<p>^^^^ yes</p>
<p>Project 2 when we arrive. Hitting up Carmax.</p>
<p>I don’t know if she’d be interested but there are sometimes UCLA students, including grad students, in off-campus apartments near UCLA (walking distance) looking for roommates. UCLA is fairly close to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica and is in a nice part of town. Rooming with a grad student (med student, law student, other) might not be bad - assuming she’s considering a roommate situation.</p>
<p>Definitely Craig’s List and Westside Rentals. You might want to check out the area adjacent to Beverly Hills – north of the 10 freeway and southeast of Beverly Hills. That area is less money than Hollywood, but is easily accesible to a lot of the areas Ellebud mentioned in her post. Ads will say “Beverly Hills adjacent” for this area.</p>
<p>Just a warning, commuting to the Westside from the Valley will be horrible. There are quite a few nice resaurants in Los Feliz and Hollywood just over the hill from NoHo. </p>
<p>As for the Westside, you can find reasonable rents in Palms, and the generic west Los Angeles. But if she ends up looking for smaller units, i would stick to NoHo. Though you can find some decent rents in Thai Town, just stay north of Hollywood.</p>
<p>We used Westside Rentals and found them reliable. My son recently relocated to San Francisco and I would suggest your D consider first staying in a “landing pad” for a month or two while she gets herself settled, maybe finds a waitressing gig and knows more about where she’ll need to commute to. He used Air B’nB and Craigslist to find roommate spots by the month and it worked out great. Don’t know what may be available in the Valley, but she could check. Also, the Oakwood Apartment Complex in Burbank (near Universal) is used by many relocating Industry folks. Pricey, but furnished and would only be for a month to get her going.</p>
<p>Years ago when I moved to L.A., I went to the housing office at UCLA and found a roommate wanted posting and moved into a nice apartment with a grad student roommate in Valley Village (next to Studio City). I waitressed. I got my start in Hollywood. Good times. </p>
<p>Best of luck to your D.</p>
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<p>This is exactly what I did when I was moving off of campus owned housing in Pasadena. Craigslist ads were usually a bit misleading, and Westside Rentals was a waste of money. I just chose an area of the city I felt was appropriate (I wanted walking distance, so up to 1.5 miles away from my office), and spent a weekend driving up and down all of the streets that fit my criteria.</p>
<p>I will reiterate: commuting from the valley to the westside during rush hour is a bear. Not 30 minutes as the crow flies. Your daughter may spend 50 minutes for a 30 minute commute. Do not discount the westside. She will be spending a lot on gas…so factor that into the mix…and a lot of time not going anywhere.</p>
<p>I agree with ellebud. West LA just west of the 405 between Olympic and Wilshire has a ton of apartment buildings. The prices vary widely. There are many small apartment buildings that have no amenities. Meaning the building will not be security nor will the parking. They won’t have a pool or washer/dryer in the unit. They are still safe and less expensive. One street I know of to look on is Barrington between Santa Monica Blvd and Wilshire. Plus the parallel streets. Also Palms (as TrojanChick mentioned) and Culver City will be less expensive.
If she gets totally lucky she might be able to get a room in a low rent controlled apartment in Santa Monica.
The Westside would be a good location for high volume waitressing jobs.</p>
<p>I appreciate the concern for her commute time, but seeing that we live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and she goes into the city at least three times a week now, she is all too familiar with traffic and commutes. </p>
<p>The only things she has put on her ‘requirement’ list is available parking (not necessarily assigned parking) and laundry on premises. Otherwise, she’s open to anything.</p>
<p>Also, I think she is picking the areas she is because that’s where she already has friends and since she’s going out alone, she does want to be within somewhat reasonable distance from any social contacts, too.</p>
<p>Absolutely…friends are extremely important.</p>
<p>Can she room with friends rather than going it alone?</p>