First time apartment seeker looking for advice!

[Guest]

Howdy Omaha, my name is Mike and for the first time in my life I am able to support myself! I seem drawn towards downtown but I am open to other locations being that I am working at the Med Center and trying to finish my up Bachelors Degree at UNO. I would like to keep a centralized location whether downtown or midtown with the option to go out and have fun within walking distance, bars, clubs, etc.  I have never lived in an apartment but I have lived in college dorms and it was a great experience for me.  It seems that having a roommate would be the ideal way to go being the pros would out way the cons, but sadly that search turned up no results.

So it seems I am looking to get a studio or 1 bedroom apartment.  I would like to try and keep all my expenses around $1000 and by expenses I mean everything I will have to budget for, rent, utilities, insurances, cell, groceries, internet and fun, etc.  I am not sure if this is possible but it seems a reasonable starting point for me.  I am probably too stubborn and too picky and would like to find the best deal for me being this will be my first apartment.  In my search for apartments I have found these, some I have contacted, some I have looked at;

Orpheum Tower
Kensington Tower
Union Plaza
Bull Durham Building
Drake Court Apartments
The Conant Apartments

Generally all these apartments range from $500-$700 which seems to fit what I am looking for, but is there anything else out there?  Honestly a place with all utilities payed, free parking, and maybe wifi would have me sold, but I haven't heard about or found a place like this so far! Also any other general info or advice would rock! Thanks for your time!
-Mike

[Seth]

There was a recent discussion of nearly the same topic: http://eomahaforums.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10748

As you'll read in my posts in that thread, I live in Midtown and am very happy here.  My wife and I have a newly-renovated spacious 1-bedroom and pay about $700/month.  I can actually walk to the med center (I do in fact walk to my workplace at 36th and Farnam).  Midtown is a nice part of town with a nice mix of denser urban areas and quiet historic neighborhoods.  There has been quite a bit of redevelopment lately, and although there are still some gritty areas, it's largely pretty nice.  One of the anchors for midtown's revitalization is Midtown Crossing.  If you haven't yet, you should check it out.  There are apartments in the development, but they're kind of high-end.  They're also in pretty high demand, so you might not be able to get one, depending on when you want to move.

There are a lot of options.  Downtown and Old Market are nice too, but if you're working at the Med Center, I'd suggest looking around Midtown first since it's closer.  You shouldn't have a problem finding a nice place within a 5-10 minute walk.  Feel free to PM me if you have any specific landlord questions.