Do I need to come ASAP in order to secure housing for August?

[BrianTH]

Some great tips, there. It might be worth posting them in our "Newcomer Guide" sticky.

[madg0at]

I'd like to throw in another tool that I used when I had to do a hurry-up search for an apartment in early June after my plans fell through (partner relocated to Evansville, IN :/): http://www.padmapper.com which will aggregate Craigslist and other rental sites and drop pins in a Google map. I used this to quickly find potential rentals based on the neighborhoods I was looking in (Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Regent Square primarily) and located the place I ended up renting in Regent Square. Definitely much better than trying to actually read through all those sites and figure out where they are location-wise.

[aussiekiwi99]

Thanks for the info folks. This will come in very useful when I try and find an apartment next month. Can anyone else recommend any rating/review sites?

[lovin_sushi]

Sorry for the delay in responding, ferrarisnowday. I have been consumed with my move and getting settled in Pittsburgh.

The reason I didn't recommend North Point Breeze is that I didn't feel particularly safe there. The neighborhood I looked at was just a few blocks off of 5th Avenue, near Larimer, and it seemed to me that the houses were rundown. To be fair, it seemed like an area that people were working on, so it might be just fine, but I just didn't get a good vibe. I wanted a place where I felt safe walking around the neighborhood and I just didn't have that there. My apologies if my impression was wrong, but that was my impression.

[MeinGlanzendMotorrad]

Rundown doesn't mean ****.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by MeinGlanzendMotorrad

Rundown doesn't mean ****.

It really doesn't mean much in Pittsburgh, but in most of the country a run down neighborhood is almost synonymous with crime and poverty.

[lovin_sushi]

Hi,
Recently someone requested the apartment search worksheet that I referred to in an earlier post, so I am attaching it here (or at least trying to) so that anyone can use it.

To use this worksheet, print lots of copies of the first page (to use as a screening tool for all possibilities) and only a few copies of the rest of the pages (to use only for those places you are seriously interested in). I admit, it's a bit of overkill with detail and I didn't always fill it all out, but it is helpful to have the details on the sheet just to keep it in mind. It is a MS Word document, zipped.