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I've posted on this message board before about being frustrated with lack of decent luxury apartment complexes in Myrtle Beach. While that is still a huge problem I have a even bigger problem(s) now that i'm starting the moving process. Now before I tell the seemly shady little things that seems to go on with renting apartments in Myrtle Beach I will fill you in a bit on my background. I live with my husband and we have been renting a very nice brand new luxury apartment for 2 1/2 years now. I pay $795.00(which I have no trouble paying my husband makes $10 a hour and I work part time at min wage and go to college) each month and get granite counter tops, cherry wood cabinets, huge walk-in closets, clubhouse, pool hot tub and so on. My husband and I have never been late paying rent, I always pay the first of every month and we are not criminals no records or anything, just good people that wants somewhere decent to live, and I have pretty high standards about where I rent. Now to get to the problem, it seems while everyone is looking for these apartments on here no one is really bringing up something that I feel is a huge problem for people considering renting an apartment, and really it is this only thing stopping us from moving to Myrtle. It seems that with any complex you look at alexian, alta surf and even slummy places like Flinklake will not let you move in unless you make 3xs the monthly rent, and in most cases carry some amount of renters insurance. Now I live in WV and I rent a nice luxury apartment as I have said and I have never heard of such a rule. No one makes me make a certain amount of money to live here and I'm not required to carry insurance at all, and my apartment seems to be nicer then anything I have come across in Myrtle so far. I am going to use Alexian Withers as an example because Riverstone Residential seems to be the worst offender of this I've came across so far. Now at Alexian my rent was going to be something like $820 so we have to make 3xs that before they will let us move in. For 2 people making min wage at 40 hours a week it's impossible. We have even done the math on this dads salary and he makes 22 something a hour and he still could not move in down there. So to me if someone who makes $22 an hour can not do it, then it's a pretty outlandish rule. The money they use is the money you make AFTER taxes. They also want you to carry 50,000 of renters insurance. Now I have ran across this 3xs monthly rent rule a lot and it is VERY frustrating. Now my questions are 1. is this legal 2. What is the big deal about the 3xs monthly rent rule? because they never get paid the 2,400-2,600 so what does it matter to them if you make that? As long as you pay the rent and you are not making trouble I do not see the big deal about not meeting that quota 3. Is this a SC rule statewide or is this something they do in Myrtle beach to make it harder on people from out of state? 4. Does anyone know of any decent apartment complex that does not have such crazy rules? or at least isn't as strict about it?
Now I have checked into the market common and they seem to be a bit more lax on this rule but still requires renters insurance. However I do not trust the guy renting out apartments he seems like he playing games on the phone and telling my husband 1 thing when he calls and me another and asking us all sorts of questions they really to me do not seem professional, he answers questions with questions as well. I just get a bad vibe from him, I worry about that and given that i'm like 600 miles away I'm having a hard time trusting this guy.
I've also considered renting a house, but right now this isn't the best option for my husband and I and we prefer to rent a very nice, newer apartment.
This is really the only thing stopping us from moving. We have the money together, we even know the moving company we want to move us. It is a shame that they have made it so hard on people who could and would gladly pay them rent with no problems. Anyone else have this problem or have any advice. I've done everything I know to do and i'm at a standstill at the moment, I can not move even though I'm ready to go as soon as Jan-March. I want to move during the winter months because that is when the rent is lowest down there. This is our dream, my husband and I even married at Myrtle Beach State Park, I wanna move so bad I can't stand it. I don't expect moving to be easy in any way I know it's a long hard process but renting an apartment is more difficult then it really needs to be. Someone HELP US PLEASE!!!!!! Advice? Stories of your own? Anything that might help us with this situation would be appreciated.
Thank you for the reply. I'll give the town home and condo idea a shot, but my husband and I don't really want anything much bigger then 820 square foot, we just don't need a whole lot of space for just us two.I'm just very very picky about where I live, white cabinets are a deal breaker for me, and old places are a huge turn off, I will not live in anything very old so as you can imagine very few things measure up to what I want to live in which is why I focused in on Alexan so much, that place is almost perfect and it was 1 of only 3 suitable apartments I found the other two being Alta Surf and the Market Common. We are just looking for something nice with a max price range of 850. Hopefully i'll have better luck with town homes, or maybe i'm a lucky a very nice newer condo. If anyone else has any other ideas or advice, let me know.
