Ok, I've been looking for apartments (online) in the Arlington, VA area and am hitting a huge brick wall.

We don't want to spend more than $1200 or so but that's seeming impossible if you're not willing to settle in with the mice and roaches.

I'm probably going to moving to the US in November and my fiancee has a roommate in their shared townhouse til then... but we're looking for something for just us and our dog for November or so..

And having a pup is another added variable that people are wanting up to $500 non-refundable.

WHY DOES EVEYTHING I FIND HAVE REVIEWS ONLINE THAT SAY THAT THEY HAVE ROACHES AND/OR MICE!

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I've tried craigslist.org, rent.com, washingtonpost.com, apartmentshowcase.com

AGGGGHHHH!!!

http://www.apartmentratings.com/
Can be difficult to find decent/clean prices in Arlington, especially near where ur husband works! Very nice trendy area.

Try a local realtor too. They do rental listings and will even take you round to see them.

Well, don't 100% trust everyone's reviews, either. My apt's reviews say all that and I haven't seen any of those in my apartment.

Did see a huge rat running across the parking lot, though.

Have you tried www.rent.com?

sorry, just saw that you did?

Have you also tried looking at online classifieds for newspapers based in Arlington, Liz? That might narrow the search down.

I know.. this one place we really like: Park Shirlington

But there's like 7 or 8 reviews online that say there are tons of rats and roaches

Oliver went and saw the place and really liked it but now I'm nervous...........


That's what I've been using to find all the reviews..

Okay, my complex at least had SOME positive reviews.

But a lot of reviews are done by people who are bitter and have been evicted, so in the long run, don't put too much weight on reviews.

Roaches are a deal breaker for me too (haven't seen any at this place) - my old apt was spotless and a very nice complex but suddenly roaches started coming through the drain in the sink! YUUUCk

We heard Barton House was/is nice and thats how we found it. But we found others we liked as well just by driving around and stopping in and talking to the front desk people, or we took down the name and called. But if have a dog, that may be a problem for an apartment. With the housing market being stale, many condos are available for rent.

Seriously, I wouldn't trust reviews. If I did, I would think all the apartments in our area are full of mice and roaches, all the managers are crooks, and you get evicted for asking to repair your oven.

Our complex is not first class, but it's not as bad as it's portrayed on apartmentratings.com - I know some of the people who wrote bad reviews, and they are all either junkies or losers living off welfare.

That area is very expensive. What is his commute time now? It's a major trade-off. Huge rental fees or very long commutes.

I would be wary of these reviews also. I live in Silver Spring about a 10 minute (non-stop) bus ride from the SS Metro Station. The apt complex is very nice, quiet, allows pets ($300 sec dep and $25/month extra on rent), my rent is $1000 for a very nice 1BD apartment on the 2nd (op) floor. The reviews on this place were average, but visiting both day and night I was impressed, so figured that the negative reviews were just the squeaky wheels .....

Ouch Arlington IS expensive. We live in Alexandria, we have a 2 bedroom and pay $1450 a month which is pricy but it's nice and we haven't seen any bugs. There's a shuttle to the metro and it takes me about 40 min on the metro to get to Capitol Hill (where I work). We looked in Arlington but it was too pricy. I know that the 1 bdr's in our complex rent for between 1100 and 1300, without utilities. There are a lot of places in Alexandria you might want to consider looking here, it's the next city out from Arlington and the difference in time is not that considerable. (unless your husband works in Arlington and can walk to work or something). Just a thought. I would also consider a realator as they may know of some other places that you won't find listed online, as most online listings are for big complexes.

Well, he's actually living and working in Alexandria right now.. but they're transferring him to Arlington. He wants to avoid the drive if he can b/c of traffic and the nature of his job...

We have just contacted a realtor so hopefully something comes from that soon!

=)

If they are transferring him, there must be a COLA involved or at least something to make up the difference in the higher cost of living there. My company wouldn't transfer me to Hawaii for example and pay me the same as what I am making here in Arizona because of the higher cost of living in Hawaii. I sure wish we had a location in Hawaii now that I brought that up.

I would try a realtor sometimes you can lease private owned townhomes and condo's at a decent price.