30 minutes from Chambersburg - best location? (Potomac, Hagerstown: real estate, renters, insurance)

[Holly4]

My in-laws live in Chambersburg, and my husband has decided that we need to live closer to them. He has a work-at-home job that affords us the ability to live just about anywhere, as long as he can get internet access. I homeschool, so Pennsylvania is out as an option for us. (They have pretty much the worst homeschooling laws in the nation.) We also do not wish to relocate to West Virginia.

We have been looking and discussing Hagerstown for a few months, but it is difficult to make a decision when we live up in a suburb of Rochester, NY! We are renting, and currently pay $1500/month for a 4 bedroom house with a pool and a small yard. We are approximately 2 miles from all the shopping centers, parks and the local library, and about 15 minutes to all the museums in the area. We've been looking at price comparisons on cragislist, and Hagerstown looks ok. We definitely want to avoid the higher prices of the DC area.

Are there other towns, in Maryland, to recommend that would fit for us? What areas of Hagerstown should we avoid, if any? We plan to move in April, and so we will need to lock down a rental home in March. (Is there a better place to look for home rentals other than craigslist in this area?)

Some other considerations we have include my son wanting to attend a community college (no major declared at the present time) and a need to be close to a bus line, so my elderly father can travel around to his doctor appointments. He'd like to keep as much independence as possible, though of course we can transport him ourselves if needed. Senior center activities would also be a definite plus.

Thanks in advance!

[boomtownfunlover]

I'd suggest you get an ADC map of Washington County, MD. On the east side of Hagerstown the community college campus is very near the new hospital and there seems to be a lot of residential development nearby. Don't know about bus service, though.

[1Luckylady]

Hagerstown doesn't have much of a bus serviceunless you want to livein town,which I'm sure you don't. Smithsburg is a nice town but it is really growing fast. There are many nice places on the out skirts of Hagerstown that would fit your needs. You can look in Herald-mail.com\
for housing. Also I believe your4state.com has a classified section there too.

[htownterp]

I would look at the East End of Hagerstown off of the Robinwood Drive corridor. Hagerstown Community College is off Robinwood. They are getting ready to start building a new senior center there on the back of their campus, near the bio-tech park that they are trying to develop. There is a "medical mall" so to speak with the new hospital (Meritus Medical Center) and the doctor office complex next to it, which is large, also off Robinwood. Close to grocery/drug stores (Martins, CVS, soon to open Walgreens), small restaurants (pizza, chinese, seafood, Bob Evans, soon to be built Sonic,etc), near interstates for some of the big box stores, mall, and outlets center. There are some nice outdoor spaces and parks over there, specifically the amphitheater and trails at HCC and Black Rock park. I'd look in Woodbridge, Jade Landing, Rosewood Village, Brightwood Acres, and The Hamptons for rentals until you get settled. Plenty of other places to look too, but I think this meets your needs the most. There is bus service to the medical facility, but I'm not sure where the stops are. Smithsburg is a good area too but further away from daily conveniences.

[Holly4]

Thanks for the info - in the last couple of days, I've also found rental info on homes.com.

[Holly4]

Thought I would update, and maybe this can help someone else!

We looked at trulia.com, homes.com, realtor.com, hotpads.com and craigslist to try and find rentals in the area. There was a real lack of options when it came to houses with more than 4 bedrooms - the price range ran from $1100 to $2800 - and in that range there were only 15 houses. Almost none of the available allowed pets. Maybe this was because of the time period we were looking (late February), but I dunno. We briefly decided to also give a look to houses available in Franklin County, PA, but then realized that there was exactly ONE house with more than 4 bedrooms in the entire county available for rent, and it didn't allow pets. Seriously - one house.

We actually worked with a real estate agent named Todd Anderson. Apparently this is not uncommon in the area now - a lot of rental companies contract with agents to list their properties. I can highly recommend Todd, as he helped us narrow our choices even further and kept an upbeat attitude through the process. I'm not sure about the rules of this forum, so if you'd like his contact information, send me a direct message and I can share it with you that way, if you are interested.

We ended up with a beautiful, affordable rental home that is more than adequate for our needs in Northeast Hagerstown (thank you for all the suggestions about which quadrant to settle in!).

Some things I still have questions about - the rental company that owns the house we're in requires tenant insurance with liability. I need a recommendation for an agent so I can figure out how much this is going to cost us. Any ideas? We are also looking for recommendations on family doctors. My family ranges from my 60 year old father to my 14 year old daughter. I want a doctor that would work for all of us.

Thanks!

[boomtownfunlover]

Now don't go fussing about the lack of Starbucks, Comcast, Bank of America and the local Wal Mart!

[Barli]

Originally Posted by boomtownfunlover

Now don't go fussing about the lack of Starbucks, Comcast, Bank of America and the local Wal Mart!

Apparently my very public apology wasn't good enough for you Boomtown??? Everyone else seems to have let it go. Thanks for beating the now dead horse.

OP, I'm sure you will like it here. NE seems to be nicest area of Hagerstown.

[htownterp]

Big fan of this doctor group:

Potomac Family Medicine - Meritus Medical Center

The Meritus Health website (Heath System in Hagerstown) can lead you to other options.

I've never had renters insurance, though I should have, but hear good things about the State Farm Office off of Robinwood Drive near the college.

[Flamingo13]

I always had renters insurance when I was renting, my car ins. co. (Erie) who I've had since forever, offers(offered) it, it's so cheap, everyone who rents should - I assume that's what the OP means by liability insurance?