How to find a Large Rental Home in South Hills Charleston (Elkview: appointed, for sale)

[sat832]

Help, We are relocating our family to Charleston in the next few months. We have been watching the Gazette and Craigslist and it seems that large homes (4 bedrooms and up) are very hard to come by.

Anyone know how we might find a larger rental home? How do you find sellers who might be interested in rent to own/contract for deed?

We want our kids to attend Holz Elementary. Does anyone know if they always approve transfer requests if you do not live in those boundaries?

Thank you.

[SorryIMovedBack]

I'd contact a few realtors and see if they have any rentals. The better rental properties want to discriminate and if they advertise in public, then they can't pick and choose tenants. All that they can do in that case is set the rent really high to be a barrier. I rented from a John Damous in Kanawha City. He had apartments and may have branched out into rental houses. But the problem that I found with Charleston region was that there were relatively few rental houses, the rents for them were higher than your house payments would be if you bought the house, and rental homes were generally substandard in accouterments, parking, garages, and also safety and security. The best rental homes were word of mouth deals, passed along through co-workers, company newspaper, churches, relatives, etc.

[Big_Al]

THERE IS ONE for rent on Bridge Road, in fromt of the pharmacy. It's in a very good shape in and out, i was inside once and I know the owner. If you drive from downtown it will be on your left, 2d building after the stop sign. The 1st building is commercial one.

[bballjunkie]

Originally Posted by kim825

We want our kids to attend Holz Elementary. Does anyone know if they always approve transfer requests if you do not live in those boundaries?

WV has a strict pupil-teacher ratio law and this restricts the ability to transfer in if you live out-of-district. That being said, I think Kanawha County has a relatively liberal transfer policy.

You need to call the school and talk to the principal to make sure there is room and what the procedures would be for applying to transfer into that school.

[sat832]

Originally Posted by bballjunkie

WV has a strict pupil-teacher ratio law and this restricts the ability to transfer in if you live out-of-district. That being said, I think Kanawha County has a relatively liberal transfer policy.

You need to call the school and talk to the principal to make sure there is room and what the procedures would be for applying to transfer into that school.

Thanks, I'll check out the rental on Bridge Road.

We've talked to all three elementary schools and they are not allowing out of district transfer to any GW feeder schools.

We are just so torn on whether to take the job. I have never encountered such a market. It is truly just odd how little is available. We are willing to pay a premium to get in a rental, I just wish some of the many homes up for sale (for months...) would consider rent to own or something.

We've tried contacting realtors and it's SO hard to get most of them to even return your emails/phone calls. We hate to pass up the job but really aren't confident we can find a suitable home for our family.

My husband is in Charleston right now and is just so disappointed at the complete lack of quality rentals.

[bballjunkie]

Sorry to hear of your problem locating suitable rentals. Could you make a land contract offer to one of the homes you like? If it has been on the market for a while, they may think about it.

Not surprised about the elementary schools not accepting out-of-district students. There are other good elementary schools in Kanawha County. I think sometimes people worry too much about this aspect. The reason I feel this way is that most caring parents work closely with the teachers and motivate their children to do well. That leads to success more often than the district alignment, in my opinion.

Have you thought about Putnam County? Might be something out there. I hate to see you turn the job down.

[sat832]

We have been trying to locate the vacant "for sale" homes to see if they will consider land contract. So far, no luck. It seems the realtors just won't really give you the time of day. Wish there was a way to get to the sellers. Plus, we are finding that the South Hills area really has inflated pricing.

We probably do worry too much about the schools, only because we've had such struggles in the past getting our kids the challenge they need. We may have to look at Putnam Cty but my husband would be working in Elkview. It looked like the commute might be tough.

I think at this point we are going to probably take a leap of faith and take the job. He's going to hold out as long as he can Then once he starts, I'll stay behind and just hope for the best in finding a place quickly.

Just aren't in a position to buy right now because of losses taken in inflated market in our current state. Too bad there isn't some sort of alternative financing for a family who can/will pay for the home.

We were really taken by surprise by the rentals (or lack there of) in Charleston. My husband said that most of the ones he looked at were so bad he wouldn't have even rented them in college. It's frustrating.

[Almost Heaven WV girl]

There are other grade schools in the South Hills area that are excellent. Overbrook and Kenna are also wonderful schools. Consistently high test scores and very active parent teacher organizations. Both are really good schools.