Nah, Albuquerque is not that big of a town. Pretty comparable to Omaha as far as I know. FWIW, Costco is in SE Abq near the base.
As far as places not to waste your time at, don't bother with La Vida Buena (felt like a retirement home) or the Arbors (really small appliances, dumpy apartments in general). Also find out which places are rent-controlled, there's several of them and they're not marked that way in the apartment guide. Alta Vista is one, if you call them they can tell you the others. IIRC you can't make more than $22,000 a year if you live there. Since you have a large dog that should cut down your choices pretty well at the beginning. Be prepared to spend an entire day on the phone calling all the apartments that look interesting. It sucks, but it saves a lot of time later.
Oh, as far as management -- this is pretty vague and maybe completely baseless, but find out who manages the Overlook. The girl who took me around there was nice enough, but they had this special where if you came there for the first time and signed a lease before leaving, they gave you $200 off the rent or something. They absolutely would not give you that even if you came back the next day after thinking it over that night. It was a nice place, but it was the most expensive I went to and to me that's a crappy tactic that doesn't mesh with a place like that.
Wellington gets my vote for the best management, they had the nicest, most professional staff and I liked their policies. For instance, when you move in, you can put marks on the wall where you want holes for mounting things and a maintenance guy will come drill them for you. Kind of a little thing, but I thought it was cool. Suncreek had better amenities for less money though so I ended up with them.
Another thing, just occurred to me--be aware that Albuquerque has emissions requirements for cars. If you drive an older car, it may not pass emissions, so then you're looking at an undetermined amount of work to fix it or you have a car that's worth virtually nothing in the Albuquerque market. Motorcycles are not required to pass emissions. You can get the specific requirements from their DMV's website, but if you don't live in a state that requires emission testing good luck finding a place that can test your car beforehand.
As far as places not to waste your time at, don't bother with La Vida Buena (felt like a retirement home) or the Arbors (really small appliances, dumpy apartments in general). Also find out which places are rent-controlled, there's several of them and they're not marked that way in the apartment guide. Alta Vista is one, if you call them they can tell you the others. IIRC you can't make more than $22,000 a year if you live there. Since you have a large dog that should cut down your choices pretty well at the beginning. Be prepared to spend an entire day on the phone calling all the apartments that look interesting. It sucks, but it saves a lot of time later.
Oh, as far as management -- this is pretty vague and maybe completely baseless, but find out who manages the Overlook. The girl who took me around there was nice enough, but they had this special where if you came there for the first time and signed a lease before leaving, they gave you $200 off the rent or something. They absolutely would not give you that even if you came back the next day after thinking it over that night. It was a nice place, but it was the most expensive I went to and to me that's a crappy tactic that doesn't mesh with a place like that.
Wellington gets my vote for the best management, they had the nicest, most professional staff and I liked their policies. For instance, when you move in, you can put marks on the wall where you want holes for mounting things and a maintenance guy will come drill them for you. Kind of a little thing, but I thought it was cool. Suncreek had better amenities for less money though so I ended up with them.
Another thing, just occurred to me--be aware that Albuquerque has emissions requirements for cars. If you drive an older car, it may not pass emissions, so then you're looking at an undetermined amount of work to fix it or you have a car that's worth virtually nothing in the Albuquerque market. Motorcycles are not required to pass emissions. You can get the specific requirements from their DMV's website, but if you don't live in a state that requires emission testing good luck finding a place that can test your car beforehand.