Gillymonkey

Hi,
I'm looking for some help. My husband and I are moving to San Diego on 14 Nov. We've booked into a hotel for 2 weeks with the idea being to use this time to find an apartment. Do you think this is a realistic timescale or should we be considering arranging something online? we're apprehensive about doing this in case we turn up and get a fright but also are scared we will have to extend our hotel stay and this is money we can't really afford.

Thanks!

Alan17

I moved from PA to San Diego and found and booked an apartment online, sight unseen, before we moved there. Luckily the place was pretty good and we ended up staying there but in retrospect it was a bit of a gamble. That said however I was already in the US, had a US bank account, SSN & credit history and was already established here. If you're doing it from the UK you may run into a few problems as they'll look for evidence of credit worthiness, and the SSN to check against.

I assume you're moving for work in which case I'd look for some apartments online local to where you'll be (San Diego traffic can be pretty bad) and contact them via email or phone (Skype calls are pretty cheap and if you don't have an account you'll likely want one for calling home anyway once you get here) and see what they want in terms of documentation for an apartment. 2 weeks seems a little short if you don't have any of the documents mentioned above yet.

Ozzidoc

Where is the office/place of work? Where are you looking to live? What type of "vibe" are you looking for? Will you both have cars, bikes or (??Heaven forbid) be using public transport.

Craigs List has a good reputation most of the time.

Feel free to send me a message via here once you've mad three posts.

Gillymonkey

We are moving for work (well my husband is, I am on a dependent visa.) He will be working in the La Jolla area, we are aiming to get a car but realistically it may take us a while so wherever we move to it would need to be somewhere we can either walk, cycle or use public transport from. Vibe wise we are pretty easy - we've lived in some really rural areas and some really urban areas in the past...

I've been in touch with a couple of apartment complexes and they are looking for proof or right to live in USA, income, references and credit history.

Ozzidoc

OK. La Jolla is still a pretty big area, if you don't have a car.

I'm guessing it's somewhere near the UCSD campus/Nth Torrey Pines Rd area.

I suggest UTC as a good starting point (University Towne Center) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_UTC as there are LOADS of newish apartments there. Hubby stayed in Costa Verde for a couple of weeks.

Englishman43

Not sure if they have an online version but if they do "The Reader" list places as well.

Ozzidoc

Good idea.

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/rental...erything-else/