Whether movie stars, traffic snarls, or juice bars come to mind when you think of Los Angeles, CA, the reality is, there’s a lot to love about living in the City of Angels. And L.A. lovers say it lives up to the hype.It’s such an amazing, collaborative city for independent artists and small business owners,” says lifestyle photographer Jeff Mindell, who has lived in Los Angeles with his wife for five years and hopes to buy his first house buying in the next several months. “You really can’t beat it. I wake up every day so happy to live here.” L.A.-based creative director Whitney Leigh Morris, who posts about living in a tiny Venice Beach cottage on Instagram, agrees. “I’ve lived in many other cities, big and small, United States and abroad,” she says, “And I came back to L.A.”But there is a downside to living in a city where everyone wants to be: Whether you rent or own, Los Angeles is a particularly challenging (and competitive!) real estate market. We chatted with Morris and Mindell to get a sense of what it’s really like to find a place to live in La-La Land—these are their 10 best tips to keep in mind when you’re hunting for houses for sale in Los Angeles.
A natural setting and walkability were at the top of the list for Morris when she was house hunting in Los Angeles. “We looked at about 30 houses before we decided to go with this one,” she says. “We knew we wanted to stay in Venice. We walk everywhere, we bike everywhere. It’s just a beautiful place to live.”Real estate, like marriage, is all about the compromise. But you have to start somewhere, and that somewhere means daydreaming about all the things you want in a home and then whittling that list down to the bare essentials. This is your list of must-haves, and it’s an important tool to help you sift through listings to find only the houses you’re truly interested in — from price range to location to the number of bathrooms. This narrow focus can give you a competitive edge, freeing you up to take fast action, especially in a hot market, where homes (especially starter homes) can go under contract in hours instead of days or weeks.I think it’s a huge accomplishment when you are finally able to buy a home, in LA or otherwise,” says Mindell. But he admits it might be a slightly bigger accomplishment here, considering the competitive nature of real estate in Los Angeles. “We’re being super-realistic. We know we’re not buying our dream home.”
But even with some compromises, he’s excited to get started. “My wife and I are both not really afraid of projects,” he says. “So we’re definitely leaning in the direction of our first home being a fixer, then working on those projects.” This way, the couple can be flexible on price, spend a little less than if they were buying move-in ready, and make the home their own.