Relocating and looking for an affordable housing rental! (Seattle, Tacoma: real estate, apartments)

[ashleyarch15]

Hi all,

My husband and I are relocating across country from South Carolina (both originally from Connecticut) to Washington the end of Feb / early March for his job. He will be transferring to a company either in Everett or Woodinville, so we are looking for a rental in a safe neighborhood within 40 minutes of there. Luckily, I work for Starbucks so it should be easy to find a job near our new neighborhood. I am also interested in assistant teaching at a Montessori school, or preschool if anyone knows of an available position!

Can you please provide with me information on the average rental price for (apartment, condo, or townhouse?) We have 1 cat, and don't want to pay a ton for the pet fee/ application fee. We're completely fine with a one bedroom home, and want to live very minimally until we get settled. We are also fine with renting from an owner if anyone knows someone who is interested.

Things we are DEFINITELY looking for:
-At least 1 bedroom
-At least 1 bathroom
-Washer and dryer in our rental
-Parking for each of our vehicles
-1 very well behaved cat is allowed in rental
-Dishwasher preferred
-Furnished is an added bonus!



Thank you in advance!

[drastic40's]

Hi! good luck with your move, its really much nicer out here in a way than can be described in sentences sometimes, the west rocks for sure! This may be TMI for you, but hey, we could and would have used this info gladly back in the day.
Costs? Its expensive here , might implode soon but who knows.

IMO: Traffic is a main decider in this region, the right choice now will effectively lower risks-costs associated with this, don't sucked in just on crime statistics, look where the traffic flows in the morning, this can be one of the prime long term decisions that might make a person more likely to acclimate quickly.

Here are some same area's I'd look @ now given what mentioned for that work location, accessibility to transit or rail if your
job changes or other things such as vehicle failure etc.:within 30min or so for most of these)

Woodinville, this is walkable, biking, and relatively just nice, prices for housing reflect this!!

Down Town Everett, right off the sound, there are reasonable $ condo's & or apts with underground or secured pkng,
Views of the water, walks to area cafes, if you like this, its much cheaper than Seattles real estate game
Yes, there is homeless, but this is the west coast & its here.

Mt Vernon, its a straight ride I5 north, has an almost eclectic old town feel, check the pics out, it's really kinda nice & one of the gateway's to the San Juans, really nice co-op too! Might be super reasonable for what get,
Just across the bridge find Burlington, but Mt Vernon has the appeal, its almost like a bit out of a NW story book.

Lake Forest, Kenmore, & maybe Bothell, but Bothell is a traffic congested mess & was over priced back in 2008.
Kenmore can be perfectly okay but I'd never say walkable, though there is an over hyped bike trail right there, Lake Forest has some limited apts and is the most rural feel.

Lake City, here's where definite give it the thought if it were me now, this is like the crucible of access, express transit to downtown, quick over to Woodinville(if planned for traffic) and Everett is just North a bit, and its against the morning flow, so a nice gimme! This city was a down and outer a bit back in the day, but you'd have to look harder to see this now.
Walkable, bikable, leasing costs have sky rocketed but when we looked a little while back we found fair bargains given the economy. I'd have no problem recommending this town within Seattle's north east city limits.
Required to live in Seattle for library loans here, Kenmore and others have this other inter loan system, Seattle is not part of that last looked.

The Rest: Snohomish, Monroe, Duvall, all actually picture perfect places, but relatively isolated, locked up in traffic to and from daily.
Safe? probably more so than what the stats ever say, minus the so called "tweaker scourge" that roams these areas looking for loose property to capitalize on.
Duvall is the most picturesque small town likely in the immediate area, sprawl hasn't quite killed that yet,
Monroe has this but housing sprawl is hell bent upon it.
Snohomish, I like this place coming from a rural town myself and if working right literally minutes within the immediate area, would reside here.

Sounder Train visits Everett, and Everett has a cool heavily invested transit center.
Amtrak stops here daily, bus service is supplied by Community Transit.

Lake City has the access though, gets you to many Starbucks in a hurry within minutes
Mt Vernon has train, local transit, and is a walkable town. Bellingham & Canada just north.

Didnt mention Mukilteo, because except for the immediate area around the Ferry landing(expensive), its just one big sprawl, traffic is grossly over whelming + there are sections here that may be literally unsafe, even for a long timer in the area like myself.

Lynnwood comes off as ugly and sprawly, Edmonds is nice but gets farther away and can be pricy, Shoreline maybe of these in this vicinity. Mountlake Terrace is just an urban housing feel but if have to okay.