They most likely want their renters to only use 1/3 of their income towards rent, that's the norm. We rent a house, and there was zero stipulation on us purchasing renter's insurance, but for obvious reasons, we have it (50K). It's cheap, and definitely worth having "just in case". Also, 850/month is not exactly "living large", so to expect granite, etc., is a bit much.
Actually I pay 750 where I live and get granite and cherry wood cabinets, a fireplace and a hot tub, and more plus my apartment was brand new and never before lived in when I moved in. So I don't think it is too much to expect, at all. After all why pay 850 for junk that is worth 450 a month. Some thing some where needs to set it apart from all the junk apartments to make it worth 850 a month. However I don't want to live large, not looking for the Dunes type houses (granted they are beautiful) just something nice and decent and a bit above average and newer. Thanks for replying none the less.
Let me start off by stating that I'm originally from WV so please don't construe my following comments as dumping on WV...love the state. However, MB is quite different from WV and you should not expect rent prices to be comparable. For most (but not all) people, MB is a more desirable place to live...more moderate climate, close to the ocean, etc. and therefore, rents reflect the more desirable location. My experience in MB tells me that $800/month is on the low side for a nice apartment and for many of the extras that you are looking for, you should expect to pay even more...especially if it's from a reputable, well-run apartment complex. If you are getting different stories from a apartment manager BEFORE you move in, consider what will happen once they get you locked into a lease. My advice is to not lease any apartment before coming down to personally inspect the apartment itself along with the entire complex. I'd also look at the ratings and comments that are available online for just about any apartment complex in any city.
Regarding the making 3x rent rule...it's not a state law. It's just the rule of thumb that landlords have used to judge whether a person can afford the rent that they are committing to. Kind of like the rule when buying a house that your mortgage payment cannot exceed 30% of your income. They don't know your or me from Adam and as far as they are concerned you could be the best renter they've ever had or the worst deadbeat they've ever had. So, they use the 3x rule to help separate the chaff from the wheat...not an exact science but it's a place to start.
Re your comment that rents are cheaper during the winter...unfortunately that's not the way it works with apartment complexes...the rent is the rent all the time...all year long. They don't lower the rent in the winter to draw in more renters. You might find lower rent on a condo or townhouse that someone rents out for only 6 months a year during the slow season. But you'll have to find someplace else to live and move in the summer while they rent the place out for more in one week than they charged for the entire month in the winter.
The suggestion to look at a condo or townhouse are solid alternatives but I would not expect to find the upgrades on your list available in these at your price point either. And you probably would not get something newer either.
Finally, I don't know whether either of you have jobs lined up here but I would strongly warn you about moving here without have a solid job secured. Unemployment is above 10% and jobs that pay the $10/hour that your husband currently makes are scarce....especially in the winter.
You didn't indicate the specific reasons you have for wanting to move to MB but it sound like you have what you like at a reasonable price in WV. Give the move thing a long hard thought before doing it...you will find it more expensive to live here than where you are. Consider this question as you decide...what are you willing to give up to live here?
First of all I just want to thank you for taking the time to reply to me with a thoughtful answer. I’m going to start out by giving some general information in response to some of the things you brought up.
Regarding the job situation my husbands job will transfer, but his pay rate may or may not be the same. We will not know until he gets transferred what he will make could be min. wage could be better just depends on the site he gets put at. Myself on the other hand is going without a job with 6 months of better of college left to complete (online). My opinion about the job situation is that I will have much better luck down there then where I am currently. Odds are I will be working min wage until I earn my degree. Now where I live in WV there is a whole 10 places I’d be willing to work at, and down there many more options exist, to me more opportunity = a better chance of finding work.
Now let me say if you berate WV it isn’t going to hurt my feelings any at all. I love my apartment and the complex it’s self but for my husband and I once we leave this complex we still have the same problem...we still see WV around us, and there is nothing about WV that we like. We don’t have any options for things to do, there is the same 10 restaurants to go to that we have ate at until we are sick of it, it’s cold nearly all the time except for a few months out of the year, and on top of that NO ONE is like us, we have nothing in common with no one that lives here. It’s depressing in WV for us it really is. The apartment is wonderful, couldn’t ask for better but the sad and depressing part is the only good thing in WV is this apartment. We chose to move to MB for more reasons the one. I’m pretty familiar with MB as my family took me there on vacation almost every year growing up. My husband and I even married there and he ended up loving it just as much as me. Ever since we married there we have been wanting to move there. For 2 1/2 years we have been planning and actively trying to get down there. It is just overall a better place to live, I just think we are going to be happier and enjoy life so much more down there. I feel right now ever day that we stay in WV is a day wasted in our life that would could be enjoying instead of sitting in the house watching TV because that is all there is left to do.
