Seattlest Asks: How Did You Find Your Apartment?

Stephen: If I lived near 35th, I'd have nicer things to say about Wedgwood. Sadly, I live in the northwest corner of the neighborhood, closer to the Northgate branch of the library than North East. Or Top Pot. That strip of the neighborhood is pretty cool, though still a little residential for my tastes, as it turns out.

kasa: the CD is a great idea. Thanks.

Good to know I'm doing one of two essential things. This weekend, pavement pounding starts.

Doug,

All the best shops and restaurants are going to be on University Ave. and the surrounding area. What's wrong with being around students?

Ryan

My fiance and I just walked around Capitol Hill one weekend, calling the number listed on vacancy signs. Usually, you can see a place that day. We have a 2 bedroom, balcony, view of the Space Needle unit with 2 cats at a pretty reasonable rate. Lucky too, the units in this place are usually "on the market" for 2 days before being grabbed by another lucky person.

so, i've been lurking on this site ever since i learned i'd be moving to seattle (from san diego) to take a job at UW. thus, i'm interested in this discussion.

if anybody would like to chime in, i'd love a few recommendations for (non-student filled) areas. currently, i'm thinking ravenna or wallingford. i'd like to be close to some good shops/restaurants so that i can ditch the so-cal drive everywhere lifestyle. anybody have advice?

Look in the CD! For relative closeness to Capitol Hill, it's incredibly cheap, and you might actually find a small house or duplex. I still wish we had found a place there.

That being said, I just moved into a 2 bedroom on 15th and Aloha for 1250 a month. It's not perfect, but it has a fireplace and a parking space and everything works. You just have to be relentless, check craigslist every five minutes, call as soon as postings go up, and every Saturday and Sunday, drive around your preferred neighborhoods writing down For Rent signs.

RELENTLESS.

I'm a landlord and I have given up on the Seattle Times and just use CL and a sign out front. At first all my CL people were from out of state but now more are local. I have units in Ballard and north Seattle.

I have to say that all my units are full most of the time with 1 year leases and one never stays empty more then a month. My CL ads never stay on more then 7 days.

So the good ones are hard to find .. but look ever

other day and stay on it. My units are 3bd,2bath, 1350sqft with view of the sound to small studio on market.

Sorry .. no empty units now ...good luck.

When we moved to Seattle, I visited a few weeks prior to our official arrival date and drove around looking at places found in the paper for several days. (This was pre-CL, by the way.) Saw some crap, some some gems, found a great place in Wallingford.

For the record, James, Wedgwood's great. The busiest public library in Seattle, good schools, mountain views. Yeah, we could use a few more good restaurants, but what neighborhood doesn't?

Maybe it's not a good fit for you. C'est la vie.

We found our current place through Seattle Weekly (as of early 2005 they had better listings than the Stranger, and I wasn't CL-savvy yet), and our previous 3 places on neighborhood walks. All Capitol Hill...haven't had much luck with affordable 2-bedrooms, though.

Library-grocery-park should be everyone's trifecta. Take that, sprawl!

I'd be all in favor of Capitol Hill; I just don't expect to find an apartment with enough space for 2 adults and a toddler that fits our budget for the year. Maybe I should come walk the neighborhoods, though.

Any hood that's not Wedgwood has to be an improvement, frankly.

I always use CL, but actually I found my current apartment while on a weekend walk. Saw the Open House sign, went in. Plenty of people just don't advertise. So if you have a favorite 'hood, try walking around it on Saturdays. If I weren't going to live on Capitol Hill, I'd be seriously checking Georgetown and Columbia City.