Hey everyone!

Let me introduce myself again.. my name is Suneet and I'm from the Bay Area in CA. I posted a thread a while back about potentially moving to Seattle, but now its for sure. I start work at Microsoft on September 3rd. I'm excited about moving up. I'm looking at renting in the Bellevue area. I'm 22, and single, and so I'd love to live in the city... but I just can't justify the rent prices. I'd rather save that money. And even if I pay for a cab two-ways to the city, three times a week, it would still be cheaper in terms of rent and my daily commute to work. I also anticipate that coming fresh out of college, they're going to work me hard, and I will probably spend 10-12 hrs a day at work.

I only want to rent for a few months.. After that, I think its much more prudent to look into buying a condo/townhouse, and when I do that.. buying one in the city is DEFINITELY out of the question. Maybe in a few years

In my previous thread I asked about reccomendations on where to live, but I'd like to ask about them again. What do you guys think of my assessment?

The next question I have is, the weekn of the 23rd, my family and I will be flying up to Seattle for about a week. Our trip is a family vacation, but we also want to do a little scoping of the real estate in the Bellevue and Seattle area. After looking at some mortgage calculators, I don't think I want to borrow more than 400K. I would prefer a townhouse, so that I can have a garage, but we will also be looking at condos. What areas or real estate companies should we look into?

Secondly, our trip IS a family vacation, so we would like to do tourist things. My parents want to check out Vancouver, as well as Whistler, and ofcourse Seattle.

Any reccomendations on things to do?

Thanks a lot, and I hope to meet a bunch of you guys in the future when I move up there.

 

I'd try to visit Victoria BC. It's an absolutely beautiful area, especially during this time of the year.

Around Seattle - the typical places: kerry park, gas works park, SAM sculpture park, ballard locks, woodland park zoo, pike place market, china town, seattle center (go up to the space needle if they've never done it before, but it can get a bit pricey - about 16-20 a person, i think).

 

BOOOOOOORRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG

where you should really go is....... o wait that is all there is to do....


id say pike place market & the seattle center for sure! EMP is pretty cool too... top of the space needle mos def

 

if you start working at microsoft you'll just be down the street from where i work.. i live in the newcastle area.. not a bad commute to there however 405 traffic is normally bad in the afternoons so keep that in mind if you want a smooth commute to and from work. keep in mind that washington is different than california. everything is fairly close together no hour drives to get somewhere. from bellevue it takes maybe 15 minutes to get to downtown seattle without traffic, there are a lot of nice areas surrounding seattle and bellevue. So good luck on finding a place.

as for touristy things. a lot of people listed things above.. vancouver,bc is a great place to visit. victoria,bc is nice and scenic but not all that fun for someone your age. however if you do decide to go up there then take the clipper. its a great ride.. you can check out alki beach.. nothing compared to cali beaches but if its a nice day you can see a lot of people flossing their cars and stuff along the strip.. pike place is a must see. there is a tour called ride the ducks which has always had good reviews from my friends who have gone on it.. are you gonna be here on a weekend? 21-22? or 28-29?

 

man ill be buying a town house in bellevue next year for my second year in college if you need help finding houses or anything shoot me a pm and ill give you my number...my bro is a real estate agent and he will for sure help you find what you want :P welcome to the Seattle area

The underground tour is fun too just like all the other places people had said

 

Good luck at finding a decent priced house in this area.... I commute in summers... I would find the biggest plot of land with a fixer upper house, fix it up and sell it for a small fortune. Better investment than a town home because land values are still climbing...

 

Victoria is gorgeous. I haven't been there in about 10 years, but it's definitely somewhere you should go.

 

Suneet - congratulations on getting a job at MSFT! I'm sure you'll love Seattle, in my opinion, it truly is one of the cooler places to live in the country. Hit up SupermanGS - he lives in Seattle as well.

 

we've spoken >8]

 

welcome to seattle!! you come, i go. how saddd

and u dont HAVE to take the cab, u can take the bus, haha! its really not too bad, i used to commute with the bus system and its SAFE, much safer than it is in the bay. bellevue is a very high ended area as well, so it probably wont be too cheap to rent there either, but GOODLUCK!