College grad relocating (Kansas City, Lee's Summit, Overland: real estate, apartments, leasing agent)

[TriStateLove]

Hey y'all! I graduated from college last weekend at a big southern university and I will be relocating to the Kansas City area within a month (things are happening very fast/last minute) and I have a few questions.

1.) Where should I look at for places to rent? From what I've read so far, The Plaza area is supposed to be the nicest, but my price range is about $600/month. And I'm getting a (rescued and trained) GSP so it would have to be pet friendly with a dog park at least a short drive away, and a safe place to walk during sunset hours. I know y'all aren't my personal real estate/leasing agents but if you know anyone who specializes in helping people find apartments, let me know!

2.) Dog parks, are there any especially good ones?

3.) I'm 22. And my closest friend who's not in my college town (which is like, 12+ hours away I think??), lives in Oklahoma City lol. What do post grads do to meet people in KC? I literally don't know anyone there and I'm definitely a people person - always hanging out with friends and entertaining at my townhouse.

4.) What kind of culture does KC fall into? I'm from the deep South, and I know many parts of Missouri are rural, or "country", and that some people in MO associate themselves with the Southern identity, would you say that's true for KC as well?

Anyway, I may have more questions, haha. Thank you for any insight at all! I'm totally frenzied right now lol

[pacificwhim]

Welcome! I think for a recent grad, a place like the Crossroads might be good. It's an artsy district that's part of greater downtown, and I lived there myself until recently. Tons of lofts, galleries, good restaurants and concrete. However, it's also not far from Penn Valley off-leash park. I don't know how many college grads you'll run into, but it's chock full of young bohemians, entrepreneurs and creative types.

[RadioSilence]

Do you have a job somewhere, or are you entering graduate school? If you're working at a specific location, that will influence the answers on where to find an apartment. At $600/month, I hope you're okay with having roommates.

There's no good regional term for the central plains identity, which pulls from the midwest as much as the west and southwest. But you'll find Kansas City is most definitely not deep south.

Within the heart of the city, Penn Valley Park is the biggest off-leash dog park.

[springfieldcollegealum]

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I don't know what some of these apartments have in terms of accepting pets but this would get you started. I like the Plaza area-I lived in an older renovated apartment for a few years and you can walk around in the evening relatively safely as long as you keep your wits about you.

I'm sure there are a lot of meet up groups-in the Plaza area you are close to restaurants and bars, UMKC, etc. Meet up groups I think are an excellent way to meet people in a new area who have similar interests.

[kcmo]

Yea, need more details to really help. KC has pretty substantial urban core and many areas that would probably work for you.

Meetup is great, highly recommend that.

KC is not southern at all and is a very different city than Oklahoma City. It's much larger and far more urban with a lot more to do and not really southern or country at all compared to OKC. You have to get pretty far from KC in southern Missouri to before you start to see southern culture.

[TriStateLove]

Originally Posted by RadioSilence

Do you have a job somewhere, or are you entering graduate school? If you're working at a specific location, that will influence the answers on where to find an apartment. At $600/month, I hope you're okay with having roommates.

There's no good regional term for the central plains identity, which pulls from the midwest as much as the west and southwest. But you'll find Kansas City is most definitely not deep south.

Within the heart of the city, Penn Valley Park is the biggest off-leash dog park.

I'll have a job! So I know the area I want to be in is Jackson County, I think the farthest outside of the city I'd want to live is the Lee's Summit area. Will $600/month really only get me that far? I'd reallllllllllly like to avoid living with roommates because I'm not comfortable living with people who I don't know. All of my college roommates were close friends of at least two years.

The Plaza looks so pretty, would it be weird for someone to just walk around there with their dog sometimes? Or is it too fast paced for a relaxing evening walk?

Originally Posted by kcmo

Yea, need more details to really help. KC has pretty substantial urban core and many areas that would probably work for you.

Meetup is great, highly recommend that.

KC is not southern at all and is a very different city than Oklahoma City. It's much larger and far more urban with a lot more to do and not really southern or country at all compared to OKC. You have to get pretty far from KC in southern Missouri to before you start to see southern culture.

