This week I wanted to share my experience from finding an apartment in LA. A lot of incoming students are looking for a place and I hope some of my insights will be helpful. It started over two weeks ago when I called a few places from Craigslist and pretty much everyone told me to call them back closer to the move in date. I needed a place starting Aug 1st so booked my flight to LA for 3 days to look for a place around the end of June.
I flew in on a Sunday but did not get to utilize much of that day to look at places since most leasing offices are closed on the weekends (note to out-of-towners), but I did get to pick and order my glasses from Warby Parker (shout out to LA for having a physical store). Before I flew in I setup a few appointments for apartment viewing for Monday and Tuesday through Craigslist and Zillow. I started off near campus checking out the places in Westwood. Out of the 7 or so places I visited, I only liked one. So in the afternoon I drove through every single street between Wilshire Blvd and Sunset Blvd in Brentwood, calling the numbers in front of the buildings. I was able to check out a few places but unfortunately they were all outside of my 1 bedroom price range. This was turning out to be a harrowing experience, what I was prepared to pay mentally was not matching with the kind of place I wanted to rent.
Exhausted and about to call it a day I got a call to check out a place in Beverly Hills. I drove over and really loved the place. It had brand new appliances, washer/dryer in unit and so on. However, I decided against it since I will be living on my own and wanted to be around the social scene in Brentwood / Westwood. So around 4:30PM I called the one place I liked in Westwood only to find out someone rented it 10 minutes earlier (at this point I started blurting out my frustration of not finding a place and having just one more day left in LA). I guess the leasing office guy felt bad so he mentioned they might be able to put me in an apartment for the month of August and move me to another one in September, and asked me to come by the next morning.
After hanging up I opened my laptop and started checking for any new postings on Craigslist. I found one in Brentwood called Barrington Plaza and called them up. They said they were open until 5:30PM so I told them I would be there in 20 minutes, grabbed my check book and headed out. The place was amazing and the location was perfect, 30 minute walk from campus. The rent was a little higher than what I had expected to pay but I knew it was a steal for the location. It did not take much convincing; I put in my deposit, signed my agreement and went to pick up a six pack to celebrate.
All in all the experience was intense but rewarding, I was able to learn more about the city I will be calling home for the next two years. My advice would be:
- Use all avenues to search i.e. online and calling properties from their posted signs.
- If you are looking for a nice (and clean) place expect to pay ~2K or above per month for a 1 bedroom place
- Don’t be surprised to find places next to campus more expensive than other parts of the city, even Beverly Hills
- I felt like I was cutting it close with 2 week days; optimum time would be 3 – 4 week days to find a place
Here is a picture of my new home, can’t wait to move in next month. Happy hunting y’all!
