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I know many of you have already told me it would be wiser to find someplace else to move, but I am still dreaming & holding on to this yearning I have for LA.
That all being said, I have several questions about rental matters that I have run into as I have been looking at apartment ads in your area. There are many things that seem very different than in the Twin Cities area. Here are some of them:
1. Here in MN we have a few general names for apartment units: Studio, Efficiency, 1 bdrm, 1 bdrm + den, 2 bdrm, 2 bdrm + den, etc.
Then we say "garden level" which either means a complete basement apartment or one that is half above ground.
What are the names & meanings of those names in the LA area?
2. It is a rarity to rent a unit without: Full Stove, Refrigerator being provided by the landlord.
Bathrooms are assumed to include everything with shower & bath - unless stated otherwise. (but that is rare to not have a separate bathroom for each unit - RARE)
Only the much smaller, much older, much less desirable apartments are without air conditioning.
Heat is usually included in the rent (unless renting a dublex or house).
Electricity is almost always paid by the tenant unless it is said that "all utilities included" (which never includes phone, internet, or cable unless it specifically says so)
I see that (having looked at many many many 100's LA apartment ads) that fridges often are not included. What other things listed above might be different - or other things that you can think of?
3. Here is MN we do not have "fees" that are added to the rent - meaning standard fees by the city or state or housing authority or someone.
I've read that there is one or two fees that you have there that are mandatory on rent. What are these & why?
4. Likelihood of finding decent housing with pets & what would be the extra changes?
5. What is standardly asked when renting an apartment: 1st, last, & deposit? How much is the deposit?
6. I've been to San Fran & seen those frightening signs in some of the hotels & other buildings that state something about because of the age of the building & due to earthquake preparedness rules, blah blah blah.
This makes me question at what point buildings in the LA area were built "better" or more equipped to deal with earthquakes? Is there a standard question I should have regarding this safety issue?
Any other info on that matter?
7. Terminology, rules, regulations, anything a new renter to the area may need to know / be aware of?
8. In a decent area (I am looking for Culver City, Santa Monica, Venice, & areas in close proximity to Culver City) what would be a standard rent on an "acceptable" apartment that is SRO up to 1 bdrm?
9. If someone can state the average size of each type of rental with something to compare it to - that would be wonderfully helpful!
10. Any secret or better ways to get someone to rent to me with my Section 8 voucher?
11. Any other rules, regulations, language/verbiage that may be standard to the LA area but not elsewhere?
Guess that's it for now - hope some of you can / will help me! Feel free to add anything helpful you may have to offer.
1. Basements in L.A. are rare. The other terms mean the same thing here as everywhere else.
6. Stricter building codes were introduced in 1973. Timber-framed buildings are better than brick. Not that there is much brick in the city.
From what I've found the other terms DON'T mean the same thing as we have here, ordinarily. I'm looking for specifics: "Bachelor's is ordinary the smallest of all categories, with one room, no bath or kitchen, maybe 200 sq feet" - something along those lines. No need to help if you don't want to - but I am a detailed person & looking for point by point details from folks if possible... thanx for trying...
A bachelor is basically the same as a studio. i.e., living/sleeping area, kitchen and bath. an "efficiency" is a small separate sleeping area along with a living room, small kitchen and bath.
Like Straight mentioned, basements are rare. We also have strict building codes for earthquakes.
I call "garden style apartments" as a small community, with no gated access.
I do not include refrigerators, but I do include stoves.
Pets? I'll take an in-door cat or 2, but my policy is no dogs.
All managers are different and have there own policies.
Security deposits ...... If my rent is $1400, I normally charge $1000 for a deposit. If the rent is $1000, I'll ask $800.00. I try and keep it easy.
From what I've found the other terms DON'T mean the same thing as we have here, ordinarily. I'm looking for specifics: "Bachelor's is ordinary the smallest of all categories, with one room, no bath or kitchen, maybe 200 sq feet" - something along those lines. No need to help if you don't want to - but I am a detailed person & looking for point by point details from folks if possible... thanx for trying...
i was going to answer some of your questions to the best of my ability, but it sounds as if you don't want to hear from anyone who can't answer them all, which i cannot. good luck to you.
i was going to answer some of your questions to the best of my ability, but it sounds as if you don't want to hear from anyone who can't answer them all, which i cannot. good luck to you.
