rental ideas for older mom; non-smoke, quiet, central (Austin, West: real estate, apartment complex)

[clarksvillemom]

So my mom is going to move here to Austin from another city where she has always had a house. Given the "exchange rate," the sellers' market in the place where she currently lives and the fact that she wants to be in central Austin where I live, she will only be able to afford to rent here. I need some ideas of where to look - here are the requirements:

--apartment, condo, garden home, townhouse all ok
--central or north central Austin or Westlake close to Mopac
--non-smoking property
--preferably a small property, none of these huge sprawling apt. complexes
--some kind of porch or balcony
--accepts cats (1 cat)
--quiet (she is in her 70s)
--safe
--under $1500. We would love to get something for about $1100
--a 1/1 is okay. a 2/1 would be ideal
--needs washer/dryer connections in unit

I would love to find all of this PLUS an enclosed patio or tiny yard for her to sit outside, let the cat run around. Am I crazy? Anyone have any ideas or names of places I should look?

[someguyatx]

Your mom can rent a small house or duplex for that much if she does not like apartment life. Assuming north central austin means mopac and 360 area check off mopac near steck and far west. Maybe even use a locator service since they are free to you.

[clarksvillemom]

thanks! anyone else?

[Gemini1963]

You might try looking on Austin Real Estate | AustinHomeSearch | Austin Realtors | Austin TX Real Estate, searching the "lease" database. Maybe try something like: entering "Austin - North Central" for the area, and "78757" for the zip code, and a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1,000 sf minimum, with $1500/month maximum. Some apparently nice properties come up (though I did not look very closely at them) - and that's just within 78757, so you can adjust the criteria as you like. Several of the listings were well under $1500, too.

If you want something that is more like an apartment complex (though not "sprawling," I understand) you might drive around to see what is in the area within, say, a 1/2 mile radius of the Sprouts at Anderson Lane & Rockwood (used to be Sun Harvest until recently). That's close to Mopac, and it's pretty walkable there (I think) - with groceries (Sprouts) and the businesses on Anderson Lane within easy distance.

[jdevelop2]

You may or may not have trouble finding a non-smoking property. Many landlords in Austin are (rightfully so IMO) reluctant to dictate what the paying residents can do on their patio or backyard.

On the flip side, many folks from California have moved here and own properties and they tend to be much more antismoking in their mindset.

[quince]

Try the 78731 too. They have some condos/duplexes over there, some of them are not far off the mopac (west of the mopac). I always thought the las colinas condos were nice there. and some have enclosed patios. It's not that big a place though so might have trouble finding one for rent. But there are some other duplexes around that area too.