Moving to Rolla, MO need help finding a home to rent. (Arnold: real estate, rental homes)

[skiguy1981]

Hey everyone first time poster.

I'm moving to Rolla, MO in about a month and I have no idea where to live.

Could someone please help me find a home to rent. I'm looking for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house for around 900-1100.

First is this possible? can you find a nice place for that amount of money?

I'm moving from Naperville, IL a ton of almost 200,000 people so I know it is going to be a lot different.

any help would be great and if you can point me in the right direction that would be cool. I would really like it to be in a nice area.

Thanks everyone!

[skiguy1981]

any help at all would be great

[misplaced1]

I haven't been there but I'd like to suggest, if you haven't, to frequent the local newspaper in any area you are going to move to and get a feel for it there. Hoping someone familiar with the area will help you out.

[Silvermouse]

Originally Posted by skiguy1981

any help at all would be great

I'm not familiar with renting, but I've heard people say to stay away from Investment Reality. Also, if you can find a place that has Intercounty Electric instead of RMU (Rolla Municipal Utilities) you will save a bunch.

[BethP]

I live in Rolla but haven't rented for over 16 years, so I don't really have any current first-hand info regarding rentals. I've heard the same about Investment that Silvermouse mentioned, and Intercounty probably will be cheaper than RMU (unless your house is so drafty that it negates the lower cost that Intercounty charges). You might get some helpful information from Welcome to the RollaNet GRAPEVINE! They have a classified section, and there is a "For Rent" section with 123 listings at the moment. There is also a lot of other information about this area that might help you. Good luck!

[ozarksboy]

My July 20 RMU bill was as follows:
Electrical, 1st 1000 KWH, $93.00
Electrical, Over 1000 KWH, $42.33
Electrical, Service Availability, 10.00
Total electric, $145.33
Water, ALL 1000 Gal Used, $7.80
Water, Service Availability, $9.00
Total Water, $16.80
Sewer, $10.50
Trash Services, $12.50
I pay $220 per month on the level payment plan.
That seems high to me for two old people, but we live in a big, drafty old house, so maybe it's about right.
Nevertheless, my advice to you is to stay away from Rolla Municipal Utilities.

[denbev]

I haven't seen anyone suggest that you look on google maps when you see a house you want to rent. Take the little guy in the corner and cruse the streets and neighborhood around the house you are interested in. I have done this many times and it is a pretty accurate picture of nieghbors and junky yards.

[minnesotan77]

I highly recommend you get in touch with some of the local real estate agencies here and see what they have available for rental homes. My husband and I just relocated to Rolla less than two months ago, and we were also in need of a 3 bdrm, 2 bath home for rent. We visited four realtors - Coldwell Banker, Acar Campbell Voss, Remax, and Arnold Realty - and they were all EXTREMELY helpful to us. There's not a lot available and all of these realtors bent over backwards to find us some nice homes to look at, one of which we are very happily renting now. (But I will also suggest avoiding a company called Investment Realty. We've heard some pretty negative things about them.)

[skiguy1981]

thanks for all of your help everyone!

Just wondering what people didn't like about investment realty? I am going to look at a place they have for rent next friday. Should I not go?

Thanks for any help

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by skiguy1981

Hey everyone first time poster.

I'm moving to Rolla, MO in about a month and I have no idea where to live.

Could someone please help me find a home to rent. I'm looking for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house for around 900-1100.

First is this possible? can you find a nice place for that amount of money?

I'm moving from Naperville, IL a ton of almost 200,000 people so I know it is going to be a lot different.

any help would be great and if you can point me in the right direction that would be cool. I would really like it to be in a nice area.

P.S. I assume from your name you like to ski. There is no skiing here.

Thanks everyone!

I hope you are moving here for a short time, because I fear you're in for the culture shock of your young life. Phelps County has fewer than 40,000 people, so your city is 5 times bigger than our entire county. Dwell on that in your thoughts just a bit. What do you think that will mean?

Those who grew up here, or moved here for work, or retired here for some peace and quiet are all in general agreement that we like it because it DOESN'T have what you are looking for, i.e. lots of bars and nightlife, giant malls, you know, all the metro stuff you're going to miss.

Why are you moving to Rolla? To be happy, you're going to have to learn to love hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and floating, because the outdoors is what we've got. What little indoor culture we have is provided by the University and Arts Rolla. Go to Rollanet.org and browse around a while.

Some of us consider the banjo an implement of culture, along with guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass, so we consider monthly jam sessions to be great achievements in music. We also like gospel singings some of the churches have.

Also, we are looking forward to high school football season. The RHS Bulldogs were pretty good last year, and we have hopes for an even better year.

The band will be performing at halftime of home games and will host a big marching band festival in October.

There's all kinds of small-town things to get involved in, activities we find interesting, uplifting and fun, but they're all quite tame compared to what you are accustomed to up there in big ole Naperville. Is it too late to reconsider moving here?