9 ms·

Los Angeles though... :( One of my friends just moved here and is sharing a 5-bedroom home with 25 other people. I thought he was bullshitting me, and I still

by xor1 10y ago

Los Angeles though... :( One of my friends just moved here and is sharing a 5-bedroom home with 25 other people. I thought he was bullshitting me, and I still couldn't believe it when I went over. He's paying $600 a month to share a bedroom with four other guys. He told me it was the best thing he could find on 1-day notice. He pays for rent online, and he has no idea who the actual owner is, nor who is actually receiving the money. I thought that kind of living arrangement only happened with undocumented workers (barring SF and NYC, which I've always considered to be ridiculous), who can't easily exercise tenant rights. Now I really wonder how many of the apartments and homes around me are just completely packed with people who are splitting rooms.

beachstartup 10y ago
many lower-income creative types are flocking to LA from SF and NY.
hkmurakami 10y ago
I've heard of "hacker house" type places in the Bay Area which sound exactly like this. I think the rate was something like $30/day or so. I've also heard of operators of these places who will sign a regular rental contract with a landlord, "convert" the place to such a high density dorm, milk it until the landlord finds out, and when the landlord does, apologize, end the contract, then find another rental to rinse and repeat.
- idrios 10y ago
  As I'm currently living in a hacker house in San Jose, I'm obligated to say that this is mostly true except that you make it sound shadier than I think it usually is. Mine is a 5 bedroom that fits 15 people (one of the 5 bedrooms is for the guy who runs it + his gf). He himself is renting from a landlord who knows that it's a hacker house and is completely happy with that--the landlord gets paid rent while the host takes care of everything that goes wrong (when all utilities get 5x normal use, things break all the time). The host does all this and makes $27/day from each tenant. The whole setup is through Airbnb, and he's made sure he complies with Airbnb rules as well as San Jose rules for renting out houses. I, too, first rented this place because it was cheap and available on 1 days notice, and while I had planned on moving out to find an apartment, I ended up staying for months because the community is good, the house is well maintained, and the rent really is affordable compared to the cost of most places on Craigslist (which would all be shared houses anyway).
  - escherize 10y ago
    I've stayed at 2 of this guy's (Vic) properties. The first time was in the sunset in SF and it was pretty great. The cops did come bursting into our bedroom at midnight on a weeknight once, but besides that I have fond memories of it. I also stayed at Vic's hacker house in San Mateo, where the stoner host and his buddy were often up to no good... One guy actually decided to stop paying rent, and exercise his tenant's rights. Basically things were going horribly there so I was able to convince my fellow tenants to split a 3 bedroom apartment near by. I get that Vic takes care of the house that he lives in. It's just not the case for all of his properties.
- fisheuler 10y ago
  Same to us average people living in Beijing. I share a house with four other people,and one of the single bed room was just separated by boards.
oneplane 10y ago
Woah, I knew about things being bad in the USA, but I didn't know living conditions are going towards third-world standards :/ Where I live (The Netherlands) there are laws that even protect foreign workers (i.e. from Poland) from all being stuffed in a single room. At this point it's starting to look like even jail cells have more room and privacy.
- i_call_solo 10y ago
  This is in one of the most expensive areas in the US. I wouldn't call this third world status. In most areas you can easily find a 1BR apartment for that much.
- Shivetya 10y ago
  well his example probably violates more than one regulation the issue being of course, someone has to report it.
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    ...after which the people who lived there have even less of a roof over their heads.
- codingdave 10y ago
  That example is extreme. Most of the USA pays less, and usually one home or apartment is shared by just one family/couple, or a few friends.
- chongli 10y ago
  Where I live (The Netherlands) there are laws that even protect foreign workers (i.e. from Poland) from all being stuffed in a single room. How do those laws work in practice? Everything I've seen about these sorts of tenant protection regulations make them infeasible to enforce in the case where the tenants are migrant workers who might even be working illegally. The idea is that if a person is already running afoul of the law personally, they will keep quiet about the law-breaking of their landlord lest they upset the apple cart and cause everybody to get kicked out.
nether 10y ago
Is this place in Santa Monica? Think I know what it is.
- xor1 10y ago
  Hollywood, but I'm sure there's plenty like it all throughout LA.
- wdr1 10y ago
  Out of curiosity, where?
blhack 10y ago
Isn't this just called a hostel? That just sounds like your friend is living in a hostel dorm. $20/day actually sounds cheap now that I'm looking at hostel rates in LA: http://www.hostelworld.com/search?search_keywords=Los+Angeles%2C+USA&country=USA&city=Los-Angeles&date_from=2016-11-27&date_to=2016-11-30&number_of_guests=2&sort=price&prevSort=price http://www.hostelworld.com/search?search_keywords=Los+Angele...
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
  The loan repayments on my three bedroom house are AU$47 a day, or about US$35. ($215,000 purchase price in 2016).
  - blhack 10y ago
    It sounds like you have a mortgage... What is your point?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - cb18 10y ago
      I suspect he's saying that his daily payment on his house is roughly on par, or less than the daily rate of a high priced hostel. You could have figured that out yourself without the attitude, right?
      - BoorishBears 10y ago
        Except that's not really saying much. If there was nothing more to owning a house than paying a mortgage instead of rent everyone would own a house and never rent. The cost to live in the hostel when you include all factors is lower even if the daily rates were the same.
      - dsjoerg 10y ago
        i thought it was common knowledge that real estate prices vary around the world. a lot. if Proud Aussie saying anything more than that? and that Proud Aussie has a mortgage?
adamweld 10y ago
>one day notice That's probably most of the problem...
pizza 10y ago
The homelessness problem in LA is getting worse, too. There are something like 40 people becoming homeless every day; that's about 15,000 each year...
ZanyProgrammer 10y ago
Does your friend have a typical well paying tech job? He should save up first month's rent and move out. I don't quite get these hacker houses, if people are earning normal tech salaries they should only be temp solutions.
- eloff 10y ago
  And piss away $3500/month just on rent for a one bedroom? No thanks. If I was single and living in SF I'd go for one of those hacker houses for sure.
awqrre 10y ago
I would rather live in the woods and hunt for food...
- digler999 10y ago
  only you can't, because civilization has decimated the population of wild animals.
  - awqrre 10y ago
    I think it is still possible, at least in the USA and Canada.
pejrich 10y ago
Sounds like your friend is a fool. I had a nicely sized studio in West Hollywood about 2 years ago. It was right on La Brea and Santa Monica, and that cost me $1000. With laundry and parking. The idea of paying $600 to split a room 5 ways is crazy. That is more representative of your friend than it is of LA housing market. WeHo is probably among the more pricy areas in LA(save Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and a few others), and I found and signed for that room in about 6 days. There is a paid rental listing website. It seems like a scam, but it's not. It was called Westside Rental I think, you'll see the name on a lot of signs. It's work the ~$60 for a membership to see all the listings, maybe you can sell your membership to someone else after if there's a few weeks left. I ended up leaving LA because that place is a hellish shit hole, but not because of the rent.
- macspoofing 10y ago
  >Sounds like your friend is a fool. OP's buddy was looking for a place with 1-day-notice. A hostel is basically all you can hope for.
woogiewonka 10y ago
I lived in Pasadena just 30 min out of LA and paid 1000/Mo for a 1 be below the 210. This was 4 years ago so I assume rates are up. Just checked CL and see 1br in a townhome for rent for 900 in a decent area. Why would you share with 4 other people for 600... Is it that difficult to put away an extra 300 and commute 30 min?

