I'm looking for a service that can help me locate an apartment rental
that meets my needs here in Southern California (Los Angeles/Orange
County area).  I want to be able to tell the service exactly what I'm
looking for, have them do the work in locating possibilities, and then
present me with the options.  Does such a service exist?

nerv-ga:

Thank you for your Question, I am happy to provide you with the
following Answer.

Summary:
--------

The type of service you are looking for is known as either a
relocation service, or a rental accommodations broker. There are
several serving the Los Angeles/Orange County area that you can choose
from. All of them can provide you with consulting services to help you
determine your needs, then perform the search for you and present you
with your options.

Details and Links:
------------------

Apartment Hunters claims to be the best overall provider of relocation
services in the Los Angeles area. You can take a look at their
self-serve listings as a guest, or register for their service in order
to have one-on-one consultations with one of their relocation
specialists:

http://www.4rentinla.com/


RelocationCentral operates nationally, including in the Los
Angeles/Orange County area. They provide apartment search services via
e-mail or phone. You can provide your requirements through an online
form at their website:

http://www.relocationcentral.com


Many real estate agents/agencies also offer rental search services, as
the larger ones will often represent clients with rental properties.
One such example in the Los Angeles/Orange County area is Michael
Stark of Metro Realty:

http://www.neorealestate.com/Default.htm


If you are looking for a furnished or short-term rental only, then
consider a property management broker such as
FurnishedApartmentsLA.com:

http://www.furnishedapartmentsla.com/

---------------------------

Search Strategy

relocation service "los angeles" "orange county"
://www.google.com/search?q=relocation+service+"los+angeles"+"orange+county"


apartment rental search "los angeles" "orange county"
://www.google.com/search?q=apartment+rental+search+%22los+angeles%22+%22orange+county%22


---------------------------

I hope that this Answer meets your needs. Please let me know if you
require any clarification, and good luck with the apartment search!

Regards,

aht-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by nerv-ga on 09 Sep 2003 12:06 PDT

thanks for taking my question.  sorry it has taken me so long to
reply, i have been out of town.

i was hoping to find someone, or a service, that would be very
familiar with the locations i'm interested in, those being whittier,
sierra madre, south pasadena, pasadena, and altadena (all in
california),someone who would then be able to find a place for me
based on my criteria.  for example, i could tell them i'm looking for
1 bed/1 bath, in a one story building that is a
cottage/guesthouse/duplex/quadplex/flat...no apartment buildings, no
section 8, etc.  i would tell them where i wanted to live...quiet area
with charm, trees, near the hills etc. and they would look around for
me and tell me what they come up with.  although helpful, the links
you provided didn't seem to offer this detailed of service.  maybe i'm
asking too much?  any ideas?  thanks much.

---

Clarification of Answer by aht-ga on 09 Sep 2003 23:16 PDT

nerv-ga:

All of the services listed should be able to take your detailed
request by phone and/or web form, and attempt to action it. The only
problem will be whether there are any apartments available for rent
that match all of your desires.

For the level of detail you are looking for, your best option is to
directly contact a local real estate agency such as Metro Realty (
http://www.neorealestate.com ). The next best option is Apartment
Hunters, through their one-on-one consultations. They will have the
most detailed level of local knowledge in some or all of your desired
regions.

Given your criteria, a face-to-face, or at least live over the
telephone, conversation is recommended so that you can specify both
what you are looking for, and also the priority of each criterion.
Chances are you will need to trade one criterion off another to
achieve the best compromise of cost versus features. The live
consultation capabilities of either a real estate agent or a
consultant (such as those available through Apartment Hunters) is
necessary to even begin to approach what you are looking for.

You should also be prepared to pay for such a service, as they will be
doing quite a bit of work for you (saving you a lot of time and
anguish in the process, of course).

I hope that this clarification helps, and I strongly urge you to
contact one or all of the listed services to see which one you are
most comfortable in dealing with at a personal level.

Regards,

aht-ga

Thanks for the answer aht-ga.  I appreciate it.