Excited to move to Los Angeles (Glendale, Brea: cheap apartment, rent, car insurance)

[CourtneyW]

Hello everyone! I'm planning on moving to LA May 31st. I'll be graduating from high school May 19th so I'll give my mom a week to mourn before her "baby boy" moves all the way across the country lol. I've moving from Tuscaloosa, Alabama! Anyways...I've wanted to move to LA for sooo long! I went there this past summer with one of my friends and her mom for about a week and I absolutely LOVED IT..it was everything I expected it to be and more! Anyways I just wanted to know how much do you all think I should have saved up by the time I move out there? I really don't know how much I can afford on rent so I was just estimating that once I get a job and all that I could probably afford between 700-900 a month? Is that an accurate estimate. I was planning on being a pharmacy tech while I'm out there because I am one here now and i get paid $9.50...but I'm not sure if California requires some kind of certification to be one out there..here you don't have to be.

Anyways...I'm also looking into neighborhoods and I've researched this and concluded that I want to live either in West LA or North LA (close to Glendale or in the "valley" lol). I'm also not sure if I want a roommate or not. Some people say I should get one and some say I shouldn't..help me out here. I'm either gonna get a 1 bedroom apartment or loft if i choose to live alone. I've also called around to some apartments in Los Angeles and I've noticed that a lot of the people who answer the phone aren't very fluent in English...this one lady at Town Square Apartments..i believe..couldn't understand I word I was saying..like AT ALL! Not that it's that important I just found it interesting..I can speak Spanish ok but not very fluently. Anywho if you guys can help me out I would really appreciate it! I plan on staying there at least a year or two to see if i can qualify for in-state tuition to go to college if anyone was wondering that.
~Courtney

[SurekRZA]

I moved to Los Angeles on my own as well and it's a very hard place to get by in if you don't know that many people. You are definitely not going to find an apartment in West LA for even 1,000 dollars a month. Im not trying to discourage you, but I do highly recommend a roomate so you can split the rent and utilities. I would strongly suggest moving in with at least two other people. You should defenitely try to find a job over here before you move, so you at least have a secure job waiting for you when you move. Although Los Angeles has many opportunitites, you can either make it or break it over here. Also remember that you are going to have to need a veichle to get around and I would at least try to save up $6,000 in order for you to have a good start. If I were you, I would think it over and decide if "I can really make it on my own" especially in a city as expensive as Los Angeles. You are very young and should try to take a year after high school to see and plan what you want to do with your life, instead of going out there into the world so soon.

[SandyCo]

Before you make the move, please check apartment listings in Craigslist.com. Having a roommate can definitely cut your expenses, especially because rent will take the biggest bite out of your paycheck. Your best bet is to come out here and find an area you like. This is a weird city in that you can go from a great area to a crappy area in only a block or two. Save as much money as you can, of course - at least enough to pay your rent for six months. Car insurance is expensive, and you'll probably need a car (depends where you end up living and working, of course).

If you have any specific questions about various areas (both West L.A. and Glendale are big cities with different neighborhoods), please use the "Search" tool first, and then if you need more details, just ask. And yes, I'm afraid it's very common to find apartment managers who don't speak English very well.

[JackSparrow]

Sandy: Oh come now, I was playing at the fact that the OP couldn't understand the CA "accent", and being that they're from Alabama...

~

Courtney: Welcome!

[SandyCo]

Jack, you know we love you here in the L.A. forum, but not everyone gets your rather dry sense of humor! Just trying to make a new person feel at home here.

[NDA]

A roomate will enhance your L.A. experience and allow you to have more funds. Go with the roomate. Hopefully you will live here a year and then go to school the 2nd year and get in state tuition. You can live in the dorms and that would be a lot of fun.

[CourtneyW]

SurekRZA: Yea you're right i probably should find a roomie. And I know staying here a year to figure out what I really want to do would probably be the best thing but I just can't do it...I have an itch that needs to be scratched in LA lol. It's like all the people that graduate from my high school that actually stay here are the losers and the boys that will end up working at McDonald's for a living...and I refuse to be considered one of them. The ones that actually go away are the ones who actually make something of themselves. But thanks for the advice though!

SandyCo: Haha wow LA must be really like that then...like you are seriously like the 50th person to say "It could be a nice neighborhood..but two streets over it can be a bad one" lol. And yea my mom, if she's not still upset about me moving over there, is going to buy me a new car after graduation and I plan on getting the safest (i.e. least expensive on insurance) car out there. Someone told me the Hyundai Sante Fe was the safest. I'm not one of those teenage boys that wants a fast, great looking car, i just wanna get around lol. And i'm not picky at all about the neighborhoods inside Glendale or West Los angles...I just wanna be one of those regions with a nice cheap apartment lol. So if you know of any please let me know. I usually get my information about apartments from ApartmentRatings.com and people on there tell me how their living experience was. Like I was really looking forward to living in Park La Brea until I saw the reviews on there about cockroaches and bad management lol.

JackSparrow: Haha it's funny actually because I don't have a southern accent. Everyone around here things I'm from the North or something and when I talk to some friends of mine from New York they say I sound Mid-Western.....lol. Weird I know. But i'm sure when I get their as soon as I say YALL, everyone will know I'm from Alerbamer! lol

NDA: Yea dorms are what I'm looking forward too...although i hear you should never walk barefoot outside of your dorm, otherwise you risk getting ChlyGhonorHerpiSyphilitis Simplex Virus! Which would be a problem for me becausse being from Alabama...i walk barefoot everywhere! lol

[POhdNcrzy]

"I just wanna be one of those regions with a nice cheap apartment lol"

Kid, best of luck to you, but you're gonna be LOL'ing alright, laughin' just to keep from cryin' !!

A nice cheap apartment - that is one thing that does not exist in the LA area anywhere, period. The only way to get a lower rent in a decent place is cram in more roommates. (Yuk!)

$9.50/hour in LA. That is a severe poverty wage in LA. Yes, plenty of people in LA actually "live" on that. You see 'em all over, and they wear a hopeless facial expression that reads: "Dear God, please somebody rescue me from this miserable life...." $9.50/hour in LA won't come close to paying your bills, even on a pauper's SoCal budget.

[Lumerian Feast]

Is anyone else thinking of "Midnight Cowboy"?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by POhdNcrzy

$9.50/hour in LA. That is a severe poverty wage in LA. Yes, plenty of people in LA actually "live" on that. You see 'em all over, and they wear a hopeless facial expression that reads: "Dear God, please somebody rescue me from this miserable life...." $9.50/hour in LA won't come close to paying your bills, even on a pauper's SoCal budget.

Yes, you'll find then in front of Home Depot at 6:00am and they share a 1 bedroom apartment with 6 other people.