by xor1 10y ago

beachstartup 10y ago

many lower-income creative types are flocking to LA from SF and NY.

hkmurakami 10y ago

I've heard of "hacker house" type places in the Bay Area which sound exactly like this. I think the rate was something like $30/day or so. I've also heard of operators of these places who will sign a regular rental contract with a landlord, "convert" the place to such a high density dorm, milk it until the landlord finds out, and when the landlord does, apologize, end the contract, then find another rental to rinse and repeat.

idrios 10y ago
As I'm currently living in a hacker house in San Jose, I'm obligated to say that this is mostly true except that you make it sound shadier than I think it usually is. Mine is a 5 bedroom that fits 15 people (one of the 5 bedrooms is for the guy who runs it + his gf). He himself is renting from a landlord who knows that it's a hacker house and is completely happy with that--the landlord gets paid rent while the host takes care of everything that goes wrong (when all utilities get 5x normal use, things break all the time). The host does all this and makes $27/day from each tenant. The whole setup is through Airbnb, and he's made sure he complies with Airbnb rules as well as San Jose rules for renting out houses. I, too, first rented this place because it was cheap and available on 1 days notice, and while I had planned on moving out to find an apartment, I ended up staying for months because the community is good, the house is well maintained, and the rent really is affordable compared to the cost of most places on Craigslist (which would all be shared houses anyway).
- escherize 10y ago
  I've stayed at 2 of this guy's (Vic) properties. The first time was in the sunset in SF and it was pretty great. The cops did come bursting into our bedroom at midnight on a weeknight once, but besides that I have fond memories of it. I also stayed at Vic's hacker house in San Mateo, where the stoner host and his buddy were often up to no good... One guy actually decided to stop paying rent, and exercise his tenant's rights. Basically things were going horribly there so I was able to convince my fellow tenants to split a 3 bedroom apartment near by. I get that Vic takes care of the house that he lives in. It's just not the case for all of his properties.
fisheuler 10y ago
Same to us average people living in Beijing. I share a house with four other people,and one of the single bed room was just separated by boards.

