moving from Texas in 6 months.. how to, neighborhoods, etc. (Long Beach: salons, 2013)

[achenn]

Welcome to yet another 'How Do I Move To California?' post! Hopefully you guys haven't tired of these because I do have a few questions..

Currently, I live in Dallas/Fort Worth area in a charming, historic, artsy neighborhood and pay $725 for a huge 2/1 with a great backyard. Ideally, I'd like to find something similar in LA though I know I'll probably end up doubling the rent.

So, I've been looking at the Silverlake/Echo Park/West Hollywood areas. What are the differences between the neighborhoods? Are rental houses common? What are the average 1 bed/1 bath house rent prices? Are there any other ideal places for a young, creative(graphic designer & hairstylist) lesbian couple?

I plan on visiting LA to scope things out in October. I was thinking of contacting a realtor/locator and having them show me around a few places to get a better feel of things. Is this a good idea?

Officially, my current lease will be up Feb 1 2013. I don't know if I'll have time to visit LA again before the move, how risky is it to have a realtor/locator pick out a place for me given a specific set of parameters? I guess what I'm getting at here is how would you move out of state with little time to travel back and forth?

Also, we have a small SUV and plan on getting a smallish U-Haul trailer. Has anyone traveled considerable distance with 2 small-med dogs and a cat? How did you do it?

Any and all advise is greatly appreciated.

[Señor Ríos]

Downtown Long Beach/Alamitos Bay has a large LGBT community. If you work in LA, you'll have to commute about 45 minutes in good traffic if you live in LBC/Alamitos.

Rent is going to be killer wherever you go in LA County.

The average price for a 1 bed/1 bath apt is 1200 from my experience.

[achenn]

Thanks for your reply. What is life in Long Beach/Alamitos like? Working in LA isn't a requirement for me as I can work from home/cafes/etc, but my partner is a hairstylist and will need to be relatively close to higher end salons, preferably Aveda or Davines.

[TrueDat]

I lived in Long Beach -- Belmont Shore and Belmont Heights -- before moving from California. It has great areas that, even though Long Beach abuts Orange County, don't feel like the stereotype of OC at all. It's a great mix of people and cool, funky neighborhoods with lots of vintage residential architecture. As the previous poster stated, there's a large and active LGBT community in Long Beach, especially in the Belmont Heights area. I can't recommend that area highly enough.

The only drawbacks would be finding an affordable place (though Long Beach tends to be slightly cheaper than other beach communities) and the commute your partner will have to make into LA. May I ask what area of Dallas you're in? If you like parts of East Dallas, Junius Heights, Deep Ellum, Oak Cliff, or Oak Lawn here, then you'll probably like Belmont Heights -- with the added benefit of the ocean nearby.

[achenn]

@TrueDat.. I live a little outside of Dallas currently, but love and frequent Deep Ellum, Oak Cliff, and Oak Lawn. I'll definitely look into Belmont, thank you for the suggestion.

@Crestico.. I think we might prefer to live outside of the high end area for a few reasons, two being (in my experience) they tend to lack authenticity and culture and the cost of living is higher. We were initially drawn to Silver Lake, WeHo, etc because they seemed to closely resemble the neighborhood we live in (and love) currently. And yes, and realtor recommendations would be great. Thank you!

[Tasksgirl]

I agree that you would like Silver Lake, WeHo, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, Echo park, etc. more than the Westside

[achenn]

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice.

I'm still curious about the later half of my post, though-

I plan on visiting LA to scope things out in October. I was thinking of contacting a realtor/locator and having them show me around a few places to get a better feel of things. Is this a good idea?

Officially, my current lease will be up Feb 1 2013. I don't know if I'll have time to visit LA again before the move, how risky is it to have a realtor/locator pick out a place for me given a specific set of parameters? I guess what I'm getting at here is how would you move out of state with little time to travel back and forth?

[BarcelonaFan]

Live in valley village, take the 101 to Cahuenga, get off and you're in Hollywood. Light to medium traffic. Takes no more than 20 mins tops.

I'm always selling this place. Affordable and next to NoHo, Burbank, studio and universal. It's also not burb hell either.

[BarcelonaFan]

Officially, my current lease will be up Feb 1 2013. I don't know if I'll have time to visit LA again before the move, how risky is it to have a realtor/locator pick out a place for me given a specific set of parameters? I guess what I'm getting at here is how would you move out of state with little time to travel back and forth?

Good luck with getting a realtor or independent owner to work with you out of state. Most want you there for some reason. The only ones that were willing to work with me out of state were the bigger complexes.

[achenn]

That's odd. Even if security deposit is offered? Hopefully I'll be able to work something out as neither of us really want to deal with/live in larger complexes. Thanks for your input.