Renting an apartment and car in Mount Vernon, Baltimore for 4 months
May 1, 2015 1:49 AM   Subscribe

My partner and I are looking to rent a furnished in Mount Vernon, Baltimore from September 1-January 1. Where should we look, and how does the rental proces work? Also, we need a car.

My partner is moving to Baltimore for a semester to work on his PhD at Johns Hopkins (Medical campus, not Homewood). I'm coming with him for about half of the time. We're from Europe, so don't really know how the rental market is there and how the proces works.

We're looking for a studio or preferably 1BR furnished apartment. Based on reading here on AskMe and some other research, Mount Vernon sounds like it would be a great place for us. We're looking to spend between around $1100-$1500, if that is at all doable.

We have been looking at some apartment buildings on sites like apartmentguide.com, specifically The Stafford and the Professional Arts Building. Are these legit? Do you have any recommendations for where else to look?

How easy is it to get an apartment? Do we need to secure one a few months before, which would have to be done over email/phone, and is this even possible when we're moving from another country? Is it possible to show up a week in advance (around Aug 22), look at apartments, and then sign a lease for one then and there?

Another thing is, we'd like a car while we're there. What's the easiest and cheapest way to get a car for just four months? Long-term rental? Buy a cheap used car, then sell it? We've never owned a car and don't know much about them.

Sorry, we are obviously clueless. Just want to find a nice place to live and have a good time, without getting scammed or ending up in a crappy overpriced apartment. The person at Johns Hopkins helping my partner with his application recommended The Baltimorean in Charles Village, which looking on Tripadvisor and similar sites looks horrible, and isn't even close to the campus he'll be working at.
posted by coraline to Travel & Transportation around Baltimore, MD (7 answers total)
 
For a four month stay, Air BnB would be my first port of call as you obviously can't sign a one year lease.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:17 AM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


The thing about living in Charles Village and commuting to the medical campus is that the housing is cheaper and more plentiful than in Mt Vernon, and the University operates a free shuttle that runs from Charles Village to JHMI and back (each way is 20 minutes) quite often. If your partner anticipates working regular hours (e.g. not needing to get to and from work between midnight and 5 AM), then you should definitely consider Charles Village as a viable option. Med students tend not to live in CV because they do have weirder hours, but a lot of people who work and study on the medical campus do live up there.
posted by telegraph at 4:13 AM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've used sabbaticalhomes.com in a similar situation in a different city with good success. A cursory look suggests they have listings that fit your needs.
posted by monkeymonkey at 4:19 AM on May 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


You'll pay a premium for a four month apartment rental, but there's no need to go straight to Airbnb. As for the car, it depends on why you want it.

I lived in Mt. Vernon for almost two years without a car. In my opinion it is Baltimore's most European neighborhood. meaning you can shop for groceries every day at Eddie's or a few other places. Access to the free JHU shuttle gets you to the Homewood campus, a few blocks from the year round 32nd Street farmers market. Every other service you might want is likely only a few blocks away. And transit is plentiful.

Parking is a pain in the neighborhood,unless you find a place with a garage (rare ).

So, what is the answer, then? I'd lookinto whether or not Zipcar is an option for you given that you don't have a U.S. drivers license. They have lots of cars parking in the neighborhood,in dedicated parking spaces. You rent by the hour. The price includes gas, insurance, and 180 free miles per day. This is plenty for most trips.

However,if you need a car for extended periods of time (not just a few hours every couple of days ) then a traditional rental car may be better.
posted by postel's law at 5:06 AM on May 1, 2015


Response by poster: Just to elaborate a bit, we would want to stay in Mount Vernon not just for the close proximity to the campus, but also since we it seems like a nice, walkable neighborhood with a vibe that fits us ("European"?).

The car would be mostly for weekend trips and just the freedom to be able to explore other places in the city and surrounding areas, since we are only there for a short while. But maybe Zipcar is viable, it looks like you can rent cars as a non-US license holder.

Airbnb just seems way too expensive for a several-months stay. But is it really not possible to sublet apartments or sign shorter leases in these apartment buildings? Where can you look for sublets other than Craigslist?
posted by coraline at 6:33 AM on May 1, 2015


Best answer: We're looking for a studio or preferably 1BR furnished apartment. Based on reading here on AskMe and some other research, Mount Vernon sounds like it would be a great place for us. We're looking to spend between around $1100-$1500, if that is at all doable.