As for this whole apartment / place to live problem I feel like I’m dealing with a needle in a haystack. I feel like it’s going to take all the time I have between now and Jan. but if I keep digging and digging and trying then somewhere somehow I’m going to come up with the one in a million place I’m searching for. All I need is that one link, or that one piece of information that is going to open up the door. Which is why I started posting on forums I thought that some one some where might be able to give me that one piece of information that is a game changer. It may or it may not happen but it is worth a shot. I started this process summer 2011 of hunting places to live. I’ve contacted long term rental people, even the SC chamber of Commerce about apartments and I have wore Google out searching.
You brought up a lot of good points and my husband and I are going to take them into consideration. I’m just having a hard time believing that WV can have such a nice apartment as broke as the state of WV is and as nice as MB is they don’t seem to have anything nicer then Alexan or equal to what we live in now for our price range. I thought nice apartments would be littered all over down there just given how nice the area is but I guess that just isn’t so.
I am going to correct you on one thing yes some apartments are cheaper in the Winter or so I have been told by several apartment complexes. They have a rent range and in the summer it is highest and the winter it is lowest rent. Maybe I was misinformed but that is what I’m going on as far as moving in the winter months goes.
I know that what the guy at the Market Common is doing is fishy I caught on to that right away and we have not been back in contact with him since then. I feel like some of the comments made just wasn’t something that needed to be discussed and some questions just felt wrong to me, as I said I just got that bad vibe from him and I know better then to do business with someone like that. If you want to call it business because I couldn’t him to calm down enough to discuss anything he was hyper and asking me 20 million questions and answering questions with questions and giving out different information every time we called, it was just a mess.
You did ask a pretty good questions at the end of your post and it is something my husband and I need to take into consideration. I am willing to give up SOME of the things I want but I am NOT willing to live in a slum. What my husband and I are looking for is something as close to these photos as possible, which is my current apartment when it was brand new and no one had lived in it yet. It’s not fancy but it is nice and maybe it will give people a better idea of what we are looking for and be able to suggest close matches. Again this may or may not get us anywhere but it is worth a shot.
We just looked at a couple of apartments in The Market Common a couple weeks ago in case we have to rent one while our home is being built. We found the guy who showed us around VERY nice and there was nothing suspicious about him. However,this was right in the center of everything where all the stores and restaurants are and the lowest priced one was $950.00 which was a good price because of the space,quality and view. VERY nice and has a private enclosed parking area and VERY quiet and secure. We were VERY impressed with them and would love living there short term. Maybe we were in a different area with a different guy. I do know there is a complex out away from all the stores and restaurants closer to the highway. That might be the one you were talking to.????? If you are interested in the ones we looked at,I will send you all his information.
Last edited by Lover of Animals; 09-24-2012 at 03:56 PM..
Reason: Wording correction
Thank you for the reply I believe you may have talked with someone other then the person we did. I do remember that when we called I got the receptionist first and she asked if we wanted long term rentals or short term rentals, and we wanted long term so she put us in contact with the guy we talked to. A short term rental was not what we was looking for and 950 is a bit more then what we wanted to pay. However go ahead and send me some information if you still wouldn't mind.
Thank you for the reply I believe you may have talked with someone other then the person we did. I do remember that when we called I got the receptionist first and she asked if we wanted long term rentals or short term rentals, and we wanted long term so she put us in contact with the guy we talked to. A short term rental was not what we was looking for and 950 is a bit more then what we wanted to pay. However go ahead and send me some information if you still wouldn't mind.
No problem. You can rent the ones we looked at long term as well. I just said short term because it would only be while our house is being built. His name is Jim Hammer (Residential Property Manager)
Phone number: 843-839-3500 extension 102
Mobile Number is 678-910-2269
Email is Jim Hammer@MarketCommonMB.com
If these aren't what you need or want,maybe he could direct you to some others that are more suitable.
Wish you all the best in finding what you are looking for at the right location,quality and price.
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I believe you may have talked with someone other then the person we did. I do remember that when we called I got the receptionist first and she asked if we wanted long term rentals or short term rentals, and we wanted long term so she put us in contact with the guy we talked to. A short term rental was not what we was looking for and 950 is a bit more then what we wanted to pay. However go ahead and send me some information if you still wouldn't mind.
