the luggage I had.

[NW Crow]

Glad the travel logistics worked out. Hope your search goes well.