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Nearly 8 months after completing college I finally landed a job offer as a Bank Examiner. I've lived in South Texas my entire life and have never lived by myself. However, this job is in the D.C Metro area were I don't know a single person. I am very excited about my new job which will cover moving expenses (moving truck, plane ticket, food, etc.) however I do have a bit of anxiety about making such a big move with the little amount of money/support that I have. My parents have told me they will help with what they can financially but I have no clue how much support they can actually provide. I have never moved before and I'm truly clueless on what I need to do. I know I first need to secure a place to live but how do you do that when you cannot actually visit the city beforehand?
Do you think it would be better to rent a room out first? Should I sign a short term lease agreement just so I can get to know the area? This job also requires 60% travel so I don't know if paying for an appt. would be a waste if I might only be there half of the time.
What do you think I should do? Any advice would help a ton.
Ask if you will be given a temporary housing allowance by your employer for hotel living for a period of time while you look for a more permanent place. As a young person starting out, I would look for a shared housing situation. You will probably find DC housing costs a lot higher than what you're used to in South Texas. There are certainly large numbers of young folks in the DC area sharing houses and apartments. No longer in that age-group myself, I can't tell you the best places to find roomates. Nowadays, I imagine, you do it on the internet.
In DC there are a lot of large apartment block buildings. I would focus on these since you can verify their existence and their policies a lot easier than you can verify the validity of an ad off craigslist. A website like Apartment Showcase would list a lot of such apartments (its run by the washington post). Most of these larger buildings pretty much always have vacancies.
It might indeed be worthwhile signing a short-term lease so that you can move if you decide you like another place better or don't have the means to pay for it. Of course short-term leases are usually more expensive than year-long leases.
You may want to consider a roommate--it would probably be easier to find one, people love a roommate who is gone all the time. And it would cut down on your expenses. Of course, it all depends on your tolerance for roommates. Personally I'd happily pay more for my own place to avoid dealing with roommates, but if money is a serious concern a roommate might be a good choice.
If you are traveling a lot by air you may want to include Arlington in your apartment search, for proximity to the airport (s).
If you decide to go the roommate route, which I think is ok, see if you can find a homeowner that is looking for a roommate. Going this route, all of the bills are usually in the homeowners name and you do not have to worry if the homeowner gets behind on paying the bills. Usually the worst that will happen is that you have to look for a new place to stay. On the other hand if you go in with someone else and rent an apt or house and your roommate turns out to be a deadbeat, you could find yourself on the hook for their share of the bills.
Ideally I would live by myself but a roommate is looking more practical at this point. Have any of you ever had a roommate/housemate whom you had never met beforehand? How did it work out? Appartments certainly cost a lot more in D.C than they do in South Texas, but I feel I could pay around 1200-1300/mth and make it just fine. However I dont know if appts. that cost that much are decent. Im trying to ready myself as much as I can mentaly since this will be such a huge change in pace for me.
I have had a couple roommates that I did not know beforehand. Both worked out great. In both cases we had little in common and rarely hung out together. However as I have said before, find someone who already is in a place and is just looking for help paying the bills. If you first hook up with someone and then go looking for a place to rent, chances are both of you will be responsible for all the bills. In that case, if your roommate gets behind on their share of the bills and then skips out, you will be stuck getting everything current. If you can not make up what your roommate failed to pay, you will get to know bill collectors real well.
With $1300/mo, you should be able to afford a place by yourself.
Studios would fit pretty easily within this range, all expenses included. One bedrooms would be right at that limit.
If you're just looking for a quick rental without a lot of hunting around, you may want to contact the LLs at 1500 Massachusetts NW. (http://www.williamcsmith.com/detail.asp?id=118 - broken link) I've personally stayed in this building for a time and its pretty decent. Not luxury by any means, but it suffices. Management on site, close to everything (including red, blue, and orange lines), diverse population of tenants, convenience store on site, pretty reasonable prices (studios start at around $1150/mo).
One thing about studios in this town--its pretty common to have only under-counter refrigerators in small apartments. Which kinda stinks. I never thought I'd have to list 'full-size refrigerator' as an amenity when I apartment hunted, but in this town, there seem to be quite a few buildings with only compact fridges. I guess they think everyone's out wining and dining politicians and never cooks or eats at home. But if you are traveling so much of the time, perhaps this isn't an issue for you.
Besides finding a place to live you need to:
1.. Make sure you get your necessary medical records.. (when I moved - by myself... I went and got my allergy records and my birth control records (i was getting the shots) - so I could immediately locate a doctor and have a smoother transition into my medical needs.
2.. Banking..... Does your bank have a branch in the DC metro area? If your with a credit union - find out if they "partner" with others in the metro area so you won't need to change banks. - When I moved out of state the banks refused to open an account for me until I could show I lived in the state for 30+ days... (the same bank that had a branch in my previous hometown). - I ended up staying with my credit union from my hometown - but opened a slush fund for the emergency stuff in a "big" bank.
3.. Your mail.... When you are about to leave tx - put your mail on hold until you find a place.. Then you can have them forward all your mail to your new addres with little problem.
Once you get to DC...
1.. Drive/Take the route to your work - BEFORE your first day - preferrably during the time you would leave for work... That will give you an idea of what the drive/route will be like...
2.. Tour around your new neighborhood... wher's the grocery store, the pharmacy, the gas stations, the shopping center, the gym/rec centers/ etc....
3.. ALL metro areas have singles groups (many include couples) that get together to do things and are NOT dating focused but are focused on singles who want to go out and do things but don't want to go alone.. concerts, plays, activities, etc...
4.. if you attend church - talk to your pastor about a church in your new neighborhood - or call after you get there - they can give you recommendations if you are with a specific denomination.
keep in mind that the metro DC area is NOT Texas and you may become culture shocked..
keep in mind that the metro DC area is NOT Texas and you may become culture shocked..
have fun
Yeah I know for a fact that culture shock will bite me in the butt . Everything about this move is going to be a HUGE 180 in my life (first career job, traveling, bills, friends, etc.) but I'm trying my best to psyche myself up for it. Its going to be a lot of first but I've come to that point in my life were its time to step out of the comfort zone. I've always lived in a home with 10 people as well; The solitude might also be something that I need to adjust too.
As a fellow South Texan, I say congratulations and have fun!!!!
No experience in the D.C. area, but when I was about your age I had two roommates I'd never met before we lived together and I consider both lifelong friends. It doesn't always work out that way, but hopefully you'll be as lucky as I was.
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