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I apologize if my intent was misunderstood - because what you've stated above is not at all my intent. I was speaking to the comment that (something to the effect of "all the terms are the same" - That statement was too generalized for me to understand. And, given how I did understand it, I thought it was likely inaccurate - based upon my searching. My commenting on being detail oriented was simply that - when answering a questions - be specific about what question you are answering (perhaps by multiple quoting) or the effort you do make to answer my questions end up being wasted because I don't necessarily know what "terms" or whatever that you are specifically referring to.
I do happen to have a "brain injury" (seriously) - so it is entirely possible that I am not being clear in what I am stating - but, is also likely the case that I need information given in a certain way in order to understand it.
I apologize if my intent was misunderstood - because what you've stated above is not at all my intent. I was speaking to the comment that (something to the effect of "all the terms are the same" - That statement was too generalized for me to understand. And, given how I did understand it, I thought it was likely inaccurate - based upon my searching. My commenting on being detail oriented was simply that - when answering a questions - be specific about what question you are answering (perhaps by multiple quoting) or the effort you do make to answer my questions end up being wasted because I don't necessarily know what "terms" or whatever that you are specifically referring to.
I do happen to have a "brain injury" (seriously) - so it is entirely possible that I am not being clear in what I am stating - but, is also likely the case that I need information given in a certain way in order to understand it.
Again, I apologize if I offended you...
i wasn't offended. it was a misunderstanding, for which i apologize. i'll try to tackle your questions, but i haven't figured out multi-quoting, so i'll go back to your original post to answer.
studio= single living/bedroom plus kitchen and bath. don't assume full kitchen; might be kitchenette only.
efficiency= used interchangeably with studio, or to describe a studio without a full kitchen or no kitchen/ette at all. the latter is AKA "bachelor apartment" but i haven't seen one listed that way in an ad for quite some time. you'll have to ask which is meant if it isn't clear from the description in the ad.
junior 1BR= larger studio with semi-separate sleeping area that could be an alcove with space for a bed only, or another "room" with only three walls and no door.
split-level studio= jr 1BR with two or three steps separating living and sleeping area. (imagine a loft bedroom with the "loft" much closer to the floor.)
1BR, 2BR etc. are what they sound like. in smaller units, there is little distinction between the living and dining room, or the dining room and kitchen. larger apartments (and duplexes) are more likely to have a full dining room, rather than a corner of the living room intented for that purpose (frequently identified by the presence of a ceiling fan so you know where to put your dining table).
i'm not sure what you mean by "+den". in my experience, a "den" is the less formal of two living rooms found in single-family homes or condos large enough to have both. it could also be in-home office designed as such, but i think the ad would just call it an office to avoid confusion.
if there is only one bathroom, it is likely to be a full one. sometimes the shower and tub are a single unit; sometimes the shower is free-standing. a 3/4 bath has a shower, sink and toilet, but no tub; a 1/2 bath is a toilet and sink only-- in other words, a powder room. (i've seen 3/4 baths advertised as 1/2, but if it is the only bathroom in the unit, assume there will be a shower.) unless you're looking at cheap, sleazy "residential hotels" of the kind freqented by vagrants, junkies and hookers, sharing sanitary facilities with one's neighbors is a non-issue.
LA has heat-waves throughout the year, but not months of sustained temperatures above 90 degrees. thus, air-conditioning is not a given. high-rent complexes will almost certainly have central heat and air, but don't assume that only old buildings will lack it. i know of properties built after the 94 earthquake that have neither central air nor window units. i once viewed an apartment in beverly hills that had no heat, but that was the only time i ever encountered that. were it not for that experience, i would have answered that heat is a given. (to this day, i'm not sure if it was legal to have that place on the rental market without heat. since i wasn't interested in the place-- not enough closet space--i didnt inquire further.)
i find that studios are more likely than larger apartments to include utilities in the rent. it's more common that the tenant pays for gas and electric, and the landlord pays for water. caveat: it is not unheard of for tenants to be billed separately for water, trash disposal and sewage by 3rd-party billing servicers acting on behalf of the landlord. although not a widespread practice, it is a growing one, the legality of which is questionable. (i am dealing with this in my building right now. long story.)
