My experience finding a place (and thanks) (apartment complexes, rentals)

[AustinTxtoJax]

First, I want to say thanks for the people on this board that gave me advice about finding a place. It was helpful and I'm pretty happy with the apartment i got.

Second, I thought I'd give some info on how the apartment search went for those who are looking. My goal was to live close to the beach, but I didn't want to live in a place fit only for college kids. I found this was a hard combination to come by.

Finding places: A lot of the places on rent.com or forrent.com are large apartment complexes on or near Mayport road. I was unimpressed with these locations. As my girlfriend says, be careful if there are a lot of dollar stores and pawn shops near by.

The best way, for me, to find places was to just drive around Jax beach and Neptune beach writing down numbers. Most people I talked to said they did not have to advertise on the web since putting a sign up on the street was enough.

There are areas near the beach that are definitely for UNF students. The places are run down, not very structurally sound, but perfect if you are still in college. Then there are the places which are really nice, but on the other side of 3rd st. Most of the places in these two categories were $800-$900 a month.

Then, there were the places that were near the beach AND really nice, of course these were mostly $1000+. The place I wound up getting is between 1st and 2nd in Jax Beach and it was only $925. Its drawback is that it is small. It is very clean and nice and the landlord is the owner and seems to be very responsive.

Hope this is useful to people.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by AustinTxtoJax

The place I wound up getting is between 1st and 2nd in Jax Beach and it was only $925. Its drawback is that it is small. It is very clean and nice and the landlord is the owner and seems to be very responsive.

Congratulations! Sounds like a good find.

Great advice. Some areas, like the Beaches and San Marco don't have the typical types of rentals, so it can be tough searching for one online. Your method sounds like the best approach for these kinds of areas .