5 ms·
Apartment hunting is the most inefficient "purchasing" decision I have ever had to make, and the one most likely to end up with a severely sub-optimal outcome.
by standardUser 5y ago
Apartment hunting is the most inefficient "purchasing" decision I have ever had to make, and the one most likely to end up with a severely sub-optimal outcome. There's some good ideas here that would at least facilitate efficiently viewing more apartments. But there's still so much extremely basic information that potential renters either cannot get about a unit or have to jump through hoops to get. Noise issues, pest issues, construction and renovation details, information about how the management company operates, light levels, info about neighbors and on and on. Ninety percent of the important information about a rental unit isn't discovered until the weeks and months after a lease has been signed, and I am desperate for someone to fix this problem.
- benmanns 5y agoAgreed. There's not enough disincentive for wasting potential renters time filtering through listings or even touring apartments.
- paxys 5y agoDuring my apartment search in San Francisco I found that it was basically impossible to know whether a unit was covered by rent control or not. You'd have to explicitly ask the landlord, and even then they'd be cagey about it.
- baby 5y agoI just moved to SF and I just used craigslist and always asked if it was rent controlled in my intro mail. What’s the point of visiting a place if it’s not?
- clairity 5y agoyou can just ask when the building was built. any building built before 1978 in LA and 1979 in SF (iirc) is rent-controlled. you can also look up the build date via parcel maps on the county assessor's website (e.g., https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/ https://portal.assessor.lacounty.gov/ ).
- bytematic 5y agoYou have to convince the property managers because they are purposefully gating that information. They want you to ask questions so they can gauge your interest and deny you early, also the benefit of not excluding the "right" people. And yes there is a lot of room for discrimination here
- SilverRed 5y agoThe property management company often doesn't even know. It took me a week to find out which car park number was mine which took building management to tell the property manager. There is no way the management companies know anything about noise levels or neighbors. Larger buildings tend to have reviews online but outside of that its a gamble.
- standardUser 5y ago"There is no way the management companies know anything about noise levels or neighbors" They actually do, because they receive complaints from tenants. They should be required to document that information and provide it to potential renters.