some "luxury" complexes contract for cable and internet service at a bulk rate, and include the cost in the rent of tenants who take advantage of their availability. (it isn't as nice as it seems, because tenants are stuck with the providers the management company selects, and cannot choose satellite instead of cable tv or vice versa.) in the more typical situation, the tenant must contract for these services on his own if he wishes to have them.
units of at least one bedroom have full ranges with ovens, and some have built-in microwaves as well. refrigerators are not required to be provided, and the ad will indicate if one is included.
in the city of LA (perhaps county-wide, i'm not certain) there is a $2.96/mo fee for safety inspections. i think the landlord has the option of collecting it monthly as an add-on to the rent, or in a single payment once a year. other than late payment fees, one-time credit check fees, and replacement fees for lost garage openers, i know of no other standard fees associated with renting. (if the building has a recreation room, there might be a fee for its use, but in my experience, it's refundable if you clean up the place after your party or whatever.)
(i can hit a few more of your questions tomorrow if no one else does, but i'm tired right now.)
pet policies vary. i think it is easier to find a place that allows cats. if dogs are allowed, there might be a size/weight limit. you should probably expect to pay some kind of extra deposit. (see recent thread re pet rent.) i had a neighbor who was allowed to have a HUGE service dog in a building with a no-pet policy. i don't know if the the landlord voluntarily made an exception, or was compelled by law, but my money is on the latter.
expect to pay two to three times the monthly rent to move in. some places require first, last and a deposit, which might be equal to the rent or might be less. others want only the first month plus a deposit. occasionally, there are "move-in specials" that offer discounted deposits for those with good credit and a clean rental history. in the current rental market i wouldn't expect to find many of those.
i used to live in san francisco, and don't recall the signs you mentioned, and i've certainly never seen anything like that here. in over thirty years of living in CA, i've experienced an earthquake that caused the collapse of a freeway and a few dozen that did nothing more than cause my glassware to rattle. those with enough force to cause structures to fall are really not that common, and when they occur they don't level entire city blocks as one might imagine. personally, i've seem more homes severely damaged or destroyed by fire or heavy rain and mudslides than by earthquakes. the best thing is to be prepared with emergency supplies and a little cash on hand, and not worry too much about buildings falling on your head. if you can eyeball a place that's likely to collapse during an earthquake, you probably wouldn't want to live there for all sorts of other reasons.
there's so much variety in apartments from building to building and neighborhood to neighborhood, it's impossible for me to characterize anything about rent or size as "standard". the places you mentioned are some of the more desirable urban areas, and you cannot expect to find the cheapest rental stock there. you might want to look on westsiderentals.com for places in palms, adjacent culver city, to get an idea of housing costs in one of the more affordable areas of the near westside. without checking, i would guess that $1000/mo, give or take, would be the absolute floor for a studio there. if that area is not within your budget, you might as well forget about venice or santa monica. (i hate dashing people's dreams of living by the ocean, but it's very expensive for obvious reasons.)
there's nothing i can tell you about section 8 except that i know a property owner who was interested in getting section 8 tenants earlier this year. i have no idea if she followed through with the process to qualify her building, which is a well-maintained 4-unit property in an unremarkable neighborhood just a few miles east of culver city. if that sounds like something you might be interested in, PM me with some info about exactly what you are looking for and when, and i will pass it along.
i hope i've been helpful to you. sorry if i babbled too much. it's late, and i can neither think clearly nor sleep.
I sent you some rep - KATENIK... I'll send you a private message... I LOVE details & can't get enough of them...
BTW... "+den" around here means that there is an additional 3-walled room that can be used any way one wants but is often used as an additional bedroom. Cheaper than the next size, but more than the size it's in... get it? Mostly offered in higher end buildings.
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"all the terms are the same" - That statement was too generalized for me to understand. And, given how I did understand it, I thought it was likely inaccurate - based upon my searching. My commenting on being detail oriented was simply that - when answering a questions - be specific about what question you are answering (perhaps by multiple quoting) or the effort you do make to answer my questions end up being wasted because I don't necessarily know what "terms" or whatever that you are specifically referring to.
