The Househunt

Househunting the L.A. Way

Back when we visited the school in April during Admit Weekend, we were given the down-low on how one goes about househunting in this area. Basically we were told that there was so much student housing around and such a high turnover that there's really no need to worry too much about it. Most people drove/walked around for a few days, called the phone numbers posted on the "For Rent" signs and were usually able to view those apartments either right then and there or on the following day. Most places were move-in ready and the landlords wouldn't really care to talk to you if you are looking at moving in several months down the road because they couldn't be sure of the vacancies that would come up between now and then anyway.

So we followed their advice and went on with our summer holidays and left figuring out where we were gonna live come September for later. When people raised their eyebrows at us for being so carefree about this, we just shrugged our shoulders and said, "Apparently that's how they do things over there!" and it pretty much did go exactly as they said, at least in our case.

Where to Stay While Househunting

We were especially lucky to have met these awesome people back in April who offered to let us crash at their place for a few days while looking for a place to move in to. If you're like us and have thick skin, just ask around and see if anyone will be kind enough to take you in which is definitely the cheapest form of accommodation since it is free.

If you don't know anyone in the area or are too shy to ask, consider staying at someone's house or vacation rental which will be the second cheapest option and infinitely nicer than motels. Both AirBnB and Holiday Lettings are websites that connect private home owners and people looking to rent vacation homes (the latter of which is the British version of HomeAway but better because I used to work there and know so). I've not ever tried home swapping but that could be an option as well.

The most expensive temporary stay option would obviously be a hotel, but even then you could sometimes get a pretty great deal. I've used Priceline a number of times and had good results (basically how it works is hotels will sell them their empty rooms for way below rack rate on the condition that they don't reveal the name of the hotel until the very end, so you tell the website you wanna be in a particular neighbourhood and pay x amount per night for a 4-star hotel and find out where you're staying on the last page. The mystery bit is kind of fun. Here's more on how it works.)

Neighbourhoods & Rent Prices

We learned that UCLA students generally live in three major neighbourhoods:

1. Westwood is the area immediately surrounding the campus & Westwood Village where you can find restaurants/bars/movies/groceries/pharmacies/clothing stores/etc. Apartments north of Wilshire Blvd tend to house more undergrads (read: noisier) whereas the areas south of Wilshire have more professionals/grad students.
2. Brentwood is two miles west of campus, on the other side of the 405 freeway. There are loads of apartments in this area (mostly professionals/grad students). Lots of people bike in to campus from here as crossing under the 405 during rush hour can turn a 5-minute drive into a 40-minute one. Apparently a good number of the rich and famous live in this neighbourhood and the farmers' market on Sundays is supposed to be excellent.
3. Santa Monica is six miles west of the 405 freeway and has a gorgeous beachfront, a pedestrian-only promenade with great shopping/restaurants/bars. And it's Santa Monica. It sounds like most Anderson kids move out there in their second year to have that whole live-by-the-beach lifestyle but it is more expensive and has fewer vacancies.

Mike wanted to be as close to campus as possible in first year because he was going to be spending a LOT of time at school (especially during the first quarter) so he didn't want to add on any commute on top of that. Following the advice of those before us, we steered clear of the Westwood Village hub and the streets that hugged either side of the campus which were full of undergrads and the fraternities that housed them.

Based on the "Estimated Student Budget" (more on this later), you should expect to pay about $1,400/month on rent. You will quickly realize that this is on the very low end of the scale, and most likely based on someone who is single and living in university housing. For the most part, a 1-bedroom in Westwood ranges between $1,995-$2,300 and 2-bedrooms $2,500+. Parking is almost always included (everyone drives in L.A.), some utilities can be, and most buildings have a laundry room on every floor but in-suite laundry is rare.

Here are a few of the buildings we went to look at during our househunt:

• The Palazzo is a gorgeous complex with newly finished units in the heart of Westwood Village with state-of-the-art amenities including in-suite laundry and way out of our price range ($2500 for a 1-bedroom).
• 10982 Roebling Ave is also super close to campus and Westwood Village and the 200+ units are privately owned. This means you're not dealing with a property management company but with private owners and there are pros & cons to this. Right outside the building there is a bulletin board above the intercom which has all the vacancies. The building was built in the 70's but was refurbished in 2006 so all the units have new appliances/countertops/bathroom fixtures/etc. The amenities include a beautiful pool/BBQ area, a nice gym, a rec lounge with pool table, and a half indoor basketball court. A 1-bedroom rents for around $1850/month but because they are privately owned and there's competition, there's some room for negotiation, especially if you offer to pay 6 months upfront (but I would be wary of doing so). For such a massive building the hallways were very quiet, but I don't know if that is the case once school started and students moved in.
• Kelton Towers (515 Kelton Ave) had absolutely the cheapest units that we saw in Westwood (west of campus) and a high turnover. The units were old and dingy but I was confident they could be given a makeover and personal touches. We very nearly went for it as you can't beat $1400 for a 1-bedroom (the one we were interested in was a 1-bedroom that was partitioned like a 2-bedroom for $1500) and $2150 for a 2-bedroom. I'm kind of glad we didn't end up there as there are some scary reviews, but as one tenant put it, "you get what you pay for", and this may be the right place--and more importantly, price--for some.
• Along Hilgard/Tiverton on the east side of the village there were lots of good options too but they were on the pricier side because of the location. There was a 1-bedroom at 972 Hilgard for $1,995 and a beautiful newly renovated large 2-bedroom unit with in-suite laundry in 964 Hilgard from $2,995.
• The four blocks south of Wilshire (see map below) are filled with nothing but low-rise apartments and you can easily spend a day in this area alone. We saw a huge bright 1-bedroom loft for $2,195 in 10969 Wellworth, a 2-bedroom for $2200 in 1350 Kelton, a 1-bedroom for $1,995 in Park Rochester, and quite a few others. This area is about a 15-minute walk into the village and another 15 minutes to campus.

