KC COL
 

Talk to me about apartments in the KC area (yes, even the Kansas side). What is the average on rent for a decent neighborhood? What amenities does it include? I'll be doing some research, but I'm sure you guys are more familiar with the neighborhoods.

What I've got in Springfield. 780 sq ft in a great neighborhood. One bedroom, one bathroom (with a HUGE sink), utility room (not a closet off the dining room), balcony, etc. My rent includes cable, internet, all utilities minus electric, trash, fitness, and tanning. A few more amenities like pool table in the community center and free DVD checkout, but I don't use those. My rent is in the $600-$650 range.

I know I've started threads talking about moving to KC before, but it might be more doable now (in a year). Any info/advice is appreciated.

Thank you for being so helpful.

You'll pay through the nose in Johnson County (i currently live there); we have a 2 bed, 2 bath; and the only thing that's included in our rent is trash service.
You can find them in the same price range as yours but they most likely won't have any of the things you described/ or will be a dump.

If i didn't live so close to work, I'd move back to Missouri.

we moved in Oct of 08; so I did a ton of research on where to move. Hit me up in PM if you have any questions.

I wonder why no one responded between 11 Friday night and 7:30 Saturday morning... ;)


The Northland is probably the best bet as far as getting your money's worth. There's a lot to choose from... Hunters Glen, Camden Passage, and the Crossing are all along I29 and are in good neighborhoods. You can find 1 bedroom apartments starting at $450/month to $650-700/month.

Downtown KCMO used to be $1/sq foot, but I'm sure it's gone up in the past couple of years with the P&L, and a lot of them are converting to condos. But, you might check out places like Quality Hill and Walnut Towers if you want to live there... you won't be living the high life, but I've had friends that have lived in both and they seem like a good deal for the location.

A little farther south, you can find houses for rent west of the Plaza (on the MO or KS side) that aren't real expensive, but they're old. We pay $700/month for a 2 bedroom on the KS side, but we're moving out because of all the little problems that go along with an old house (and of course, the landlord takes their sweet time fixing stuff). It could be a good option if you decided to get a roommate.

As far as where not to stay, I'm don't want to give you a broad guideline, like "stay away from downtown" (downtown is fine, don't listen to the others ;) ).... if you want to live close to the downtown/Crown Center/Plaza areas, I'd stay west of about Holmes. I haven't lived on the east side of the city since I was 10, but I'm sure there are good places out in Independence and the Lee's Summit area. You can Google 'kc crime map' and find out for yourself, but I believe it only shows the MO side (or the big blank spot west of the state line means there's no crime over here ;) ).

I found hotpads.com a few months ago, and it's pretty useful. You can also go to maps.google.com and search for something like 'real estate in Kansas City' and it pulls from many different sites.

I'd say your base rent + internet + cable will be about $600/month... I paid about that at Hunters Glen. It was pretty basic apartment living... I think it was $500/month "on special" for 620 sq feet (one bedroom) and a balcony. You're not going to get the same value as Springfield... the cost of living is higher because, well, we're better. :p

Work would pay for my internet, so that should help a little. Although, I can't always count on that should I not always have my current job. Some of those names sound familiar from a search I did earlier at apartmentfinder.com.

This is the place I stayed in Kansas City when I did my internship
Barrewoods - www.barrewoods.com

Here is the places I looked at when I was trying to move to Kansas City
Summit Ridge - www.thesummitridgeapartments.com/
The Crossing - www.thecrossingkc.com
The Reserve at Barry - www.360kc.com/Apartments/TheReserveatBarry.html

I would recommd all of them. Very nice and they are in areas that would remind you of Springfield, but close to enough to everything else KC offers.

Luv, look into buying a small house rather than throw $700- $800 bones away every month.

I lived at the Reserve at Barry. Prior to its renovation, it was kind of a dump. They changed the name (from Quail Run), renovated (although, sometimes you kinda get the "lipstick on a pig" sense of the quality of the work), and got together a great office staff.
My cousin and I lived there, and really enjoyed our time. Close to a lot of great areas and not too expensive. There are sh**-tons of kids in the streets, but if you can get past that, it's a good experience.

I looked into apartments there a few months ago because I had thoughts of moving up there. But it looked like anything nice was $600+ for 1 bedroom

Every bit of THIS. I moved out of Reserve at Barry because I purchased a house. Now I own a home for the same rent I payed there. I'll tell you, homeownership has SO many more responsibilities, but it's infinitely more enjoyable than apartments. Want to paint a wall? Do it! It's your house. Put a dent in a wall accidentally? Don't worry about losing some ridiculously overpriced deposit, just patch it up!

I will also add to my previous thought, since purchasing a house isn't always the most feasible thing and you might need to keep looking for apartments: I lived in MANY until I purchased this house; the one thing I learned over anything else is, make sure you've got great people in the front office. When you take a tour, notice their demeanor, even the way they dress. A good staff makes your stay enjoyable. A bad staff causes nothing but stress for the duration of your contract.

This is true, but if you are moving somewhere for the first time its probablly better to rent for the first year to get an idea where you really want to live in that city.

Oh good grief, someone brings this up every time she is looking for a new place to live. Even if she was able to find a house with a payment in that range in a neighborhood she felt safe in (which isn't likely), she'd still have to come up with more money to cover maintenance, repairs, lawn care, taxes and insurance. Oh, and she would need money for a down payment as well.

Yeah, live up North. You can get the same apartment up there for like $650 that you would get in Overland Park for $900. The Northland is a pretty nice place, I liked it when I lived up there.

This.

THIS. And, being single, I would have to pay for a lot of the maintenance, seeing as how I don't know much about it.