Fed up with L.A.'s housing market, renters are turning to savvy apartment scouts for help

Anna Katherine Scanlon was having sushi successful Marina Del Rey erstwhile she received an urgent substance from her champion friend.

“Just saw different spot that was awful.”

Scanlon’s champion friend, who was moving backmost to L.A. from Texas, had been flat hunting for implicit a period and her moving deadline was creeping up.

In betwixt bites of salmon nigiri, Scanlon began scrolling done flat listings connected her telephone and came crossed a 1920s workplace flat successful Los Feliz that she knew her champion person would swoon over.

“I sent it to her and was similar ‘This is fabulous,’” she says. “I’m going to circuit it immediately.”

Scanlon, an L.A.-based filmmaker who besides works astatine a nonprofit, hopped into her car to spot the rental, which had Art Deco tile, beauteous earthy light, tons of retention and a stunning presumption of Griffith Observatory — a “rare find” for $1,900 successful the sought-after neighborhood, Scanlon says. She sent a elaborate video circuit to her champion friend, who applied instantly and signed the lease a fewer days later.

On the thrust home, Scanlon, 33, had a airy bulb moment: “What I emotion doing is thing astir radical find wholly overwhelming and exhausting,” she says. She could crook her knack for flat hunting into thing more.

So aft uncovering apartments for respective different friends (not to notation a dreamy 1927 storybook flat successful Echo Park for herself) and gathering a pursuing connected TikTok by posting flat tours, Scanlon launched an flat scouting business, LA Apartment Scout. She helps her engaged clients find historic, characterful homes successful L.A. wrong their budget.

She’s portion of a rising radical of flat scouts — not licensed existent property agents, but savvy entrepreneurs who circuit apartments, stock videos connected societal media and, successful immoderate cases, enactment one-on-one with clients to find a spot that fits their circumstantial aesthetic and budget.

Unlike brokers — licensed professionals who enactment arsenic intermediaries betwixt landlords and tenants, commonly utilized successful the apartment-hunting process successful places similar New York City, Boston and Austin, Texas, scouts run extracurricular the ceremonial lodging system. They aren’t connected to spot owners and they don’t grip applications oregon negotiations. Instead, they enactment arsenic integer lookouts who hunt for coveted vintage apartments that are different hard to find without expertise.

The request for flat scouts highlights the pressures of L.A.’s competitory rental market, wherever vacancy is scarce and rental rates are among the highest successful the country. According to Apartments.com, mean rent for a one-bedroom flat successful L.A. was $2,182 arsenic of May, which is 33% higher than the nationalist mean rent terms of $1,642.

“To immoderate extent, it reflects a dysfunctional lodging market,” said Richard Kent Green, manager of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. “It’s precise hard for radical to hunt and find what they’re looking for astatine the terms they’re looking for, dissimilar galore markets wherever it’s beauteous straightforward.”

Apartment-scouting services thin to beryllium particularly appealing to younger Angelenos who consciousness priced retired of homeownership, but inactive privation spaces that bespeak their personalities and tastes, alternatively than the progressively communal modular modern unit.

“There are tons of radical who privation to unrecorded successful a location that reflects the quality of the city, the beauty, glamour and drama, that is creatively inspiring oregon conscionable cozy, unique, has character— not grey laminate floors,” Scanlon says.

Those seeking a scout mightiness besides beryllium surviving retired of municipality oregon simply excessively engaged to endlessly hunt rental listing sites, Craigslist, Reddit and Facebook Marketplace, and past circuit properties. One of Scanlon’s clients turned to her for assistance due to the fact that they were finishing their PhD portion getting acceptable for a caller occupation astatine NASA.

Scanlon’s personalized services statesman with a consultation telephone to recognize the client’s needs, past she curates a database of apartments, tours the ones they emotion and provides videos of the abstraction and the surrounding area. Scanlon says she works likewise to a section adept usher and relocation assistant. Since the flat scout marketplace is newer successful Los Angeles, uncovering rates up beforehand tin beryllium hard (Scanlon did not privation to disclose her fees).

Indya Stewart, an interior decorator and flat scout, wrong of a home.

(Gus Acord)

Indya Stewart, 24, of Hollywood is different L.A. flat scout. In precocious April, the interior decorator shared an eight-second TikTok with the words “hidden talent: uncovering chateau benignant apartments successful L.A. for prices that consciousness illegal” and told radical to interaction her if they request assistance uncovering a spot of their own.

“Omg pls enactment maine on,” 1 idiosyncratic commented with an emoji crying face.

“Moving successful the autumn and I neeeeeed u,” different idiosyncratic said.

“Hmmm yes moving to LA successful a period and tin lone unrecorded successful a fairy castle sos,” commented another.

After receiving a flood of messages from people, she decided that alternatively of responding to each idiosyncratic individually, she would stock her flat picks connected her interior plan website. The database is escaped and is separated by region.

Unlike Scanlon, Stewart doesn’t circuit apartments for people, alternatively she provides a curated database of vintage apartments for radical to browse connected their own.

“I walk truthful overmuch of my escaped clip looking for these places due to the fact that I genuinely emotion the process,” says Stewart, who lives successful a 1920s-style townhouse successful Hollywood. “Sharing them conscionable feels natural.”

Miesha Gantz of East Hollywood pivoted from creation to existent esate.

(From Miesha Gantz)

While galore flat scouts bash the enactment arsenic an autarkic broadside gig, immoderate similar Miesha Gantz of East Hollywood are opening to transverse implicit into the ceremonial existent property industry.

After stepping distant from her nonrecreational creation vocation owed to a monolithic wage cut, Gantz acceptable retired to find a much affordable apartment. Her criteria was specific: A 1920s oregon 1930s Spanish-style workplace with oversize windows, tons of earthy light, a fireplace, hardwood floors and character-rich tile work.

She began posting videos of her apartment-hunting travel connected TikTok and earlier agelong radical were asking her for help. Soon after, Gantz, who has a inheritance successful existent estate, launched a membership-based website called the Hollywood Waitlist, wherever she posts listings of charming, vintage studios and one-bedroom apartments chiefly based successful Hollywood. She updates the website play with homes that are mostly nether $2,500 per month. People tin entree the website for $6 for 1 week and $12 for 1 month.

As her societal media and website gained traction, Gantz got connected with the Rental Girl, a boutique existent property brokerage based successful L.A. and decided to reinstate her existent property license. She precocious started moving for the company’s concierge team, helping clients successful a mode that’s akin to her erstwhile enactment arsenic an flat scout. However, the main quality is that she tin present enactment straight with clients passim the full exertion process and assistance them unafraid the home.

Although uncovering the rental marketplace is highly competitory successful L.A., these flat scouts often foster a consciousness of assemblage online. In TikTok comments, it’s communal for radical to connection tips from their ain apartment-hunting experiences, sharing whether thoroughfare parking is really feasible successful a peculiar neighborhood, if a gathering has a pest contented oregon if a listing cause was rude to them.

“When radical cognize better, they bash better,” says Gantz, who is besides a filmmaker.

It’s worthy noting that scams bash beryllium successful the satellite of rentals, truthful workout caution erstwhile utilizing societal media. As request for flat scouts grows, Scanlon says she hopes others get involved, tackling antithetic niches and neighborhoods.

“I don’t consciousness protective of it astatine all,” she says. “I’d emotion to spot much radical doing this.”