Apartment Blog

 It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  My cousin’s favorite song to accompany her favorite sport - football.  We’re going to focus on college football for this one though. 

The Florida Gators are the preseason #1, no surprise there.  I’m not a Gator fan by any means (FSU all the way!), but I’ve heard it is a pretty nice area.  If you’re starting school in the fall you may want to check out some off campus housing near Florida State University or the University of Florida.  With Tim Tebow returning for his senior season, the Gators are predicted to win their third national title in four years.   The top ten also includes:  Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Alabama, Penn State and Oklahoma State, in that order.

The top ten rankings don’t show it, but the SEC is going to be a lot stronger this season with five teams in the top 25 (Florida, Alabama, LSU, Mississippi and Georgia).  LSU has been known for their defense in the past, but have struggled since power defensive lineman, Glenn Dorsey left in ‘08.  I have high hopes for the Tigers, though.  Georgia is a school that continues to go after it year after year; they finished last year with a very respectable 10-3 record.  Coach Mark Richt has a no nonsense attitude and apparently so does the Bulldogs’ mascot, UGA.

It’s clear that quarterbacks dominate discussion for this season with the top three Heisman candidates, Colt McCoy (Texas), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma) and Tim Tebow (Florida) all starting in the QB position.  Two of them hail from the Big 12 conference; Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford.  Out of these three, my vote goes to Colt McCoy because I’m neither a Florida nor Oklahoma fan.  My hatred for Oklahoma stems back to 2003 win they gave Jason White the Heisman trophy.  Larry Fitzgerald got robbed!  What ever happened to Mr. White anyway?  Has anyone seen or heard from him?  Is he even in the NFL anymore?  That would be a NO!  This is one of the many reasons why I’m looking forward to the Red River Rivalry even more this season.     

Last season Texas beat Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry even with the horrible officiating throughout the game.  And I will never understand how the Sooners jumped the Longhorns in the rankings last season when they clearly beat them in the head to head.  There will never be a logical explanation for that mess.  That’s the BCS ranking system for you.  But if you’re thinking about moving and you’re an avid college football fan like me, think about Texas as many would argue the Lone Star state is home to the best college football athletes in the country. Check out some apartments for rent in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

Schools in the rebuilding phase:  Notre Dame.  They are currently listed as #23 in USA Today Poll.  I think that’s rather high especially with Charlie Weis’ job hanging in the balance.  If the Fighting Irish don’t come through this year, he’s probably done.  The Irish have ranked in college football’s elite throughout history, but you wouldn’t know it from recent seasons.  They finished last season with a less than respectable 6-6 record.  That’s not going to get it done this year.   But if you’re still holding on to the Irish’s old glory days (like my father) then you’ll want to check out some apartments in South Bend. 

Miami is another school that’s had its share of struggles.  Miami really hasn’t been the same since the Ken Dorsey/Willis McGahee era (I’m not a Hurricanes fan, but I’m secretly a WM fan).   Even though they’re not ranked in the top 25, the ‘Canes have a lot of returning talent and look to start the season strong.  However, their first game is against the ‘Noles on 9/7 so that’s a guaranteed loss.  Sorry Miami. 

It looks like this is going to be a pretty eventful season.  Many analysts predict the Gators to win the 2010 National Championship, but I think it’s still up in the air.  Either way, I can’t wait for the season to start.  Everyone mark your calendar for Thursday, September 3^rd.  Hard hitting and pigskin, that’s what I live for.

The results are in! ForRent.com’s panel of judges have selected the winners for the ‘Ready2Move?’ video contest.  We’d like to start off thanking all of our entrants for taking the time to create, in the words of Mike Brewer, ‘compelling’ submissions.  It’s been a delight to have had such an amazing response. ForRent.com prides itself on being the nations leading apartment listing website.

This year’s submissions were extremely creative and made for a tough decision for our judges. The grand prize winner received $10,000, three finalists received an iPod Touch® and the voting sweepstakes winner received $1,500. Because it was so tough to judge this year, we’d like to recognize a few contestants as honorable mention. So let’s announce those winners!!

Honorable Mention:

Amorae Daly  ‘Living at Home’
This contestant did a terrific job for her video. The layout of the video really presented an organized case for ForRent.com as to why she’s ready to move. She was humorous and creative which is why we would like to note her as an honorable mention. She received 800 votes on her video which proves that voters liked her submission as well. Congratulations!

Additional Honorable Mentions were: The Sky is Falling, Parallel Roommate, Top 5 Reasons We’re READY2MOVE with a whooping 1503 votes-4th highest of the contest, Crazy Roommate and last year’s winners’ submission Mean House. Congratulations everyone!

