Help with my housing expectations in Santa Monica

Artereis

I've been looking at what's available for housing in Santa Monica via West Side Rentals, Padmapper and Zillow. These are my wants:

• Space to work from home (2BR minimum)
• Must allow cats (we have 2 yearlings)
• Lets me keep my grill

Are these all reasonable together? In Virginia, before we lived in this townhouse, the condo we rented did not allow grills. Is that normal over there for any housing that doesn't have a bit of land or a rooftop patio? We're trying to keep our rent under 3k as our after tax income is about 105k. My wife would like to not have to drive to her office, if possible.

kaliyama

What can we tell you that the market won't tell you? You're likelier to find that in Venice or the SMC area than north of Wilshire or main street. You might also look in west la west of the 405 and marina del Rey.

kaliyama

What can we tell you that the market won't tell you? You're likelier to find that in Venice or the SMC area than north of Wilshire or main street. You might also look in west la west of the 405 and marina del Rey.

NotYou

Yea that's reasonable for 3k, you should be fine.

Artereis

Thanks. What I've found so far is very few places have very informative pictures on their listings of any outdoor space is available unless it has some kind of yard. After waiting seven years to have a grill again, it would be a little disappointing to have to give it up so soon.

NotYou

Artereis wrote: »

Thanks. What I've found so far is very few places have very informative pictures on their listings of any outdoor space is available unless it has some kind of yard. After waiting seven years to have a grill again, it would be a little disappointing to have to give it up so soon.

Well "outdoor space" might be not what you expect. Lots of places will have balconies where you can put a grill. My place is courtyard style so people can have their bbq's in the shared space.

As a note, I pay a bit over 2k for a three bedroom in playa del rey.

Pacificstar

I recently went through the apartment hunt myself in the Santa Monica/ Brentwood area. My experience has been that online listings are pretty shitty. You're better off driving to an area you like, parking your car, and start calling numbers listed in front of buildings. Your budget should be totally doable for what you want though, including the grill.

Artereis

Good to know. We'll want to waste as little time as possible while we're there since we're on the opposite coast. How long did it take you to find a place @Pacificstar?

Pacificstar

I came to town for 3 days, and found a place by the end of the three days. A 2 bedroom in Brentwood at around 2250 a month. Craigslist was a joke though. The only thing that worked was staying with a friend and calling the # on every building that looked decent.

Artereis

We flew out this past weekend and pretty much have a place. Ended up just barely outside of Santa Monica. Anyone know any FLGS in West LA?

NotYou

These guys are nice. Then head over next door to the bigfoot lounge for a drink!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/game-play-los-angeles

kaliyama

aero hobbies is the west LA game store but it's not very good (it's not bad, just mediocre). if you want to meet some cool gamers check out this LARP - http://www.starshipvalkyrie.com/

Pacificstar

Awesome! Glad to hear you found a place