apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

apartmentratings.com is another way to try to avoid skeezy building managers. yelp.com rates them also.

I've found even "good upscale neighborhoods" such as two blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, CA can be horrible (the noise from the people leaving restaurants/bars at closing, for example). There's no substitute for actually living there. Try staying in the 'hood in a nearby hotel or short term rental for at least a weekend to try it out. Also, call the local police station and ask questions about breakins and crime rate, etc.
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

That one little blurb from the above example is about my former neighborhood and reminds me that there is no substitute for actually visiting the neighborhoods you are interested in. It is worth the time and effort. Sometimes the writers of the blurbs are too busy trying to make their writing sound clever that they fail to capture the true essence of the neighborhood. I do miss that Central Market though...

I moved from Savannah from NYC without ever visiting here first! I used craigslist and yelp, google images and articles about Savannah. Savannah is a beautiful tourist town and there is a lot written about SCAD. I knew I could be in a walking neighborhood, which I felt was important to me psychologically to transfer out of living in Manhattan. And I knew it was beautiful and would have enough gong on for me culturally. I didn't know how much of an 'ex-patriot' community there is here. That was a pleasant surprise, as was Tybee and the lovely marshes surrounding the city. It worked for me, but I would have loved to have something like Rentwiki.

Oh, I also went on yelp boards for cities I was considering and asked questions. People were very generous with information. I could have found an apartment through one of the real estate brokers I conversed with. It helped me rule out Houston and Galveston. I found my first place in Savannah as a 3 month share/sublet with a lovely SCAD student who would be in the apartment with me for a week or so before he left for the holidays. I had the place to myself for a few months, to get settled and he told me which neighborhoods to avoid, etc. I had no car then and he told me not to go out walking there at night. I also joined some Savannah Meet Up groups from Manhattan prior to moving, so I had social events to go to as soon as I came. Now I have a car, but I didn't for the first 8 months I was here. I actually made more friends by not having a car. People would come pick me up, and we got to know each other better the driving separately. I would definitely recommend Meet Up groups. You can even start one. Hope this helps someone who is itching to move.

Another great starting point for finding out about a town is everyblock.com which I found out about on a podcast I was listening to. While it currently only deals with the major cities in the country right now (NYC, Charlotte, Seattle, etc.), it will add feeds for other cities given enough demand.

Put in the address, neighborhood and/or ZIP code and it will give you recent police calls, real estate listings, building permits and news items. There's even an iPhone app.

One more website to consider is