Apartment Hunting and Undergrads (Madison, Washington: apartments, leasing agent, house)

[Aprily78]

Hello All,

My hubby is interviewing and we may be possibly relocating from NYC to Madison. I have a few questions, and I would love to have anyone weigh in. Just a caveat, I have lived in the Midwest before and lived for seven years in Chicago, so I am a bit familiar with the Midwest (but admit Madison is not Chicago).

-How does one find an apartment that has a least date before the summer? We will probably not be able to travel to really look at places, but rely on a realtor. Tips?
-How common are interracial families? I am Hispanic and hubby is Black. Baby is cafe au lait

Thanks in advance for any and all input!

Cheers,
April

[7G9C4J2]

Hi, and welcome to the Madison forum! I hope your experience here is a positive one, and that you find happiness and prosperity in your stay here. Coming from the size cities you are (NYC and Chicago), you may find it quite a change from what you're accustomed to, but the place does grow on you with time.

So, on to your questions. Apartments are available for rent year-round, unless you absolutely need to be right in the UW campus area. If all you're seeing is June or August lease-start dates, you're probably looking at buildings that are geared primarily to students, and if you have an infant or small child, well, I wouldn't recommend student buildings or neighborhoods as being a good choice. You would be better off looking a little farther from the downtown/campus area, either east side or west side. There are a number of good threads in the Madison forum that discuss the different sides of town and what they're like; I keep a list of a few of them, and you might get some good insights here:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...e-madison.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...ce-please.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...west-side.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...t-isthmus.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...re-should.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...ghborhood.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/madis...nt-advice.html

Certainly you can work through a realtor to find an apartment, but it is not a requirement. I know in big cities, that's often the only way to go, but Madison is small enough (only about 240K people) that most landlords/property management companies are quite comfortable handling things directly. And we have enough folks transplanting from elsewhere in the country that many landlords are quite well prepared to handle the process by email or online. Many of the bigger and better ones have online virtual tours, or failing that, the leasing agents will likely be happy to email you photos and information.

There are a lot of different places to search for apartments. Back in the days when I worked for a landlord, one of the places they liked to list vacancies was this one: StartRenting.com - Search for your apartment in Madison Wisconsin. That site tends to attract more of the mid-to-high end property owners, which means you are less likely to see a lot of student housing listed there. (Frankly, most student housing isn't what I'd describe as high-end.)

As to your question about interracial families, well, it's the Midwest. It's a mostly liberal city in the Midwest, and one that likes to think of itself as cosmopolitan and trendy and with-it, but it's still the Midwest. You will find some families that look like yours, but they won't be the majority, or even a sizable minority. You probably will not encounter overt prejudice, though I can't say that as an absolute. But you may find a more subtle form of prejudice, more in how people say things than in what they say, if that makes sense. This is what non-white friends of mine have described experiencing in Madison, at least; your mileage may vary. I can tell you that along with that, you will also encounter a fair number of people who will BEND OVER BACKWARDS to show you that they are NOT PREJUDICED AND ACCEPTING OF EVERYONE, which makes some of my non-white friends uncomfortable also.

Hope that gets you started. By all means, if you come up with more questions, or if you want perspectives on specific neighborhoods or areas of the city, please come back and post again. Good luck to you in your relocation, and we hope to see you at the Farmers' Market!

[SecuritiesLaw]

Originally Posted by MidwesternBookWorm

I can tell you that along with that, you will also encounter a fair number of people who will BEND OVER BACKWARDS to show you that they are NOT PREJUDICED AND ACCEPTING OF EVERYONE, which makes some of my non-white friends uncomfortable also.

Haha, this is both true and comical to watch. My sister is gay, and so I often get to witness this first hand in Madison. People's ability to "act normally" all seems to come down to previous exposure. Bigger cities and to an even larger extent relocating often and traveling expose you to more perspectives outside of the usual.

Due to the University's reputation and popularity of the city, a decent proportion of the people here (particularly professionals/ages late 20's+) have lived elsewhere and relocated here like myself. However, there is also a good handful of the population (particularly University students) that came from smaller cities in Wisconsin and have never lived outside the state. These people often come to Madison because they are excited to be in a place that is open and want to experience more things. However, they can tend to go off the other end of the scale falling all over themselves trying to show you that. They mean well. But no, you're not going to have any issues that you wouldn't have anywhere else (ie. implicit/subliminal judgement).

People will always tend to fall toward a class system of some sort no matter the city (NY-Income/Location, SoCal-Material possesions/'cool factor', Northwest-'Greenness',organic/free range). In Madison, it's less likely to be about race or sexual preference that it is to be about level of education (then watch the snark come out)!

Good luck!

[Aprily78]

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it.

What I am really grappling with is finding a place that is able to rent before August. Time and time again, even on Craigslist, something looks promising and then it's an August vacancy. Bit discouraging.

I have a Master's degree, so I might not have too many issues with regard to peeing contests, but I don't advertise that fact I grew up in a rural, cow tipping contest in Washington State.

Best,
April

[7G9C4J2]

If all you're finding is August move-in dates, you must be looking primarily at the student areas of the city. If you look at areas described as "downtown," "campus-area," "near-east-side," or "near-west-side," most of what you'll see is going to be geared to the student population, at least tangentially if not directly. There are definitely rentals available year-round, but they are all going to be farther away from the downtown/campus area.

Try going to the Start Renting website and do a search on "northeast" or "far west" and see what comes back. You'll see a much wider range of available dates when you search closer to the outskirts of the city.

[SecuritiesLaw]

How soon are you needing to find a place OP?

You might consider what my wife and I did when coming to Madison midyear. Since we knew we wanted to be in the city before searching for a longer term home, we picked up someone elses lease in a location that would allow us to get downtown to our jobs quickly, and save on rent while searching for a more permanent living situation in person.

My wife and I are currently house shopping, and will be looking to rent our apartment out for the remainder of our lease (thru August) when we do. There are often situations where this is the case, particularly around graduation time in the spring when people head off to new locations and wish to get rid of their lease before it ends.

Do you have more specifics on what kind of space/price you're looking for?

Feel free to PM me the details if you're interested. I don't want to post my exact location to the public at large, but would be happy to privately.