The Internet was / is designed to shorten the distance between people.
( The downfall of Apartments dot Com )

 

On the internet buyers and sellers meet up easier.  Apartments dot com has tried to be a bully like Bill Gates and his Microsoft monster that buys out the competition and takes it all over for monopolistic power.  Costar the owner of Apartments dot com has done a rather good job of buying all the competition in this niche of apartment hunting.

 

The niche of bringing Tenants and Housing Providers together.  The biggest one in the local Los Angeles market was Westside Rentals.  Westside Rentals only charged the renters a small fee for a small window of time.  A reasonable 3 month period that any serious prospective renter could get their search done within.  AND the product that they offered was a very wide array of properties listed by Willing Housing Providers.  ( Us Landlords )

 

In the good old days, us Apartment Building owners and Managers uploaded our data with copious detail to get viewed by a large base of serious housing shoppers.  Very serious shoppers, as they paid the fee to see our data.  That was not that long ago.

 

That is Now Upended.  Apartments dot com now has plans to Charge outrageous fees to the small property owners and independents.  Non of these small businesses have the budget for the outrageous fees.  So the Wild, Wild West of the Internet is changing again!

 

So Tenants... People seeking housing  out there... Look on MORE sites than the stuff owned by CoStar / Apartments dot com.   Yes they have slick TV Adverts.  But the Data for anything other than the most expensive big new shiny building will be very thin.

 

Go back to using a Search Engine to find the property or Property Management company in the area you want to live.  Call the Property Management company directly. 

 

Search "Zillow" and "Zumper" and "CraigsList" and "Next Door" or maybe even (god forbid) "Facebook Marketplace."   But whatever you do... Do not assume that Apartments dot com has the best rental rate or the best apartment options.

 

They have forgotten who provides them the product they sell.  The housing provider does.  We are by and large moving on.  Yes the Internet is a Wild West.  There are More Options just a click away.  And Yes there is more than one search engine too.

 

They think that they have cornered the market.  Surprise.  The Wild Internet does not have neat little corners.  And no matter how much they pay an actor or for TV air time, there is room for another web site on the web.

 

Search... "Single, Santa Monica, Affordable, For Rent" and see what you get as a result.  Oh and use more than the first 3 or 4 results.  The more words you use the more the results matter for you.  Adjust as needed.  1 bedroom etc.

 

Good Luck in your search on the Web.  For a home or a car or a new Boyfriend/Girlfriend it helps if you use a wide net with multiple search terms to find the one you really like.

 

And be patient in your search for the right Place/Thing/Price.

 

Good Luck.  It is just as hard for you to find a Good Apartment as it is for the Housing Provider (us landlords) to find a good tenant.

Sincerely,

Keith Lambert
Property Manager and Housing Provider in SM for over 30 years.
310-437-0677