Right now we pay $695/mo for rent. We have a two bedroom bungalow with a detached one car garage. Our utilities (mostly heat/cooling) are outrageous. We’ve never been late on rent and we don’t tear things up.
We’re not ready to buy a house because so many things could change jobs/status/need for location/needs in general.
Our lease ends in June. We’d like to rent in KS which will be closer to my (potential) job and roommate’s current job.
Needs: HOUSE, not apt or townhouse or duplex. At least 2 bedrooms/1 bath, pets allowed
Wants: pets allowed, 2 car garage, extra office room, hardwood floors, built-in bookcases
I found two houses that sort of have all those things with the exception of the 2 car garage. Rent is $950/mo. That feels outrageous but in looking for something comparable can find nothing. A similar house in the same location goes for $1400/mo.
Where to rent?
Good Neighborhood?
Usual Rent?
Know someone looking for great tenants?
Know a way to make this process simpler?
yes, that’s pretty low rent for what you want. roeland park area might be somewhere to look–still close to city, but in JoCo. Might look at townhomes, upscale apartments too.
We used the CHIP program to buy a house in Kansas City, Kansas, a mile south of KUMED.
http://www.wycokck.org/gen/wyco_generated_pages/CHIP_Program_m1897.html
http://www.kcklc.com/
You have to jump through some hoops, but it chopped $19,000 off of the purchase price and brought our mortgage below $800. It also counted as our down payment, so we only had to have a couple grand to start off with, so you may be able to buy…
Where are you looking?
The two-car garage thing is a deal-breaker. It reduces the pool of potential homes dramatically. Secondly, you need to narrow down locations- the two most obvious choices- KU Med area or Olathe- are dramatically different environments. I like the look of the home at 4418 Booth. It’s $750.
Ha. I was sad I had no advice waiting! Oops, moderation.
One of the houses for $950 that I love is in Roeland Park. There are several for rent by the same landlords that are great locations and are all about $950. All have washer/dryer and most have a dishwasher which I’ve never owned! Big time.
Roommate works in Olathe and I plan to work at Menorah or OP Regional. (Should I say that here..?)
The thing that’s selling me on a couple of these houses is that the landlords allow pets (dogs or cats) and we so badly want a dog and a few of the houses have great fenced yards! Most of them have a 1 car garage and that’s nice. We’ll have to rock/paper/scissors for the garage when the weather sucks.
I don’t like Olathe. I’m dying for some charm, some history. I can only handle a limited amount of neutral pottery barn colors.
Other homes we’re looking at located in Fairway and Prairie Village. I don’t know much about any of those locations. Guess we can’t have our cake and eat it too. JoCo scares me..
$950 still kills me. I know a lot of people would say we’re ridiculous for not putting that money into owning a house but what if we suddenly decide we wanna move to the pacific northwest? I’d much rather give our landlords 30 days’ notice than try to sell a house. I see both sides, really.
Our lease isn’t up until June so I’m probably being way too eager in the home search. I dunno, I think it’s ok.
Tomorrow I’m calling those people with the (several) houses I think I like.
Fairway and Prarie Village are both nice locations too. We live in north Overland Park. We bought. Our mortgage is under $1000 a month so pretty good…
the house next door to me is for rent. i live at 75th between roe and nall in a culdesac. the street name is rosewood. it’s prob what you’re looking for…i’m guessing price wise. they allow pets. it’s a 2 bdrm, i believe.
drive by it and nab the number. landlord is a nice guy as far as i can tell. met him a couple times.
-B
Hmm.. Would you be able to drive by and nab the number? That’s so not even close to anywhere I ever go by.
oh, you know what, brad – one of the homes these landlords have for rent is on rosewood. it’s currently leased.. Hmm.. it’s 5306.
ACTUALLY, they have a couple for rent on rosewood I see now. The other is 7733.
I’d give their website but eh, then people would know my potential location..
meep!
too much info, maybe.
a “cottage-style two bedroom” –
My neighbors house just went on the market today (3-6-07) I don’t know much about it but I will get you the info later.
FYI, I lived in Roeland Park for 6 years in a great house. I was sad to leave.