Please watch as I pull a rabbit out of this hat! (Riverside: rent, condo)

[LALady]

Originally Posted by majoun

One of my good friends was able to move from Van Nuys to Sherman Oaks because of the rents coming down in the Valley as a whole, and he certainly likes the neighborhood 1000% better!

I made that move after the 94 earthquake dropped prices. It was a major improvement in the quality of my life.

[SandyCo]

I work in Woodland Hills near Victory and Topanga, so that should give you all an idea of where I need to live. I was looking at ads for apartments around Canoga and Roscoe, but those are big, old buildings that haven't gotten good reviews on "Apartment Ratings". Besides, street parking seems to be at a premium there, and both of my kids have cars, of course. Also, to add to the difficulty, I have two cats!

I moved from Van Nuys (now Lake Balboa ) to this apartment in Sherman Oaks back in '97. For a while it was great. The difference was night and day. Now, not so much. It almost feels like I'm living in the slums of Sherman Oaks; the general neighborhood is still pretty good, but the apartment buildings on this block? Yuck.

My commute isn't bad, because I leave here at 6:10 to get to work at 6:30. That's a.m., by the way! That's partly why I'm sleep deprived, because my neighbors argue until midnight or 1:00 a.m., and my alarm goes off at 5:40 every weekday.

[SandyCo]

I may have found a place! Unfortunately, I was unable to pull a rabbit out of my hat after all, though. The apartment I found is $1,395 (effectively $1,400). I looked at another one in Van Nuys for $1,150, and all I can say is, well, I guess you get what you pay for!

This is a rent-controlled building, and the rooms are huge! They accept cats with no deposit, which is almost unheard of. No special deal other than that, but I can live with it. It's still in Sherman Oaks, not that far from where I live now.

I spent some time today driving around Encino and Tarzana, but all of the complexes had the same problem of being squished together with very little street parking. I wasn't too impressed. My commute will be a little shorter (a mile?), but that's okay. I'd still have good freeway access, so I can't complain.

I passed the credit check (I expected no less!), but I haven't made a firm commitment yet. I'd like to have my son see it first. My daughter loves it, though, so at least she's on board.

[Lovehound]

I'll just offer a suggestion if your deal doesn't work out. Note however that I haven't lived in an apartment since I bought my house 30 years ago.

What I discovered with my last apartment is to find an older apartment in a small building in a quiet area. The apartment I found was near Van Nuys Blvd. and Burbank St. and I was paying far less than newer big apartment buildings. I even had my own private garage!

The way I found apartments back then was to just drive, drive, drive and keep my eyes open for nice looking buildings with a "for rent" sign out front. Then just bang on the apartment manager's door and ask how much, and see the unit if the price sounds okay.

Pulling a rabbit out of a hat may sound difficult, but did you ever try to pull a hat out of a rabbit?

[SandyCo]

Thanks for that "pulling a hat out of a rabbit" piece of wisdom, Lovehound! And that is actually how we found this place. We were driving from one possibility to another, when my daughter saw the "open house" sign, so we stopped. I'm so glad we did, too, because the open house was almost over! Miracle of miracles, the manager actually speaks English. (In my current situation, the manager speaks very broken English, and his wife doesn't speak English at all, leaving me to wonder what would happen if there were an emergency when he wasn't home!)

I'm doing my homework; I looked up the apartment address on Apartment Ratings, and found nothing. This is a good sign! It has been my experience that people usually post on those sites when they want to complain.

The one question I forgot to ask was if they take Section 8. That's a deal breaker for me!

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

The one question I forgot to ask was if they take Section 8. That's a deal breaker for me!

I presume that's because you don't want to share the vicinity of people who take Section 8...


Hey, pulling a hat of a rabbit is not the biggest problem. It's holding him down while you shove it in!

Have you seen the long teeth on them critters?

[JerZ]

Hey, Sandy!

My husband used to live in an apartment complex on 15353 Weddington (Sherman Oaks). It was very cute, very close to "the street" and yet it was set back a bit so it was quiet. He payed a ridiculously low rent when he lived there, but it was for a one-bedroom and that was years ago, so I don't know what a two-bedroom would be there now.

[JerZ]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I may have found a place! Unfortunately, I was unable to pull a rabbit out of my hat after all, though. The apartment I found is $1,395 (effectively $1,400). I looked at another one in Van Nuys for $1,150, and all I can say is, well, I guess you get what you pay for!

This is a rent-controlled building, and the rooms are huge! They accept cats with no deposit, which is almost unheard of. No special deal other than that, but I can live with it. It's still in Sherman Oaks, not that far from where I live now.

I spent some time today driving around Encino and Tarzana, but all of the complexes had the same problem of being squished together with very little street parking. I wasn't too impressed. My commute will be a little shorter (a mile?), but that's okay. I'd still have good freeway access, so I can't complain.

I passed the credit check (I expected no less!), but I haven't made a firm commitment yet. I'd like to have my son see it first. My daughter loves it, though, so at least she's on board.

Oooh! I didn't see this. Wow, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for ya, hon!

[SoCalMomma]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I may have found a place! Unfortunately, I was unable to pull a rabbit out of my hat after all, though. The apartment I found is $1,395 (effectively $1,400). I looked at another one in Van Nuys for $1,150, and all I can say is, well, I guess you get what you pay for!

This is a rent-controlled building, and the rooms are huge! They accept cats with no deposit, which is almost unheard of. No special deal other than that, but I can live with it. It's still in Sherman Oaks, not that far from where I live now.

I spent some time today driving around Encino and Tarzana, but all of the complexes had the same problem of being squished together with very little street parking. I wasn't too impressed. My commute will be a little shorter (a mile?), but that's okay. I'd still have good freeway access, so I can't complain.

I passed the credit check (I expected no less!), but I haven't made a firm commitment yet. I'd like to have my son see it first. My daughter loves it, though, so at least she's on board.

Great news!!! I hope it all works out for you

[SandyCo]

Back to the drawing board... This apartment comes with either one single parking space or one tandem space (one car parked in front of another, so two spaces total). I can't imagine the hassle involved of us always having to move our cars so the other person can get out, or park so that I can get out easily when I have to go to work early the next day, etc. Street parking is almost impossible to find, especially late at night (my kids have weird schedules). This would be a huge inconvenience, and for $360 more per month than I pay now, it's not worth it.

Where I live now, there are apartment buildings on only one side of the street, so street parking is plentiful. *sigh* I'd love to find another setup like this, but they're not very common. They also may be incompatible with another preference of mine - good freeway access for when I go to work at 6:10 a.m. every day!

Thanks for the good thoughts, everyone! I'm sure I'll find something. Meanwhile, I'll keep looking!