<p>Thanks. Did message D about Westside Rentals. Haven’t heard from her so will wait till she makes contact.</p>
<p>I worked for Westside rentals. I wouldn’t recommend them</p>
<p>Thanks–any particular reason you don’t recommend them?</p>
<p>Read my post upthread about Craigslist. Here’s the thing, Westside Rentals can be an excellent proposition for those unfamiliar with the area. However, the site is absolutely hideous (even the regional reps joked about how ugly it was) and the sorting features aren’t the greatest. Since your daughter went to USC, she could probably couch surf for a few days while checking out places that she found on Craigslist, and then determine which ones she likes the best.</p>
<p>If she is interested in using Westside Rentals and wants to get an idea of “safe places” around USC, she could call them, and the people on the phones are required to do a search for her, and from there will tell her how many fit the price as well as which ones are in places where muggings aren’t the norm. Then if she’s still interested, she can sign up for the service to view the actual addresses. </p>
<p>You may also want to read the largely negative reviews online about Westside Rentals. Many of them match up to my experiences with the site.</p>
<p>While I’d agree that the Westside Rentals website isn’t great, nor frankly is their “customer service”. That said, D DID find both her apartments through them, even while conducting parallel searches via craigslist and driving around, other websites, etc.</p>
<p>It’s also true that she had no real contacts in the area so it’s a fair point to say it may be more helpful to people like my D (and me) who were more familiar with the neighborhoods, commuting patterns, etc.</p>
<p>She certainly found the access to the additional listings to be valuable. I guess I’d conduct my search on all fronts I could. We really missed the fabulous agent-based search D did in Chicago when she went there for grad school. It was free, they drove us around, and had zillions of listings! Couldn’t find anything like that in LA.</p>
<p>Well, D is renting a room in a house, month to month while she ponders her next steps. It is reasonable, on the ok side near USC and includes all utilities. </p>