Picking up and moving to Madison (Milwaukee, La Crosse: apartments, rentals, houses)

[GeddyLeeRules]

My fiance and I have both wanted to move to Madison for years. We live in the La Crosse area and are for the most part familiar with Madison. We both have jobs in media/advertising (print, radio and writing) so picking up and leaving is no big deal as far as finding full time employment ranging from $11-$14 an hour. While it doesn't have to be in that specific field, is it easy to find such opportunities in town (both college grads, solid work history, etc)?

Also the other problem is our 85 pound well behaved dog. It's hard to find places that rent to people with a dog that big. It seems from the searching I've done of places in the Madison area, the thing that always pops up is large living complexes. That's something we're looking to avoid. We've always liked the neighborhood by the zoo as well as Willy/Jennifer Street. From your searches/knowledge of the area/rental experience, are there rentals in those areas that aren't dumps and would take a dog? Maybe a house, upper/lower or small apartment building?

We were planning on saving up three months of living expenses (estimated rent, bills, grocery/gas, utilities, etc...) before taking the plunge. While we do have friends in the Madison area, I thought I'd ask some questions here since from what I've read a lot of the info is truthful of what I know of the area. I've also learned new things! Glad to have this resource and have the ability to learn from locals about what would seem like dumb questions to some.

Any input is welcome. We plan on job searching in the meantime also. Basically, we're at a point of our lease is getting near being up here. We could buy a house in the area, but we want to give ourselves the experience of living elsewhere and Madison has always been a place both of us have wanted to try.

[Hans Licks]

First, from my experience, most advertising jobs are salaried, so I'm not sure why you're quoting an a hourly wage goal. As anyone in ad business can tell you if you divided salary by hours worked, you'd end up at about $3.50/hr!. That said, Madison isn't an especially great place to move looking for a job in advertising. Certainly better than La Crosse though. There are a handful of legitimate agencies and a bunch of one-man shops, consultants, printers and production houses pretending to be agencies. On the client side, there are a few in-house deparments. I know that CUNA used to have in-house services as did American Family. Salaries are very, very low unless you own the agency. Jobs are few and far between, so get interviews set up before you move. If you want to do sales, you have the TV stations, Clear Channel radio and Midwest Family. I was at this years' Addy Awards and it was much smaller than previous years. In fact, the Madison and Milwaukee awards have combined because each had gotten so small. What I'm getting at is that if you want to pursue a career in advertising, bypass your stay in Madison and move onto Minneapolis or Chicago directly. You'll need to do it sooner than later, you might as well do it in the first place.

As for renting with a dog, I agree. Look for a floor in a private house. That's your best shot. Or possiblly a smaller four-plex apartment building. It will be a challenge. Probably easier to find places in less desirable neighborhoods on the North or South sides of town. Areas along Sherman Ave and in Brentwood have some older homes and apartments that are close to Warner Park. Not that bad and only 10 minutes from downtown. That's where I ended up when I was trying to rent with a small dog.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Hans Licks

As for renting with a dog, I agree. Look for a floor in a private house. That's your best shot. Or possiblly a smaller four-plex apartment building. It will be a challenge. Probably easier to find places in less desirable neighborhoods on the North or South sides of town. Areas along Sherman Ave and in Brentwood have some older homes and apartments that are close to Warner Park. Not that bad and only 10 minutes from downtown. That's where I ended up when I was trying to rent with a small dog.

I cannot speak to the advertising job market, but I'd recommend coming down to Madison to check out neighborhoods and scout places for rent. You're more likely to find an independent rental with a "for rent" sign in the front yard if you check in person rather than searching online. Make a list of what you find and start calling the landlords. Living in LaCrosse, you are close enough to Madison to make several trips down this way to scout the area and get things settled prior to making the move. Best wishes!

[argot]

The neighborhoods that you mentioned are actually probably the best if you want a flat. Willy Street will probably be a little more expensive unless you go pretty far east, and will have a hippie/liberal young professional vibe. The Vilas area (near the zoo) is a little quieter and ranges from mostly students on the north and west ends to mostly families towards the south. I can't really say how hard it will be to find a place that allows a large dog, but I've seen more than a few in both neighborhoods.