Other things: auto insurance is expensive, our premiums coming from midwest sky rocketed, and this last yr jacked again,
IMO stay completely away from the freeway as possible, even having lived 6 blocks back we noticed this truck thrum sometimes 24-7
Get a west facing apt as possible, gray days can be hard for some as it is, why not atleast prepare.
Housing, in general, there is a mold-mildew contamination in a majority of older bldngs given the rains out here, and we have discerned this more or less conincides-correlates with what level floor living on if in an apt, lower levels suffer horrendously on the avg.
newer apts can sometimes have same issues if poorly vented, Bothell has a large complex by I405 with black mold inundated into everything. Check through, ask specific questions.
Especially in certain areas, not just the mold, for the lowest floors, its much more unsafe, no privacy and insecure in these garden level as called units, first hand knowledge!!

Do not leave anything in plain view in a vehicle, at any time, if walking away for even a few minutes, because of this car prowling raging all over, down town Seattle is ground zero for this.

Owner managed properties: these tend to have much more stable rental costs, better personal upkeep, but monitored more closely, look at recent reviews of property management groups, some are to be avoided completely, while others are almost a sure thing, if I could put names here, you'd see a good mix of good & bad.

Lastly: there is an ongoing epedemic-infestation struggle with bed bugs, in some cities-communities the tenant is left to absorb huge costs to put these things down, furniture, clothing, travel accessories, nearly everything might have to be lost-disposed of if these things gain access, we watched as our neighbors in another bldng battled this.

[CrazyDonkey]

The general rule: live as close to work as you can afford.

Besides in Everett, look in Marysville, Lake Stevens, Snohomish, Mukilteo.

Besides in Woodinville, look in Bothell, Kenmore, Kirkland (Kingsgate, Juanita).

Between Everett and Woodinville: Shoreline, Lynnwood, Mill Creek.

Further out: Both: North Seattle (Lake City, Northgate, Haller Lake, Bitter Lake), Monroe. Everett only: Granite Falls, Arlington.

[Ruth4Truth]

OP, you'll need to do your own research on Craigslist, and other rental sites. You can also check property management companies in the area. You have quite a few suggestions from people as to where to look, so enter those towns into the search box on Craigslist (etc.) to get an idea of prices in each area. Good luck!

[profnot]

Ruth is right.

Apartments.com
ForRent.com
Both are in Western WA

Most rentals on CraigsList are real. A few are scams. Meet prospective landlords at the police station when in doubt.

Wages are low in Western WA compared to rent prices. More and more people working in Seattle are living in Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties. This drives housing prices way up.

[sll3454]

Mount Vernon and Burlington were mentioned. If Woodinville is a possible job location, I'd cross both of those out. They are an hour or more from Woodinville. Actually, I'd cross them out anyway. Anything in Skagit County is probably too far, unless you were getting some great benefit. MV and Burlington wouldn't give you anything closer areas wouldn't, except a long drive.

I agree with the poster who said to live as close to work as possible. I'd start there and only expand the search if necessary.

[drastic40's]

To the OP
if Everett is your final destination for the immediate future,
I'd if it were myself look first to downtown, then outlying .

If its Woodinville for work but not affordable?, then yes, Lake City, keeping alternative transport options open rocks
Find its ideal to have that public transit-train option incredible, why Mt Vernon is easily doable IMO if Everett

just yesterday, took a 30min hop over to Pikes Place, traffic was abysmal, but hey we just jumped
off, and within minutes were in the market. Buses are given precedence on certain routes all
over, and the Sounder runs mornings and afternoons between Tacoma & Everett+ wknds during sporting events.
Yes, we own a car, but it reduces liability to use alternate means, see this clearly out here!
(uber & Lyft have become simply over priced vs what it once was, no bargains here)

Review any mgt group carefully, many have been sued by Seattle or are under the microscope
Typicall behavior is for when the bldng to be sold, and within limited days the current tenants are evicted
Just for FYI + many cities do not have tenant rights in mind, curious
There is a super size realty group that both sells and does rentals, in several cities, WA, OR, and maybe CA
starts with a W, avoid IMO at all costs, there's an office just down the street here,
ie; super poor descriptions,1/3 more on built in costs atleast,
+ info hold backs on say things like mold-mildew situations, etc.
These same types such as this seemingly are able to stay in business minus horrendously poor reviews,
remind anyone of that character we all have to read about almost daily?

[Haakon]

What do you consider affordable? Chances are coming from South Carolina 'affordable' has a very different meaning. In King County $1,200 / month just to rent a room in a house isn't uncommon.