Needed: Quiet place to live in Orange County
September 15, 2011 5:29 PM Subscribe
Can anyone recommend a quiet place to live in Orange County (CA)? I know there are huge listing services set up for this sort of search, but none of them really gets to the heart of what we're looking for except for maybe a helpful word-of-mouth recommendation. As prospective renters, here is our profile:
2 Emotionally Mature Adults (one has a traditional job, the other works from home).
Seeking a 1 bed, 1 bath apartment, condo or townhome.
Price range $1,200-$1,300. Excellent credit.
Upstairs preferred.
Large mega complexes not preferred.
Month to Month Rental Agreement Ok, but (please) no Lease commitments.
Very quiet, responsible and down-to-earth couple.
Looking to avoid immediate neighbors with spiffy subwoofers or drama (or both)...or pretty much anyone desperately craving attention. We want to be left alone and will gladly leave others alone. But, if you happen to meet us, we're nice.
Preferably located somewhere in Central Orange County (e.g. Tustin, South Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Irvine, etc.).
The reason we decided to seek the advice of MetaFilter is that over the past two and a half years we've had a terrible time trying to find a decent place to live, in our price range, using traditional search methods. Our social network isn't very broad or sophisticated. In this time, we've spent far too much time, money and emotional energy dealing with rude neighbors, ineffective managers, apartment hunting and (ultimately) moving from place to place. Something clearly isn't working. Maybe it's just bad luck. Maybe we haven't tried hard enough to work through problems. Just don't know. But there was at least one 13 month period in which we were very content with our home, until certain people moved in below, so we know it's possible to find such a place. This time, we want to try something different and see if the results maybe come out better.
One scenario we imagine is a small condo or townhome that the owner wants to rent out, but maybe doesn't like the idea of having to screen for the right kind of tenants. Well, we both have superb credit, have never been late on rent, we have our own fridge, we don't bother other people, we don't have parties or get-togethers, we believe in things like 'common courtesy' and 'neighborliness', we both have our own cars (one of them is not much to look at I hope it won't be too bothersome an eyesore), we aren't perfect but will try to talk through issues if/when they arise (far too few people seem capable of doing this anymore), and we just need a decent (quiet) place to live, where maybe there are some other, similarly minded folks, and here we are if this sounds like the kind of tenants you might be looking for.
To put it another way, we really wish we could get into a 55+ community but we are too young. But we would probably be one of the best tenants there.
If the place in question is on a busy, noisy street, or has party people, lots of college kids, any form of "cool people" who need everyone else to know how "kewl" they are, or excessive subwoofer noise or motorcycles or boom cars, please consider us not interested.
This is just an experiment. We may not be ready to move right away, unless the place and the owner seem like an opportunity not to pass. The reason for posting now? Two immediate neighbors who seem like your typical miserable-want-others-to-be-miserable, desperate for attention, lets punish others with stereo/subwoofer even though they have kindly asked for moderation sort. And, we just don't feel like getting dragged into a fight. So, we're still on a lease, but if the right circumstances come along we'll probably jump on it - and, if necessary, break current lease. By the way, we have sought help from management, yet again, but let's be realistic, there's only so much management can do or, after so much, will be willing to do.
Also, do understand that we are not completely naive. Of course there will always be some kinds of noise, especially in condos and apartments. When we talk about "quiet," we're talking about the kind of quiet that's free from "abusive" noise...the sort caused intentionally by rude people.
The reason we decided to seek the advice of MetaFilter is that over the past two and a half years we've had a terrible time trying to find a decent place to live, in our price range, using traditional search methods. Our social network isn't very broad or sophisticated. In this time, we've spent far too much time, money and emotional energy dealing with rude neighbors, ineffective managers, apartment hunting and (ultimately) moving from place to place. Something clearly isn't working. Maybe it's just bad luck. Maybe we haven't tried hard enough to work through problems. Just don't know. But there was at least one 13 month period in which we were very content with our home, until certain people moved in below, so we know it's possible to find such a place. This time, we want to try something different and see if the results maybe come out better.
One scenario we imagine is a small condo or townhome that the owner wants to rent out, but maybe doesn't like the idea of having to screen for the right kind of tenants. Well, we both have superb credit, have never been late on rent, we have our own fridge, we don't bother other people, we don't have parties or get-togethers, we believe in things like 'common courtesy' and 'neighborliness', we both have our own cars (one of them is not much to look at I hope it won't be too bothersome an eyesore), we aren't perfect but will try to talk through issues if/when they arise (far too few people seem capable of doing this anymore), and we just need a decent (quiet) place to live, where maybe there are some other, similarly minded folks, and here we are if this sounds like the kind of tenants you might be looking for.
To put it another way, we really wish we could get into a 55+ community but we are too young. But we would probably be one of the best tenants there.
If the place in question is on a busy, noisy street, or has party people, lots of college kids, any form of "cool people" who need everyone else to know how "kewl" they are, or excessive subwoofer noise or motorcycles or boom cars, please consider us not interested.
This is just an experiment. We may not be ready to move right away, unless the place and the owner seem like an opportunity not to pass. The reason for posting now? Two immediate neighbors who seem like your typical miserable-want-others-to-be-miserable, desperate for attention, lets punish others with stereo/subwoofer even though they have kindly asked for moderation sort. And, we just don't feel like getting dragged into a fight. So, we're still on a lease, but if the right circumstances come along we'll probably jump on it - and, if necessary, break current lease. By the way, we have sought help from management, yet again, but let's be realistic, there's only so much management can do or, after so much, will be willing to do.
Also, do understand that we are not completely naive. Of course there will always be some kinds of noise, especially in condos and apartments. When we talk about "quiet," we're talking about the kind of quiet that's free from "abusive" noise...the sort caused intentionally by rude people.
This post was deleted for the following reason: AskMe can help you find resources, but it's not Craigslist and can't really be used for this. Feel free to rephrase and ask next week? -- jessamyn
Irvine Apartment Communities is one-stop shopping for a very specific thing: all the apartment complexes in Irvine. All of them. There literally isn't an apartment complex in the city that isn't run by the Irvine Company.
The complexes have a wide range of styles -- true complexes, or complexes that are really condo conversions. The IAC makes shopping really easy.
IAC is really what you're looking for when it comes to quiet and no drama. However, as a landlord, the IAC can only be described as "fascist." Let's just say that the trains run on time.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:12 PM on September 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
The complexes have a wide range of styles -- true complexes, or complexes that are really condo conversions. The IAC makes shopping really easy.
IAC is really what you're looking for when it comes to quiet and no drama. However, as a landlord, the IAC can only be described as "fascist." Let's just say that the trains run on time.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:12 PM on September 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by blob at 5:45 PM on September 15, 2011