oneplane 10y ago

Woah, I knew about things being bad in the USA, but I didn't know living conditions are going towards third-world standards :/ Where I live (The Netherlands) there are laws that even protect foreign workers (i.e. from Poland) from all being stuffed in a single room. At this point it's starting to look like even jail cells have more room and privacy.

i_call_solo 10y ago
This is in one of the most expensive areas in the US. I wouldn't call this third world status. In most areas you can easily find a 1BR apartment for that much.
Shivetya 10y ago
well his example probably violates more than one regulation the issue being of course, someone has to report it.
- ptaipale 10y ago
  ...after which the people who lived there have even less of a roof over their heads.
codingdave 10y ago
That example is extreme. Most of the USA pays less, and usually one home or apartment is shared by just one family/couple, or a few friends.
chongli 10y ago
Where I live (The Netherlands) there are laws that even protect foreign workers (i.e. from Poland) from all being stuffed in a single room. How do those laws work in practice? Everything I've seen about these sorts of tenant protection regulations make them infeasible to enforce in the case where the tenants are migrant workers who might even be working illegally. The idea is that if a person is already running afoul of the law personally, they will keep quiet about the law-breaking of their landlord lest they upset the apple cart and cause everybody to get kicked out.

nether 10y ago

Is this place in Santa Monica? Think I know what it is.

xor1 10y ago
Hollywood, but I'm sure there's plenty like it all throughout LA.
wdr1 10y ago
Out of curiosity, where?

blhack 10y ago

Isn't this just called a hostel? That just sounds like your friend is living in a hostel dorm. $20/day actually sounds cheap now that I'm looking at hostel rates in LA: http://www.hostelworld.com/search?search_keywords=Los+Angeles%2C+USA&country=USA&city=Los-Angeles&date_from=2016-11-27&date_to=2016-11-30&number_of_guests=2&sort=price&prevSort=price http://www.hostelworld.com/search?search_keywords=Los+Angele...

TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
The loan repayments on my three bedroom house are AU$47 a day, or about US$35. ($215,000 purchase price in 2016).
- blhack 10y ago
  It sounds like you have a mortgage... What is your point?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - cb18 10y ago
    I suspect he's saying that his daily payment on his house is roughly on par, or less than the daily rate of a high priced hostel. You could have figured that out yourself without the attitude, right?
    - BoorishBears 10y ago
      Except that's not really saying much. If there was nothing more to owning a house than paying a mortgage instead of rent everyone would own a house and never rent. The cost to live in the hostel when you include all factors is lower even if the daily rates were the same.
    - dsjoerg 10y ago
      i thought it was common knowledge that real estate prices vary around the world. a lot. if Proud Aussie saying anything more than that? and that Proud Aussie has a mortgage?

adamweld 10y ago

>one day notice That's probably most of the problem...

pizza 10y ago

The homelessness problem in LA is getting worse, too. There are something like 40 people becoming homeless every day; that's about 15,000 each year...

ZanyProgrammer 10y ago

Does your friend have a typical well paying tech job? He should save up first month's rent and move out. I don't quite get these hacker houses, if people are earning normal tech salaries they should only be temp solutions.

eloff 10y ago
And piss away $3500/month just on rent for a one bedroom? No thanks. If I was single and living in SF I'd go for one of those hacker houses for sure.

awqrre 10y ago

I would rather live in the woods and hunt for food...

digler999 10y ago
only you can't, because civilization has decimated the population of wild animals.
- awqrre 10y ago
  I think it is still possible, at least in the USA and Canada.

pejrich 10y ago

Sounds like your friend is a fool. I had a nicely sized studio in West Hollywood about 2 years ago. It was right on La Brea and Santa Monica, and that cost me $1000. With laundry and parking. The idea of paying $600 to split a room 5 ways is crazy. That is more representative of your friend than it is of LA housing market. WeHo is probably among the more pricy areas in LA(save Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and a few others), and I found and signed for that room in about 6 days. There is a paid rental listing website. It seems like a scam, but it's not. It was called Westside Rental I think, you'll see the name on a lot of signs. It's work the ~$60 for a membership to see all the listings, maybe you can sell your membership to someone else after if there's a few weeks left. I ended up leaving LA because that place is a hellish shit hole, but not because of the rent.

macspoofing 10y ago
>Sounds like your friend is a fool. OP's buddy was looking for a place with 1-day-notice. A hostel is basically all you can hope for.

woogiewonka 10y ago

I lived in Pasadena just 30 min out of LA and paid 1000/Mo for a 1 be below the 210. This was 4 years ago so I assume rates are up. Just checked CL and see 1br in a townhome for rent for 900 in a decent area. Why would you share with 4 other people for 600... Is it that difficult to put away an extra 300 and commute 30 min?