D.C. Area -- Need Advice on Apartments, Moving There Soon

[Sangfroid]

So my fiancee and I are planning to move to the Washington D.C. Area August 1st and are having a horrible time trying to find apartments. Any D.C. Area ATers have some advice on apartments?

We want a 1 bedroom with a den/office or 2-bedroom/1-bath we can convert to an office space. We've been looking around the 'net for apartments but have no idea which places are good/which are bad. Anybody done a search recently and care to share their results?

Any places just outside DC worth considering? Arlington? Silver Spring? Bethesda? Etc...?

Our dream is:

Walking distance of Metro
1-bed + office + balcony/porch
High-Speed 'Net Access (DSL/Cable)
A/C, Dishwasher, Washer/Dryer
$1100/mo or less.

 

[notfred]

There are some things that are best looked for by other means than the internet. Housing is one of them. I suggest you take a day off work and go down there, look through apartment guides, drive around to different buildings, and talk to the spartmetn staff there.

 

[BlueApple]

Born, rasied, still in DC (area) here.

I'd say go with a close-in suburb that is near the Metro. Not only since the areas where your criteria could be met in DC would be a bad neighborhood, you are still being charged federal taxes and have NO voting representation in congress (see sig). Also DC pays the second highest income taxes (in percent) nationwide, next to Massachusetts. A website I used a while ago was Homestore.com which has a large list of apartments. If you'd like me to, I can pick up some of the apartment guidebooks that are free and mail them to you. You also might try coming here for a week in July and look around since although many places are already on the web, some aren't.

Good luck and I'll be happy to answer any ?'s either by this thread or PM.

 

[Sangfroid]

We're planning to do that. Unfortunately, until the move we have almost ZERO time. Neither of us can take any extra time off from our current jobs and we're currently in Upstate NY so a "weekend trip" gives us basically 24 hours of time to look at places. :frown: So... we're hoping some DC AT'ers might have some advice on places to look at in our mad-crazy moving dash.

Anybody tried these apartment-finder services? They worth the time/money...? This'll be my second apartment out of college and I'm a bit of a newbie as it were.

 

[cavingjan]

Big question: where are you two going to be working?

 

[Linflas]

Do a yahoo search for apartment guides for Washington DC metro area. I would suggest trying for Virginia since we have the lowest total taxes compared to DC and Maryland. If you are looking to be close to Metro then you need to look in Arlington(Ballston, East Falls Church, West Falls Church), Alexandria(King Street, Eisenhower Avenue), Springfield, Dun Loring, or Vienna. If you find any apartments that look promising post the location here and no doubt one of us can tell you exactly where it is in relation to Metro and major highways and choke points.