Advice needed on areas and rentals for beginners! (Phoenix, Mesa: extended stay, apartments)

[Guitarmaan]

Hi there

My wife and I will be arriving in Arizona from the UK next year hopefully, to settle long-term. The general area seems to tick all our boxes and we're looking forward to it! Once we arrive we'll rent for 6 months before buying in an area we've checked out properly and like. Our business will involve driving around selling food, so we need to consider that for the future.

However, right now we don't even know which are good and bad areas

Ideally we need a rental location for the 1st 6 months in a safe & accessible spot. We'll use it as a base to explore surrounding suburbs and towns. So the obvious location is central. We just need good access to highways to get around, nearby shops and peace of mind at night.

Has anyone been in the same situation, or can give general advice about areas & rentals?

I've listed some areas and looked at their stats. These are:


Apache Junction - cheap housing?
Scottsdale - expensive housing but good area
Mesa - not sure
Gilbert - good area?
Peoria - not sure
Tempe - ok area?
Chandler - ok area?
Phoenix - ok but avoid downtown?
Surprise - ok?
Glendale - some rough places?
Avondale - not sure

So where would YOU go?

btw-are the above areas considered inside Phoenix, or separate?

[kodokan]

Hi Guitarmaan

It's possible that looking for a 6 month lease will limit your options. We've just moved here, and just secured a rental house, and certainly for renting houses a 12 month lease was the minimum - I only saw one house out of over a dozen that would have considered a 9 month lease instead.

Perhaps it may be different if you're looking for apartments, though.

Hopefully someone else will help out with comments on areas, as we're new here ourselves.

Best of luck for the move.

[HarveytheRabbit]

For centrally located and easy to get around I would chose Tempe. A ton of buses, bike lanes, hills to hike, local art, the college, light rail stops, freeway connections etc. For peace of mind I personally would chose Surprise. Not at all close to anything but new and clean and easy enough to drive to those things. Plus it has a great aquatic center, a public lake and a wonderful Tennis Center. It's cheaper too and you can use it to go and explore other areas.

Another thing about Surprise is that any and all business, shops and restaurants you would ever need are all located bunched along together on a 2 mile stretch of Bell Rd. I think it would make an affordable and safe base camp with which you could then explore some of the more "interesting" parts of town that are only like a 30 min drive away.

Also check out West Mesa, South Scottsdale and I wouldn't rule out downtown either.

By the way, I've met many people here from all over the United Kingdom, are there a lot of people over there who know about sunny Phoenix?

[S. Chris Webb]

North Phoenix, North Glendale, and North Peoria have very nice "Bedroom Communities" that are fairly centrally located compared to far suburb but comfortable living cities such as Surprise, Apache junction, etc. As far as Glendale having "rough places" that would probably refer to the oldest parts, like most large cities. These happen to be the farthest south. In general, the farther north and "farther from the tracks" you go longitudally in the Valley, the higher the property prices/newer areas (there are many exceptions!). Where exactly is your delivery route going to be? That should determine where you begin to choose what part of the Valley in which you choose to live. If you are delivering mostly east Valley, you don't want Surprise or Goodyear, and likewise, if your route is in the west Valley, you don't want Tempe or Gilbert. If you will be delivering Valley wide, you may want north Phoenix to be central to everything.

[Guitarmaan]

Originally Posted by HarveytheRabbit

By the way, I've met many people here from all over the United Kingdom, are there a lot of people over there who know about sunny Phoenix?

Not really no. At first we were heading to Florida, but for many reasons we had a change of heart. Florida seems to be a popular destination, perhaps because it's a tourist spot and gets a lot of exposure. We came across Phoenix and were surprised at how many good points it appears to have!

Originally Posted by S. Chris Webb

Where exactly is your delivery route going to be? That should determine where you begin to choose what part of the Valley in which you choose to live. If you are delivering mostly east Valley, you don't want Surprise or Goodyear, and likewise, if your route is in the west Valley, you don't want Tempe or Gilbert. If you will be delivering Valley wide, you may want north Phoenix to be central to everything.

We plan to run a food or ice cream truck, so we choose the location really. Provided we have customers, it could be anywhere. But we do need to choose a safe area and one where families live.