I had to google search Meetup, it seems pretty cool. Do people actually use it?
I was also planning on joining my alma mater's alumni association because I think they have a chapter in Kansas City.

I've never been to Oklahoma City, but I have a good friend who had to move there and she likes it for the most part! I'm from the Southeast/Deep South and I've loved it here, but I'm excited for a change - Missouri is as far north and as far west as I can bring myself to go for the time being, haha. I'm scared that it may be a culture shock!

[westender]

OP -- where is your job located? Is it near the Plaza? (roughly from 43d to 51st, from Troost to State Line) Is the job downtown? Or is it in a suburb? This affects where you would want to live rather significantly, because Kansas City is geographically large.

[brianjb]

$600/month is not really a whole lot of money. You may need to realistically look at where you can afford to live. Or entertain the idea of having roommates.

[MrIndependent]

Originally Posted by TriStateLove

Hey y'all! I graduated from college last weekend at a big southern university and I will be relocating to the Kansas City area within a month (things are happening very fast/last minute) and I have a few questions.

1.) Where should I look at for places to rent? From what I've read so far, The Plaza area is supposed to be the nicest, but my price range is about $600/month. And I'm getting a (rescued and trained) GSP so it would have to be pet friendly with a dog park at least a short drive away, and a safe place to walk during sunset hours. I know y'all aren't my personal real estate/leasing agents but if you know anyone who specializes in helping people find apartments, let me know!

2.) Dog parks, are there any especially good ones?

3.) I'm 22. And my closest friend who's not in my college town (which is like, 12+ hours away I think??), lives in Oklahoma City lol. What do post grads do to meet people in KC? I literally don't know anyone there and I'm definitely a people person - always hanging out with friends and entertaining at my townhouse.

4.) What kind of culture does KC fall into? I'm from the deep South, and I know many parts of Missouri are rural, or "country", and that some people in MO associate themselves with the Southern identity, would you say that's true for KC as well?

Anyway, I may have more questions, haha. Thank you for any insight at all! I'm totally frenzied right now lol

For $600, that is kind of the low range for a 1br apartment in the Plaza. Unless you were living in one of those less desirable units that college kids from UMKC and Rockhurst live in in the area. Realistically, you will need to bump up that budget to $700-$750 for 1br, assuming you want to live in a safe and desirable location.

Crossroads is very cool, but majority of it are lofts. Lofts are not cheap.
River Market is somewhat the same boat as Crossroads.
Quality Hill has some nice options, maybe not as expensive.
Hyde Park has some real gems, but the area as a whole is more "gritty"

Meeting people without previously knowing anybody in KC is not the easiest thing to do. The local culture doesn't lend itself to making that easy. Most young professionals here know their buddies who also either grew up in the greater metro area, went to college nearby, or know other young professionals at work. It helps if you work at a company with a decent number of young people (Cerner, Garmin, KU Medical, VML, or any of the ad agencies). If you don't work in that kind of environment, then utilizing Meetup.com will be beneficial. Also, if you are religious, there are some great churches in the area that cater more to a younger crowd. Those are fantastic for meeting folks.

I have lived in the South before, and I can tell you that KC is not Southern. It does however, have a strong "country" vibe about it. Love for NASCAR, hunting, country music, That is most heavily pronounced in the suburbs and peripheral towns adjacent to the city (especially on the MO side). With that being said, some of the urban neighborhoods of KC on the MO side, are sophisticated/artsy/yuppie (River Market, Westside, Crossroads) and semi-Hipster (Westport, Voelker, Midtown vibe).

[mercerbmatt]

Came on here to read reviews about Cerner and thought I'd post to try and help out:

TriStateLove - I just recently graduated from a school in the South(Mercer), but relocated back to my home area (close to KC) for a job. Having gone to school in Georgia, it's a bit different, depending on what kind of social person you are. If you like to go out and have a good time as you've mentioned, I really don't see that much of a difference. Every young adult I know in the KC area likes to go out for drinks and such, as the weekends are always a blast in the Plaza/Westport/PNL areas. You'll see a ton of ex-frat/sorority people from KU/KSU etc. If anything, the South is just more "proper" than KC.

As people have said, you're going to have to up your monthly apartment money to live in the Plaza area.

If you need help with anything else, let me know!