Pick Your Perfect Apartment
Apartment hunting. Everyone has an opinion about it but few have mastered the technique of finding the perfect apartment for them. Sure, you can search for apartments by amenities, square footage, pet-friendliness and much more but every apartment is so unique it’s difficult to compare the conveniences of one to the advantages of another.
Never fear, we have developed a fool-proof, never-fail system to find your perfect apartment for you. This system will help narrow down your choices and identify which apartment will truly suit you for years to come. So grab a pen, print out a dozen or so of our Apartment Hunter forms, fire up your laptop and let’s go.
Step1: The Search
There are three ways to search for cheap apts for rent in Los Angeles. The most common way is via the internet. Sites such as Rent.com, WestSideRentals.com and the Craigslist Housing section are a great place to start. Most of these sites allow you to narrow your search by price, number of bedrooms and location. Another way to find an apartment is to actually put boots on the ground. Ask a friend to drive you around the area where you want to rent. This works particularly well if location is the most important factor in finding your perfect apartment. Finally there’s word-of-mouth. This is when you hear from your mom that her co-workers family owns an apartment. As you may imagine this is the least likely way to find one.
Step 2: The Visit
By now you should have a list of 5 to 10 apartments. Contact each units building manager to schedule an appointment to see the apartments you are most interested in. Here’s where the Apartment Hunter form comes in handy. Take one of our forms with you to each appointment and fill it out. Rate each of the areas on the form then add up the points to get an overall score. If something about an apartment strikes you as particularly wonderful or particularly dreadful make sure and write it down in the notes. You may think you won’t forget that the “charming one-bedroom” is really a studio with a walk-in closet but after you’ve seen an apartment or five they start to blur together. So don’t forget to take notes!
Step 3: The Decision
It’s decision time. You’ve had a long day/week/weekend of apartment hunting and it’s time to settle down and pick one place to call home. Gather up your Apartment Hunter forms and review your scores and notes. Then pick out the top 2 or 3 rated apartments. The ones you pick should have a score of above 85. If you don’t have a score higher then 85 you are either too picky or you need to increase your budget. The Apartment Hunter form is helping you find an apartment to stay in for a couple of years. It’s not meant for a transient home and picking an apartment with a high score will help you do this.
Step 4: The Winner
Out of your top 2 or 3 apartments compare scores. The apartment you end up with may not be the one with the highest mark. Now is the time to review the notes you took on each apartment. I once choose my second-rated apartment because even though it was older (rating it lower in Overall Apartment Ambiance) it had beautiful views of a mountain, some gorgeous trees and was within ¾’s of a mile to my work. I stayed in that apartment for almost three years.
That’s all there is to it. The Apartment Hunter form allows you to scientifically search for your perfect home. Designating a numeric value for each apartment’s features allows easy comparison of different apartments. We hope this form helps alleviate some of the stress of moving and we wish you success in your hunt!
Let us know if we can help you with your hunt. Contact us to view our apartment rentals in Hollywood, Silverlake, Koreatown and DTLA LA.