[DR2012]

Hey I will have to keep an eye on this, we look to rent too. We returned from the UK a little over a year ago (not in PHX yet) are you guys from the UK or were you there for business? My husband's job had us there for 4 years. I miss it so much.

[MotleyCrew]

I would go where we went in the first place and that was north Peoria, Vistancia. Great schools, newer shopping, but it is away from Phoenix central and traffic is a headache. We have since moved to Sun City and find we love being closer to most of the stores and restaurants now. Surprise is a very nice family friendly city you might want to explore. I have not heard of many 6 month leases out there unless you are an older snowbird.

[S. Chris Webb]

"We plan to run a food or ice cream truck, so we choose the location really. Provided we have customers, it could be anywhere. But we do need to choose a safe area and one where families live."

Well, that covers most of the Valley, except age-restricted communities such as most of Sun City West and Sun City. Family friendly communities are close to pretty much everywhere in the Valley. You may want to research age-demographics on sites such as this, and you may also want to research licensing and permit departments to see where it would be most cost-effective to do business. Some of the cities may charge special fees or require expensive permits to do business in that city. Also, you may want to research routes. Are you buying an existing route? Are there other ice-cream trucks already working in that vicinity? Are you working through a business broker that will help you determine all this?

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by Guitarmaan

I've listed some areas and looked at their stats. These are:


Apache Junction - cheap housing?
Scottsdale - expensive housing but good area
Mesa - not sure
Gilbert - good area?
Peoria - not sure
Tempe - ok area?
Chandler - ok area?
Phoenix - ok but avoid downtown?
Surprise - ok?
Glendale - some rough places?
Avondale - not sure

So where would YOU go?

btw-are the above areas considered inside Phoenix, or separate?

Each one of those places that you have listed are separate municipalities with their own governments. None are considered "inside Phoenix", except of course for Phoenix itself. There is no reason to avoid downtown Phoenix, unless you are opposed to a slightly more urban experience. There are good and bad parts to all of these places, and downtown Phoenix is not particularly bad. Its housing stock is primarily condominiums and apartments, however. There are more residential areas near downtown (search this forum for "midtown" and "historic neighborhoods") that are quite nice.

[Guitarmaan]

Originally Posted by DR2012

Hey I will have to keep an eye on this, we look to rent too. We returned from the UK a little over a year ago (not in PHX yet) are you guys from the UK or were you there for business? My husband's job had us there for 4 years. I miss it so much.

I'm from the UK, & my wife is from Chicago originally. I've been all over the US and liked it a lot. We'll be a lot better off financially after the move, mainly due to property prices.

Originally Posted by MotleyCrew

I would go where we went in the first place and that was north Peoria, Vistancia. Great schools, newer shopping, but it is away from Phoenix central and traffic is a headache. We have since moved to Sun City and find we love being closer to most of the stores and restaurants now. Surprise is a very nice family friendly city you might want to explore. I have not heard of many 6 month leases out there unless you are an older snowbird.

North Peoria isn't a bad call perhaps. I noticed that region is close to Lake Pleasant and the White Tank Park, & I keep the hearing the North is better than the South.

Regarding 6 month leases, we are considering the radical step of staying in a Studio6 type extended stay motel for around 3 months. During time we have a plan to investigate the areas, & promptly buy a home. We may even buy a second property to rent out.
These motels are obviously more expensive than an apartment, but considering we're hoping for a short stay only, there will be an overall saving in the long run. We don't want to get tied to a year long lease. That's just too long, especially since we'll need a house to store our work vehicle. I don't like the idea of rushing into any big purchase, but sometimes you have go for it

Some of the cities may charge special fees or require expensive permits to do business in that city. Also, you may want to research routes. Are you buying an existing route? Are there other ice-cream trucks already working in that vicinity? Are you working through a business broker that will help you determine all this?

We hadn't considered different permit prices, so thanks for raising that. We don't want to buy an existing route, and I'm not sure how that could legally work anyway. My understanding of the business is you set yourself up and simply find your customers. We can't avoid other trucks at all times, but that's the nature of healthy competition I guess

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. This seems an intelligent forum!