Finding the right apartment in College Station (apartments, rental)

[samahiji]

Hello! My spouse and I are moving this summer to College Station to study in Texas A&M.

We are still kind of confused about the things we have to take care of before getting to the US. Our biggest concern is finding the right apartment. We are wondering if you could help us with this big task! We are looking for a decent quiet clean place to live in – some place where families live in as we will not be comfortable living among undergraduate young students who want to party. We do not really care if the place has a pool and such facilities or not. So if we can find a place which is cheaper because those facilities are not included, then that’s great! Also, the price is very important for us. We have in mind something like $400 or less – and it’ll be great if the gas and electricity are included. Moreover, the nearer the apartment is to the university, the better. By the way, we do not have to pay tax over the apartment rent, do we? In our country, we do not pay tax directly, so the tax issue is a bit confusing for us! :-)
Do you think you can help us find the right apartment or at least give some suggestions?
We did some search in the internet, but we still haven’t found the perfect place. There are a whole lot of apartments and reviews to choose from.

Please help us.

[RSTX]

Hmm, I don't think you will find much of anything for $400 or less. If you do it will be in a remote part of town and not well kept. I would suggest calling TAMU and asking for assistance. They probably have some information that will help.

Good luck.

[aggies07]

I am a Texas A&M student in my senior year and can recomend a couple of places. There are Doux Chene apartments on Harvey mitchell pkwy. Apartments start around 400$/month. Also checkout rennassance apts. at the corner of sw pkwy and welsh. Both are on the TAMU shuttle routes and are under 4 miles from campus. HEB and albertsons are within 2 miles for grocery shopping. I have been living at Doux Chene for 2 yrs now and it is a great complex. Good workout room, laundry, responsive maintanence people, and the complex allows even large dogs, if you have one. Anyways, I can give you more info on the area if you need. Take care

[aggies07]

By the way, I forgot to mention, electricity is not included at Doux Chene, I am not sure about renassance, and for the most part Doux Chene is relatively quiet with a number of families and upper classmen and grad students. good luck

[samahiji]

Thanks RSTX & aggies07. You are very helpful.

aggies07: I checked out the apartment you live in and surprisingly, the cheapest accommodations costs more than $500!

Anyway, would you mind giving me your email so that I can further discuss the matter with you? You can send me a private message.

Thanks again for all your help.

[jobless]

I'm not familiar with College Station, but you can find a lot of listings at Move.com and Apartments.com. There are a number of 1-bedrooms, studios, efficacies at under $500 a month.

A few things you need to consider:
- are you planning to commute by car, bus, bicycle or on foot?
- how long will you be staying: rental leases can go between 6 months to a year, depending on the apartment (avoid month-to-months with no lease, they tend to cost more); some apartments do offer 3-month lease
- do you prefer a gated or non-gated community: it don't affect the rent all that much (from my experience), but gated community tends to have more of the decent quiet clean place you're looking for
- do you want the apartment to provide furniture (bed, tables, chair, couch, etc.) or will you be getting your own?

Based on these (and others you can think of), you can start eliminating apartment names - from the links I've posted - that don't meet your criteria. In the end, you'll have only a few to choose from (instead of a lot).

Check also the Apartment Ratings, which have plenty of mostly bad apartment living experiences. This will help you decide which apartments to avoid!

Hope this helps.

[samahiji]

Thanks jobless! Very helpful, indeed! :-)