I'm trying to move to LA but feel completely overwhelmed trying to find housing.

eep, LA as in Los Angeles LA?

Yep

part of the overwhelmedness might just be because the housing market in California is, to the best of my knowledge, not all that great in some major cities

(Unless I say fuck it and try to move to Atlanta instead, but unlikely)

I moved from Texas to Oregon and it was crazy. I was forced to take the most expensive apartment I could find cause no one else has vacancies

I would look at apartments in your price range and also private residences for rent. I used Craig's list a lot and Apartments.com: Apartments and Homes for Rent

A private residence might get you a better deal in some cases

Thanks for the tip!

Just make sure you do a check on the owners of a private residence before you accept any agreements with them

ye-es, but i'm not sure how much help i'd be since we're talking different countries

granny flats and sharehouses might be helpful tho, if you don't mind room-mates or sharing kitchens and utilities

I moved cross-country twice. MOved four times in as many years. It's a pain in the ass. Sometimes realtors can help you find rentals for reasonable. LA is tough.

I have a friend who does camera work and lives in LA. I think his studio is $1800.

Which seems cheap all things considered for the area.

I can try to answer any questions you might have in general?

I only moved a state away, and it was 10 years ago, but I googled apartments in the area we wanted to live in, and then kept looking until I found a place we could afford and wanted to live in.

yeah i just googled apartments (i also google school stats for the areas because i think that's a good representation of what kind of area you're getting into)

and then i called and talked to the apartment people, tell them the situation and set up times to go down and look at them. so it helps to have like a few days to just spend shopping

but if you cant and you have to go blind, they can do all the paperwork long distance too

so its all confirmed before you get there

Yeah I moved from Florida to LA like 5 years ago. How can I help?

I'm an LA native. If you need help finding a place or want advice on which neighborhoods to try, let me know.

blauren: Any recs for sites or thoughts on using a realtor etc?

colortheory: Yes plz. Seriously any advice would be greatly appreciated for neighborhoods, traffic, etc.

I've gotten some general tips on neighborhoods but I don't know much beyond those (Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys)

I just looked on whatever sites came up when I was googling for apartments. A lot of my friends have said that they've had luck on westside rentals and I like padmapper, but yeah you'll mostly want to know

where you're aiming

Basically I'm looking for a place, with or without roommates, cat friendly, close to freeway (ideally with less traffic getting out of the

main city).

blauren: Awesome, thanks

Got it.

ohh right near me! I'm in North Hollywood. It's pretty chill as long as you don't go too far north. (once you're north of Victory, it gets hit or miss for safety in noho)

What is your potential rental range?

sherman oaks is really nice, valley village is also great and parts of north hollywood and van nuys are nice.

I'd also look at toluca lake

Burbank is also a decent place to live.

And Woodland Hills is right on the 101.

personally, I really like noho because I can take a train into hollywood and downtown from here, whereas some places don't have train access (yet, because they're expanding a lot of the trains rn)

LA buses aren't very reliable, but the trains are all pretty great

The trains really are pretty awesome.

And the Expo Line out to the beach opens next month.

I live in Santa Monica, so I'm most familiar with the Westside.

oh also some weird LA tips: make sure you factor in parking when looking at places. if they don't come with a spot, you might get fucked for street parking.

Oh god, yes.

also a lot of apartments here don't come with fridges, which is so fucking bizarre, but you can usually find cheap ones on CL. mine was like $50 from some dude and it's still working fine years later.

Parking tickets run up to $75 here.

But yeah it sounds like you're looking right by me and I've lived in this area of the valley for like 5 years, so if you have questions about anything, hit me up. I remember how overwhelming it was to move to

a place I really didn't know at all.

Thankfully I was already warned about parking, haha. Because that's def a thing. wtf no refrigerators that's so weird

Thanks for neighborhood tips!

Price range.. like $600 (haha, as if, but you know) up to like $1200, I think? I'm worried about being able to afford much above $1000 on my income, tbh, but I think it's doable.

Obv I have like 6+ months in rent/expenses already saved up so I'm good there.

if you don't mind roommates, you can def find closer to the lower end. On your own, staying under $1000 around here can be hard, but you can prob find a few things.

studios and 1br get pricey compared to splitting a 2br.

/nodnod

I mean after living in Boston and considering NYC, I expected it. I'm just expecting to not make a ton starting off and don't want to overspend my means.

Yeah, that's smart. It's better to underspend and then adjust if you find a better job than you expected for sure.

pretty much seconding all these LA tips, and i used padmapper when i was looking to move up to the bay area

it's a bit of a clunky site but once you figure out how to wrangle it to do what you want it's pretty useful!

biowafers: Thanks friend!!

I really appreciate all the advice. It's so hard not knowing a city.

I feel you. I moved here from the other coast without knowing anyone.

blauren: Oh when you say "north of Victory" what does that mean? Is that another neighborhood or a street or?

it's a street

Thanks

there are pockets that are okay past that, but if you don't know the area, I'd just stay south of it for safety. if you do wind up going north of it, absolutely look for gated parking.

Any thoughts on Culver City?

Culver City is very nice! I have friends who live there. It's also very inconvenient to the Valley. If you're planning to work up here, it's going to be a long commute.

Burbank is.. in the Valley, yes? >>;

Also I think I was told to avoid Korea Town, is that true? What about West Hollywood?

(I'm sorry, I swear I did research but it's always better and more detailed to get someone who knows the area's advice)

yeah Burbank is here. K Town is actually where a lot of my former coworkers were living. I don't know anyone who actually likes living there and driving is hell there.

West Hollywood is supposed to be nice, but I don't know that area at all, so I can't answer much about it.

Cool, thanks a ton. <3

I think I'm calling it a night for now, but I took notes and may hit you up later if that's okay?

yeah! feel free to send me a pp or ping me or w/e

Thanks!