Voting Sweepstakes Winner:

Patrick Freise
“Wow, that’s tremendous!” said Mr. Freise, who voted everyday for a two week span on his friend’s video ‘The Perfect Date’. Looks like it paid off for him in the end! He won $1,500 for being a dedicated friend. Patrick is currently enrolled in his senior year at Binghamton University in New York studying financial economics. When asked what he plans on spending his new wealth on, he responded “I’m going to buy my girlfriend Katy a nice birthday present.” What a sweet guy. Congratulations Patrick!

Finalists:

Bart Baker ‘Ready 2 Move’
In an amazingly witty, humorous and professional video, Mr. Baker was able to tell ForRent.com why he was ready to move.  His hip-hop music, original lyrics and professionally created music video made it a tough selection when choosing the grand prize winner.  But in the end, Bart won an iPod Touch® for his hard work. Congrats!

Neehar Gupta ‘The Answer is Clear’
The storyline and professional quality for this video was spot on.  We really felt that Mr. Gupta nailed it on the head with combining a commercialized video while also being personable. Voters really embraced his work as well, he topped out at 1600+ votes!! Congratulations!

Chandra Farnsworth “See Brent”
We really felt that the Dr. Seuss essence captured in this video was truly amazing. The animation and voice over were of the highest quality and really showcased all the hard work Ms. Farnsworth put into it. In addition to ‘See Brent’, Chandra also submitted two other great quality videos ‘Music Boxes’ which was another animated video with singing packing boxes, and ‘PADS’ which was a terrific spin off of MTV ‘Cribs’. Congratulations Chandra for a job well done!

Grand Prize Winner:

The selection for the grand prize winner was no easy task. There was an incredible amount of talented submissions, but in the end we could only chose one.  And the winner is………… Justin Spence with ‘$1,200 a Month & No Pool’.

‘Holy Moly’ was the response from Justin when ForRent.com called him to tell him he is $10,000 richer! While the ‘phone call to a buddy’ concept of his video may not have been completely original, the quality, message and promotion of ForRent.com as the nation’s leading apartment resource made it the top of our list. He was able to capture exactly what we had hoped for in this contest and apparently we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed his work.  Voters also appreciated his vide as he had over 600 votes.

As a videographer who does commercial work for local business in the Dallas, Texas area, he is a big fan of social media. “Social networking is the new media to advertise your product. It helps your message spread like wildfire and I try to convince people to use it as part of their marketing efforts.” He personally uses Facebook and MySpace which is how he pumped his video up for the contest.  Looks like that avenue certainly paid off. Congratulations Justin!! Justin received his check in person by our president Terry Slattery last week in Dallas.

Well, that concludes it for our winners. We would like to thank everyone once again who participated in our ‘Ready2Move?’ video contest. We sincerely appreciate the efforts that were put into making this contest a huge success! Once more, congratulations to Patrick Freise, Neehar Gupta,   Chandra Farnsworth and Justin Spence.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? I would like to think that’s the first thought that comes to mind for the average person when Las Vegas is the topic. When I think of Las Vegas, I picture casinos, big shows, and of course “The Strip”! Well according to Jana Gordon, former Nevadan, the number one misconception that non-Vegas residents have is that most people live on “The Strip”. Gordon remarked, “No, we have houses and neighborhoods! I think the mountains get ignored. It’s very picturesque with the waterfalls and people have their weddings there too.” Could it be that there’s more to Las Vegas than gambling??

Las Vegas has been aptly named, “The Entertainment Capitol of the World” and at the close of the century it was considered the most populous city founded in the 1900s¹. Las Vegas was discovered and founded by the Spaniards in the 1800s (in Spanish it means “The Meadows”)¹.

According to Wikipedia, the average age of Las Vegas residents is 34. With that fact, I would have gathered that there would be an overwhelming population of renters. And to my surprise, nearly half of the population (41 percent) is renters. Even still, rent prices seem pretty reasonable; in 2005 the average rental cost was $765². Of those who rent, the average number of rooms per apartment is 3.7².

So I asked my dear friend Jana, recent graduate of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and life-long resident of Las Vegas, what is apartment living like in Vegas? To my surprise, Jana actually resided in what we call “Senior Housing” during her college years.

Not so surprising is the idea that UNLV can be tagged as a regular party school, just as any other school in the country can. Per Jana, UNLV is definitely a commuter school, but there were parties in and around campus. The majority of students lived in apartments and duplexes around and near campus. “It’s very communal,” she says. To find Apartments Near the University of Nevada Las Vegas, check out ForRent.com.

