moving to baltimore area and need advice? (Catonsville, Glen Burnie: fit in, sublet)

[trainman82]

hi everyone, i'm finishing up training for a new job that will be located in Baltimore. I will be working for CSX railroad and finish training on February 17th. I need to find an apartment to live in around the western or southwestern part of the city, in a decent neighborhood. I will be working around Curtis Bay and Locust Point most of the time, and would like a close commute. I don't want to spend more then $800 a month for rent for a one bedroom apartment. I am a 29 yr old white male who wants a safe area to live. Not the hood or slums, that is not for me. unfortunatly i can not visit Baltimore before i start up there, as i'll be starting work the following Monday. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[B_More Boy]

Get on Craigslist and Trulia asap. For the $ and duration of time to find a place don't bother signing a 6 month lease. Try to find a month by month rental and get yourself a storage locker while looking for greener pastures

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

If you can find a place in Locust Point, that's one of the nicest neighborhoods in Baltimore, and there's your short commute. However $800 might be a bit low? Look on craigslist. There are decent areas of Curtis Bay and Brooklyn Park, also. Might also look at Glen Burnie.

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Something like this might be good to start out with:

Basement w Privat Bath, CAC, Laundry (http://baltimore.craigslist.org/roo/2829114098.html - broken link)

B-more boy is right. Get something short term, settle into your job, then find the place you want to rent for a year or more.

Room in beautiful rowhouse (http://baltimore.craigslist.org/roo/2791093327.html - broken link)

Sharing a house is another way to reduce costs.

Room for Rent (http://baltimore.craigslist.org/roo/2829962914.html - broken link)

[kharing]

Place your own ad on Craigslist room/sublet wanted section.

That's what I did a few years ago. I moved here from the Southwest and was able to pick from a number of temporary places. Think I paid $600 a month for a room in a beautiful rowhouse steps from Camden Yards.

With this economy, you will be a blessing to someone that needs to earn some quick rental income.

I stayed in the sublet/room for less than two months - enough time to get to know the layout of the city and sign a lease on a place that I knew I would love.

Good luck!

[trainman82]

thanks everyone for the advice, unfortunatly, i'm not looking for a room, and i know the area alright, as i'm from Delaware, and visit family who live in Baltimore. my question was geared more towards what are the names of some safe, clean neighborhoods around the west or southwestern part of the city. i read one of you say Brooklyn, but no way, that place is great if you want to get robbed or shot from everything i've been told or seen. i'm looking more for an actual apartment complex if preferable. i try to stay away from the craigslist adds as there are too many cons on there.

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Brooklyn park is what I suggested: It's in AA County and consideredably better than Brooklyn. Apartment complexes are not as common here as they are in other places. Again, check Glen Burnie.

[trainman82]

everyone keeps saying Glen Burnie has gotten considerably worst in the past few years. What about towns like Lansdowne, Halethorpe, or Catonsville???

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by trainman82

everyone keeps saying Glen Burnie has gotten considerably worst in the past few years. What about towns like Lansdowne, Halethorpe, or Catonsville???

I don't know if Lansdowne and Halethorpe are any better than GB. Catonsville is probably out of your price range.

Also remember that people have different definitions of what is good and bad.

[OutsideIn]

Originally Posted by trainman82

thanks everyone for the advice, unfortunatly, i'm not looking for a room, and i know the area alright, as i'm from Delaware, and visit family who live in Baltimore. my question was geared more towards what are the names of some safe, clean neighborhoods around the west or southwestern part of the city.

The suggestion of renting a room for a few weeks or a month wasn't so that you could learn your way around the area, but so that you could have time to actually scout apartments and neighborhoods to find something you'd like rather than signing a year's lease on the first apartment you find that looks decent, only to discover after you move in that it's a complete pit to live in, or that you really don't fit into that neighborhood for whatever reason (your tastes, your habits, your preferred activities, whatever).

Trying to find an apartment in a single day or weekend is a recipe for disaster. I once moved to a city I knew reasonably well, and took a townhouse apartment that looked decent in a suburb I'd spent a fair bit of time in (I'd dated someone who lived there and had spent time at his home), but after less than a month I realized that I'd moved into a hellhole. Place was full of unsupervised kids who trashed the common areas on a daily basis, fouled the swimming pool so badly that management kept having to close it -- it wound up being operational for only two weeks of the summer, and they weren't even contiguous weeks -- and the neighbors behind me tended to have wild loud outdoor parties on their patio that spilled over onto everyone's patios including mine. At 3AM. On weeknights.

And yet it was generally a nice suburb. I'd just picked the bad apple of townhouse complexes, apparently. So it's really a good idea to be able to take up to a month to scout around. Living in a city isn't the same as visiting it.