This is the map of the area south of Wilshire with nothing but low-rise apartment buildings.
The red stars represent the free BruinBuses that take you to/from campus.

I would also recommend calling up a couple of big management companies in the area (Silton, Roberts, and Moss, to name a few) and ask their head office which of their buildings have vacancies. That way you save having to look at buildings you know are occupied. Except then you do miss out on the off chance that a building's property manager just got a vacate notice from a tenant and hasn't had time to report it to the main office yet because that does seem to happen.

If you are single and happy to live with housemates, you can rent a massive condo or even a house for cheap by sharing it with a bunch of people, but things can turn sour pretty quick and we, for one, are definitely past that stage in our lives.

University Housing

You could also look at student housing offered by the school which tends to be significantly cheaper. A two-bedroom out in University Village at $1,300 sounds pretty tempting but we decided that it was too far removed from campus for us. We've heard from a few people that they feel stranded without a car and wish they were closer to campus, but we also know people who are very happy out there: those with families say there's a nice community feel and you have on-site amenities (laundry/gym/pool/playground), two grocery stores within walking distance, and frequent 50 cent bus rides to/from campus.

On the other hand, Weyburn Terrace apartments are within a quick 10-minute walk to both campus and Westwood Village, and can come furnished or unfurnished, but they are reserved for single students only (though I think if you are married but both studying full-time at UCLA then you can request to be roommates). They weren't particularly cheap either at around $1,200/person.

There are other complexes but I am not familiar with them so here's the link to UCLA Housing Services which covers everything.

Our Househunt

We flew in to L.A. on Saturday, August 25th and spent two full days looking for an apartment. We now know that Sundays & Mondays are the worst days to do this as many management offices are closed on these two days. Still, we were able to view 20 units in two days by starting at around 10am each morning and finishing at around 6pm and by following people's advice: drive/walk around, call the numbers on the "For Rent" signs, viewing the apartments, and repeat.

I thought it was going to be fun, this whole looking-for-a-place-to-call-home with your husband thing. It wasn't. It was exhausting. We went to bed by 9pm both nights like old people.

We ended up signing for the very last apartment we saw on Day 2 which we nearly didn't bother seeing it because it was 6pm but we figured might as well just check it out. It had been freshly painted and cleaned, the carpet was nice and both the bathroom and kitchen had fairly new fixtures/appliances. Out of all the places we saw, it was also the only one that had "character" and really spoke to us. And it was a steal at $1,650 a month including gas/water/internet. (I know it seems crazy that $1,650 is considered "cheap" here, but it is what it is.).

So it was as quick as they'd said it would be: we looked around on Sunday and Monday, applied on Tuesday, went shopping for furniture on Wednesday, and moved into our new home on Thursday:

Application Process & Payment Requirements

Most of the property management companies will accept a refundable $250 holding deposit (cash or cheque) to hold the apartment you liked for three days while you look around at others. This is a good idea if you see something you really like on the first day but want to see what other options there might be.

The whole application process took only a day for us and was pretty straight-forward. Along with a pretty standard application form, they took copies of our photo ID's, our last bank statement/pay stubs, our passports/driver's licences, Mike's admission letter from UCLA (or student card if you already have yours), and our I-20 student visa.

You pay for the first month's rent plus the security deposit was the standard one month's rent plus a $50 key deposit. (Some places ask for an additional month's rent for the security deposit for international students who do not have a credit history in the US.) This first payment they like in a cashier's cheque or money order from the bank (what we call a certified cheque in Canada which basically means it's pre-paid to the bank and won't bounce). After that they will accept your personal cheques for the regular rent payments.

Listings Websites

Though the majority of the places were move-in ready, some weren't ready for a month or so. So if you're the type that need to have it all planned out, then you could always start the househunting process earlier by keeping an eye out on listings online and either having someone you know go check out the places for you or making a bunch of appointments over 2-3 days and making a trip down just to get your housing sorted out for peace of mind.

We didn't really use the listings websites much because we did the walk/drive thing instead, but here are the three big ones everyone uses:

• West Side Rentals requires a $60 membership fee but supposedly has the largest selection in the neighbourhood, and you can book your Time Warner cable/internet through them and get the $60 back. Or find a few others and pitch in to use one login to look at the listings (WSR most likely will not be happy that I've suggested this). They do have an app but it kind of sucked.
• Padmapper shows places on a map which is very useful visually.
• Craigslist has a big housing section and also great for finding furniture at bargain prices (more on this later).   

Renting vs. Buying

Finally, a 2nd year MBA student/former CSA said that she'd worked out the numbers for renting vs. buying and said you should plan to live in L.A. for at least 8 years before buying would become a worthwhile venture. I know nothing about buying as we probably won't be buying for a long while, but something to think about if you are definitely putting your roots down then maybe your money is better spent towards monthly payments instead of rent.