Vanderbilt 2013

[Cooleggyh]

Just come and say hi!

[woosah]

*waves* hi!

[Adelefly1]

Hey!  When is everyone moving to Nashville?

[ay761]

Good question.  I am moving on July 26th from overseas, but the apartments I am finding that I'm interested in seem to have lease start-dates around the beginning of July... so I am considering paying in advance, and trying to secure an apartment from overseas just by using googlemaps, skype, photos etc. Not sure if that will work out.  Otherwise I guess I'll be living out of a hotel for a few days while I apartment search like crazy.

 

What is everyone else doing? 

[kingspeech]

My lease is up July 1, so that's when I'll be moving.

[Adelefly1]

My lease is up July 31st, so I'm hoping to find a lease that starts around Aug 1st and move then.  I will probably try to make a trip up in the next few weeks to look at places.  From what I saw from online searches there are a few neighborhoods I'm going to try to focus on that look nice and are fairly close to the medical center. 

[EquationForLife]

If anyone has questions about Nashville/housing around Vandy, I'm happy to help! 

[peternewman89]

I'll be moving down with my girlfriend at some point between 7/15 and 8/1, depending on when we can get a lease and find subletters for the last month of our lease in Boston.  We're planning a trip down at some point in late May to see apartments and pick somewhere out.  Still trying to decide where we'll want to be and figure out how 2 people working different hours can work with one car.  

 

Have you heard anything about any housing off Charlotte Pike? There's a lot that we're seeing on craigslist in that area and it's pretty cheap and doesn't seem awful, but we don't want to make any mistakes with something this big.  

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

I'm moving in late June/early July. I'm hoping to get a bit of a head start/get situated before the semester begins.

[EquationForLife]

Charlotte Pike is pretty common for students looking for cheap housing...especially since there are a lot of houses as opposed to apartments/townhouses for rent. The bus system is decent if you don't need to get to campus or go home at odd hours, and it's free for Vandy students. I'm assuming you are talking about the parts closer to campus, you will definitely need a car if you go a few more miles out. 

 

 

I'll be moving down with my girlfriend at some point between 7/15 and 8/1, depending on when we can get a lease and find subletters for the last month of our lease in Boston.  We're planning a trip down at some point in late May to see apartments and pick somewhere out.  Still trying to decide where we'll want to be and figure out how 2 people working different hours can work with one car.  

 

Have you heard anything about any housing off Charlotte Pike? There's a lot that we're seeing on craigslist in that area and it's pretty cheap and doesn't seem awful, but we don't want to make any mistakes with something this big.  

[AStaneski19]

What sources have you guys used as far as searching for housing?  The housing locator that Vandy has set up on their website is pretty nice, as well as craigslist and trying to search on google.  I'm just not too sure if there's any sources I'm missing, I live 12 hours away from Nashville and don't have my car at school so actually visiting to apartment hunt is pretty much out of the question. 

[peternewman89]

What sources have you guys used as far as searching for housing?  The housing locator that Vandy has set up on their website is pretty nice, as well as craigslist and trying to search on google.  I'm just not too sure if there's any sources I'm missing, I live 12 hours away from Nashville and don't have my car at school so actually visiting to apartment hunt is pretty much out of the question. 

 

Another good one to use is Padmapper.com, basically puts craigslist listing as well as a few others onto Google maps.  I've also gotten in touch with a number of apartment complexes and their renting agents using rent.com, apartmentguide.com, and a few similar sites along those lines, as well as just googling property names and using their websites.  I'll likely be looking for an apartment or condo/townhouse of some sort rather than a freestanding house so figured it's probably easier, especially when looking remotely, to go through a larger organization.

[EquationForLife]

The medical school has a separate roommate listing so if you are interested in living with a MD student or a biomedical PhD student: 

https://medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/current_students/roommate/roommate.php

[woosah]

Anyone know of specific complexes that are on a bus line? Looks like I'll be car-less for about a month or so after I move...

[peternewman89]

Found a place and moving in July 28! Ended up in Bellevue but should be really nice, very excited for this all to be starting.  Just gave my 2 weeks notice at my job and am going to take a month or so off to just relax and spend with family and leisurely get myself back into the academic way of things. Nashville seems like a great town, got a bit of a feel for the place and the roads during my short trip down. Can't wait!

[Tuck]

On the websites question, Realtracs.com was really helpful to us. It's a regional website with MLS listings.

 

We actually went up a couple weeks ago and literally drove around looking for "For Rent" signs, after exhausting online options. (We have dogs, were looking for a house with certain features, had a narrow availability date, etc.) It was tedious and generally unpleasant. However, we ended up calling one place that was already taken, but the landlord had another property that she had literally just found out that morning was becoming available in our time frame! We signed a lease for a house in Hillsboro Village/West End just inside the 440 that I am really happy about!

 

We are moving August 1. Hi everybody!

 

How is everyone planning to travel to campus? Foot, car, bus, bike, something else?

[peternewman89]

How is everyone planning to travel to campus? Foot, car, bus, bike, something else?

 

For me that's still a bit up in the air; my girlfriend and I are in a community in Bellevue right on 70S with a bus line running right to the Vandy area.  We'll have one car, so I'll definitely be getting a parking pass.  My girlfriend is looking for work at this time, preferably at the Medical Center where she has some connections, so at first I'll probably be driving, but luckily we'll have flexibility.  I've been taking public transit since I was about 11, so bus isn't at all an issue, especially since it's free with the Vandy ID.  I might just end up taking the bus at times to avoid stress driving, catch up on some reading, and save on gas costs. 

 

I had really hoped we'd be able to find a place that was actually within walking/biking distance of campus for our budget, but we couldn't find anywhere that had 2 bedrooms in that budget that didn't give us a bad/unsafe feeling (ie found needs on the ground, badly tilted floors, etc.), so we just decided on a community we liked out in the burbs and are going to save a hell of a lot of money, especially compared to our current Boston rent.