Should I give Westside Rentals my hard-earned money or not?

October 18, 2007 3:54 PM

Angelenos: Westside Rentals- worth it or not?

I'm moving to LA in December, and I'm hearing many conflicting reports about whether or not it's worth it to pony up the bucks for a membership.

So what say you, hive mind? Is it a scam, or an indispensable apartment hunting tool? What have your experiences been with the company?

posted by MiaWallace to computers & internet (14 comments total)

No.
posted by The World Famous at 3:55 PM on October 18, 2007

See, I know a fair number of people who swear by it, but those people seem to be a combination of rich folks and idiots. The rich folks don't know that it's not a good bargain, and the idiots, well, they're idiots.

We found a pretty decent place on the west side by doing that old-fashioned legwork of calling management companies and seeing what they had, then visiting the apartments.

I mean, using a friend of my girlfriend's account, the closest place that matched our criteria woulda been, like, Burbank. Instead, here we are.
posted by klangklangston at 3:59 PM on October 18, 2007

Well, it's certainly not an actual scam -- it does, in fact, have real apartment listings -- but it's not really necessary, either. I got my first apartment in L.A. via Westside rentals when I first moved to town, but I found my subsequent places either via Craigslist, or by going street-by-street in the neighborhood I wanted to live in and just following up on any "for rent" signs on buildings that looked promising.
posted by scody at 4:02 PM on October 18, 2007

I think it used to be pretty much essential if you were looking for an apartment (rather than a room), but now I think that almost everything gets posted on Craigslist.
posted by thehmsbeagle at 4:06 PM on October 18, 2007

It is worth if it you are coming from far away and are not able or willing to do your own on-the-ground searching. It's a good aggregator, but skillful Craigslist reading, googling for management companies in the neighborhood you want to live in, and newspaper ad reading will yield the same results. Westside Rentals gets most of their content from these sources; they do have some exclusive listings, but it's not even half of the total content. They seem to have an issue with purging their lists, so some of the places you see listed there have already been rented (some stay in their DB for years!).

Put it this way: I moved to LA from the midwest after spending 48 hours total in the city. I'd never had to search for an apartment on my own before, ever. I was able to find a decent place without using WR.
posted by holyrood at 4:29 PM on October 18, 2007

3rding Craigslist.
posted by MaxK at 4:30 PM on October 18, 2007

Every company I found through Westsiderentals cross-posted to craigslist, so I never found them useful, but my girlfriend loves WR, and she has found the best deals on the best places of anyone I know in LA. I think it's just luck. Craigslist requires sifting through more dreck, but it has the same lists.

I've had good luck in the past by driving around the areas I like and getting the numbers for the management companies that have buildings in the area. They usually manage multiple buildings in the same area of the same quality, and can provide me with listings and descriptions. If you know anyone here who has a decent idea of your taste, they might be able to help you with that.

You might also be able to google for property management plus the area you're looking in.
posted by Pacrand at 5:50 PM on October 18, 2007

Curbed LA asked the same thing recently.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 6:16 PM on October 18, 2007

forget weside rentals. that site was cool before craigslist came around and there really wasn't another option. now it's just an outdated paysite. you don't need it.

go to the UCLA and USC housing offices, claim to be a student and get a list of rentals. scour craigslist. you'll be fine.
posted by krautland at 6:31 PM on October 18, 2007

I think it depends on how much time you're willing to put into searching for housing. I needed to move quickly, paid for an account and setup the site to send me emails when listings meeting my criteria were posted. Those emails go out within minutes of posting and several landlords told me that I was their first call and that they had 'just hit submit'.

The result of this was that I wound up moving into a place that was scheduled for an open house that weekend days before I would have even seen it had I relied on Craig's List. $60 was worth it to save myself days of hassle.
posted by rollo tomassi at 8:01 PM on October 18, 2007

I had good luck with Westside Rentals, though it was about 7 years ago or so. The main thing that was helpful for me was being able to search for pet-friendly listings in specific areas. It really cut down on the legwork/phone calls at the time, but doubt I would use it if I was looking today.
posted by FuzzyVerde at 8:03 PM on October 18, 2007

Not worth it. Tried it in August while looking myself and it definitely isn't the same it was four or five years ago. Many of the rentals haven't been updated for months.

Save your money for rent. Craigslist is the way to go.
posted by ryecatcher at 11:57 PM on October 18, 2007

Thanks to all... looks like I'll be sticking to Craigslist. My wallet also thanks you :)
posted by MiaWallace at 12:29 AM on October 19, 2007

Yea, this helps me out too, i'm moving back to Cali on the 30th and have been stalking craigslist for an apartment, but have had only a few callbacks, i'll plan on spending a few days in a motel now.
posted by Derek at 9:35 AM on October 19, 2007