Also, I was interested in what residents of Las Vegas did besides go to the strip. “We have the Arts, talent shows, the park, movie theaters, bowling and resorts.” So I guess you could say aside from “The Strip”, Vegas is like every other city in America, minus the gambling. “Without it, Vegas would be pretty boring,” Jana commented. It seems to me that Vegas would be a cool place to start out for a young person just graduating college. Nice apartments for reasonable prices. You can’t really beat that. So if you’re looking for something new, get more information and search tips on Las Vegas Apartments, or view all Apartments for Rent in Las Vegas, NV.

Sources:

1. Wikipedia

2. CityData.com

We’re sharing again! Here are more of our most recently uploaded videos to our video syndication network. This network consists of a variety of sites such as: YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo, Dailymotion and many others! We post our apartment community videos on sites such as YouTube & MySpace to provide another channel for our audience to view our communities.

So take a look…..

ForRent.com The Apartments at Blakeney in Charlotte, NC

ForRent.com Paradise Vista Apartments For Rent in Glendale, AZ

ForRent.com The Chapman Apartments For Rent in Los Angeles, CA

ForRent.com Sycamore Farms Apartments in Oklahoma City, OK

ForRent.com Heritage Oaks Apartments For Rent in Woodland, CA

ForRent.com Grandes Cortes Apartments in Tempe, AZ

ForRent.com Regency Lakeside Apartments in Omaha, NE

ForRent.com The Flat Apartments For Rent in Los Angeles, CA

ForRent.com Wildflower Luxury Apartment Homes in Gainesville, FL

ForRent.com Colonial Grand at Palma Sola Apartments For Rent in Bradenton, FL

ForRent.com The Columns at Wakefield Apartments in Raleigh, NC

ForRent.com Chambers Creek Estates Apartments in University Place, WA

ForRent.com Terrace Oak Apartments For Rent in Colton, CA

Do you see your community spotlighted? If so, let us know!

San Jose is the 3^rd largest city in California, located in the San Andreas Fault-a major source of earthquake activity. The city is approximately 50 miles from San Francisco in the Silicon Valley area.  As you may or may not know, the Silicon Valley is primarily known for the technological/computer oriented businesses, which could explain the employment growth predicted for 2008. According to research from the National Multi Housing Council, 38% of the San Jose market is renter-occupied housing and the median gross rent is $1,123 per month.

Did You Know?

San Jose is a Mecca of professional sports teams. They have the Major League Soccer team the San Jose Earthquakes, the National Hockey League teams the San Jose Sharks and an arena football team named the San Jose SaberCats.

The San Jose apartment market is going very strong. It has rose eight places in the National Apartment Index which was boosted by forecasts for low and declining vacancy and strong rent growth. A majority of the metro’s residential places will be in the form of for-sale projects, but given only 20% of metro households can afford the median priced entry level home; it offers very little competition to apartments.[1] Search for Apartments in San Jose, CA or close by on ForRent.com.

Colleges & Universities:

San Jose houses many higher education institutions. San Jose State University being the most well known, but in addition to the Spartans are: National Hispanic University, Lincoln Law School of San Jose, San Jose City College and Evergreen Valley College.  If you don’t see your University or College listed, you can always visit ForRent.com to search for apartments near colleges/universities in California.

 Get more information and search tips on San Jose Apartments, or view all Apartments for Rent in San Jose, CA

Detroit is the largest city in Michigan. It is well known as the world traditional automotive center-”Detroit” is a metonym for American automobile industry.[1] Located on the Detroit River, Detroit is a major port city in the Midwest.

Detroit is one of 13 American cities that has teams represented in all four major sports: Detroit Pistons (NBA), Detroit Tigers (MLB), Detroit Lions (NFL) and Detroit Red Wings (NHL).

Did You Know?

How the city got its nickname Motown? It’s because live music is very prominent in the city. Two venues very well known are DTE Energy Music Theatre and The Palace of Auburn Hills. The city has a rich musical heritage and has contributed to a number of different genres over the decades. 

Detroit’s job market is seeing an increase in certain industries, such as: health care, leisure and hospitality; which support the demand for Apartments. More positive items to note is that rents won’t be increasing dramatically over last year, making the median around $772.[2]  To find Apartments in Detroit, search on ForRent.com.

Colleges/Universities in Detroit, Michigan:

Detroit is home to several high education institutions such as: Wayne State University, University of Detroit Mercy and more! On our site you’ll find apartment for rent near Colleges/Universities in Michigan.

Hot Spots:

And if you’re already residing in the great city of Detroit, be sure and check out the Top 5 recommended bars in Downtown Detroit from After 5 Detroit. In order from number one to number five are: Centaur, Cass Café, Corktown Tavern, Vivo’s and Detroit’s own Hard Rock Café.