We have been looking at some apartment buildings on sites like apartmentguide.com, specifically The Stafford and the Professional Arts Building. Are these legit? Do you have any recommendations for where else to look?


These are legit I think; I've been to a party in an apartment in the Stafford, which seems to have a lot of SPH/Med school students, and it was fine (not great but perfectly decent). The Stafford's location is great. That price range per month should be doable, and other places to look include craigslist, as well as the local property management companies (star, etc). There are a bunch of other big condo/apartment buildings in the neighborhood that you could contact (horizon house, standard, are two that come to mind). However,

How easy is it to get an apartment? Do we need to secure one a few months before, which would have to be done over email/phone, and is this even possible when we're moving from another country? Is it possible to show up a week in advance (around Aug 22), look at apartments, and then sign a lease for one then and there?

This puts you in a bind, because both of these options are pretty challenging. I've had the best results when looking a few months in advance, in person. There probably will be some apartments you can look at on Aug 22 with a lease starting on Sep 1, but they might really not be the greatest. Also, month-to-month leases are going to be harder to find. I'm afraid I don't really know too much more about getting this kind of lease except that it isn't the norm among locals.

Another thing is, we'd like a car while we're there. What's the easiest and cheapest way to get a car for just four months? Long-term rental? Buy a cheap used car, then sell it? We've never owned a car and don't know much about them.

I agree with previous posters that in Mt Vernon, zipcar would be a much better bet for a short stay. Buying a car in the US is a substantial hassle, you'll probably need to have MD licenses /insurance and so on (maybe even take a test depending on where you're coming from), and parking in this neighborhood is really painful. Street parking is cheap but there isn't nearly enough of it so you won't want to move your car on weekend evenings for fear of never getting a spot. Off-street parking will run at least $100 (I'm paying $125) a month. If you do the math, zipcar will actually work out to be cheaper, since he won't need to commute by car (see below). Also, some of your weekend trips might be to DC, and there is decent commuter rail service from Penn Station, which is on the northern edge of Mt Vernon. I do own a car but it is a luxury more than a necessity.

Sorry, we are obviously clueless. Just want to find a nice place to live and have a good time, without getting scammed or ending up in a crappy overpriced apartment. The person at Johns Hopkins helping my partner with his application recommended The Baltimorean in Charles Village, which looking on Tripadvisor and similar sites looks horrible, and isn't even close to the campus he'll be working at.

One thing is that there really few furnished apartments in the US, and so if you asked about these, then the Baltimorean might have come up because (I think?) it does have some, and is one of those default hopkins places that gets recommended for shorter stay visitors. I think they do shorter leases as well. But yeah, I haven't ever heard that it's a great apartment building. There are a few more like this in Charles Village.

As to the location, in terms of proximity to the med school campus, that basically doesn't matter. By far the best way to commute to that campus is via the Hopkins-run JHMI shuttle that leaves from Charles Village, goes through Mt Vernon, and then to the med school. So in terms of getting to campus, Charles Village just adds another 10 minutes to the bus ride. (I commute from Mt Vernon to the Homewood campus every day via this shuttle.)

As to which neighborhood to live in, I agree that Mt Vernon is more urban with more going on (I wouldn't call it European, though, but I'm not sure there's anywhere in Baltimore that I would). I've lived in both Charles Village and Mt Vernon and definitely prefer the latter (lived there now for about 4 years); lots of restaurants and bars, more central for the rest of the city (except Hampden), more cultural activities, access to train station by walking, circulator access. But I don't think Charles Village would be that bad for a 4 month stay, and it still has the basic things you need near by and walkable (in fact, someone mentioned eddie's -- the Charles Village Eddies is leaps and bounds better than the Mt Vernon Eddies, it's actually a pretty depressing comparison). Both have just as many zipcar stands. I moved away largely to get away from the constant sea of undergraduates.

By the way, something like S Charles Village / Remington (~27th street) wouldn't be crazy, I can expand on this if it is relevant.
posted by advil at 7:25 AM on May 1, 2015


You can definitely sign shorter leases in some buildings, at least in Charles Village. Check out Morgan Properties.
posted by merejane at 1:07 PM on May 1, 2015


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