Dear all,

I'm trying to find an apartment in L.A. I would like to know another way than looking through the westsiderental.com. (I know it's good, but it somehow get very competitive)

I used to live in Chicago and the trick I did was to walk around, trying to spot an ad sign and also pick out the notice from the bulletin board in local diners. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks
Terry

Hi, Terry,

Try http://www.craigslist.org and click on "Los Angeles" on the right-hand side of the page. This web site lists all kinds of housing.

Good luck.

Thanks X! : )

http://www.ezrentlist.com

$60 fee for info, but if you don't find a place within 90 days $30 is refunded. Apartments, homes, duplexes, condos.

Hope this helps.

I don't know if this has changed as I moved away about 10 years ago, but at that time I lived in Santa Monica (West LA for a year or two in there) and the best way to get an apt in SM or the West side in general (including surrounding areas) was the local newspaper classifieds, the Santa Monica Outlook. Few local landlords would advertise anywhere else. I believe that paper is defunct and was replaced by the SM Sun (www.santamonicasun.com), but I can't get their ads to work on my computer. After rent control sprung up in SM, apts were very scarce and you had to know someone, be related, or pay someone under the table through what they called a "key fee" to agents -- which was just extortion but that's what you get with rent control. In fact, I do know some people who got decent apts that way and if it were a legitimate good place with a good lease, paying that fee was worth it to live there. There are a few agencies that advertise in that paper and others probably about getting you all these great places for a fee, but I think a lot of those are bogus. If you get some guarantee or it's a very low fee, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. There were usually quite a few to choose from in other areas around there, though, that also advertised in that paper (West LA, Playa del Rey, Mar Vista, Culver City, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, etc). At that time, finding the best local newspaper for an area was the best way to find an apt. The LA Times was thus best for LA itself, especially more central. As I said, I'm not up on the latest, but in SM at least, I think they modified the rent control law (allowing increases to new tenants to market value) so there may be more available to rent there now.