Curtis86

I'm a US resident already. Been in the US for the past year living and working in Washington, but came back to the UK for the past 3 months to resolve some family issues. Heading back to Los Angeles for some pre-arranged interviews over the summer although I've been planning on moving to L.A for the past year and stay put. I need advice from people in the Los Angeles Area who may know anything about renting a property/house/apartment at such short notice. My budget is around $1500 to $2000 per month . I already have SSN, BANK # etc. Would just like some advice from any fellow members on the board

GeoffM

Get your credit report ready, make sure you have enough cash in the bank, and just look for properties in the usual way. If a property is empty then you can be in within just a few days. Maybe some utilities/TV/Internet will be a few days later; all depends on what they need to do and existing appointments with other customers. Realtors can be a little slower than private landlords that don't use realtors.

Curtis86

I don't really have much US credit as I only have a telephone contract but that doesn't report good payments, only late payments. Would this maybe mean a larger deposit ? That wouldn't be a problem.

KCK_DR

I had to find a place on short notice.

I used an online search and found something decent, but it is never a good idea to rush it if you can help it but I had no choice at the time.

In the north metro you can find an apartment – if you are single – and have your utilities paid for about $2000 if you want to be in a nice area. In south bay you can probably get something similar for less.

So the where and what can make all the difference.
Give me more info and I can be of more help.

Curtis86

Been to Los Angeles a good few times. I'm interested in renting with Archstone properties as I have afew family members who have previously rented with them. I'm not too much in a rush. I'm giving it about 4 weeks from arrival to hopefully be moved into a new place after afew viewings. Agoura Hills, Thousand oaks area. Maybe Long beach. The problem is that L.A is huge so I'm really not sure, but I absolutely need to be somewhere that is safe.

GeoffM

Most landlords would want to see a credit report, regardless of what's on it (or not). A larger deposit or X months rent in advance may well be the solution to a lack of credit.

N1cky

What area are the job interviews in? That should dictate where you live. Long Beach and Thousand Oaks couldn't be further away from each other if you tried. You need to decide what you want from an area (other than it being safe.) Agoura Hills and TO are very suburban, I wouldn't say they are good areas for a single person just moving to LA.

We provided our UK one when we first arrived. The landlords were happy with it as it was Experian, they didn't actually care about which country it was from.

Sally Redux

Travelling in LA can be a big pain so as Nicky says, you want to be on a reasonable route to work. Those 2 areas are really far apart. Also Long Beach has a reputation for being rough (I don't know much about it personally though).

GeoffM

Same here, especially as it was at 999!

For the second house, we'd been here 10 months by then and had a credit report of sorts, but had to increase our deposit by about 50% from the advertised rate I think.

Curtis86

The interviews are within close distance of both suggested locations, although I do like the feel of Agoura Hills. I'm not very bothered about living in the hustle and bustle. I have a car and I find the distances to drive to the relatively popular areas of L.A to be a comfortable distance from AH. I do want an apartment complex with a pool and leisure facilities. Where else would you maybe suggest ?

Bob

Is that budget enough?

Factor in first, last, anything up to 3 months rent as security, plus anything from 1-3 months rent as the realtors finders fee and that's a lot of cash to sign up a lease.

N1cky

Remember you said that when you've lived there 6 months and you finally decide you can't be arsed to sit on the 101, in 110 degree heat, for over 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon to drive 30 miles.

It is very hard to give advise on where to live, as I would always say try and stay within a 1 hour commute each way of work. Personally, if we hadn't got a kid, we would have probably have got an apartment around North Hollywood, Studio City, Sherman Oaks area. There are also nice areas around The Grove, and of course Santa Monica.

It's not always about the hustle and bustle, but presumably you would like some form of social life. I find TO area very Stepford Wives, the main form of entertainment is power walking to the local Starbucks at 8am, and nearly everywhere is closed by 9.30pm.

N1cky

The budget should be fine. There are literally hundreds of apartments around $1,500 on Craigslist, we've never had to pay more than 1 month upfront, and there shouldn't be any reason to use a realtor to find an apartment in that area.

Bob

Not you using the realtor, the landlord.

If the market favours the landlord, the potential tenant ends up paying the fee, which is the case down our way.

And the increased deposit is because the OP doesn't have any US credit history.

Would have deposits to drop on the utilities too, most likely, so that's another chunk of change to be aware of.

KCK_DR

I am not very familiar with Agoura Hills – too far north for me right now.

But here is what I know at this point:

Long Beach – much like most of LA metro – is schizophrenic. There are good and no so good areas within miles of eachother in the same municipality.

If you can afford it the Los Alamitos area of Long Beach is just gorgeous. It is close to the beaches, near I605 and I405 as well as State 91 Freeways.
The quality of night life is not as high as Santa Monica, but there are many things to do. The LB down-town can be fun and you are close to other nice areas too.

I personally love that area. I work at Downey so the South Bay needs to be my home, I do not feel like driving two hours each way every day. I may have to do it in the future, but not if I can avoid it.

Stay away from Signal Hill and the port area if you can.

Cerritos is another very good place to live.

Stay away from Paramount, Bellflower, Compton and East LA and you should be fine.