This Apartment Hunting App Is Our New Favorite Life Hack

The beaches, the biz, and the year round sunshine easily round out our favorite reasons for living in Los Angeles. But what really binds us as a community of southern California urbanites are the gripes, the pet peeves, the OMG-JUST-KILL-ME moments that interject and affect us in an otherwise blissful existence. Topping THAT list are, as follows:

#1: Traffic

#2: Parking Enforcement

#3: Apartment Hunting

Unless you're commuting via private helicopter, we can’t see any way around the first two. But a company is looking to tackle the latter—and we think it's about time. Lovely recently launched a free iPhone app that streamlines the rental market for both tenants and landlords, connecting home hunters with spaces that fit their needs. The app processes more than 1.5 million listings each month, and they're helping to convert a third of those finds into leases.

Intrigued? So were we. We chatted with one of the reps from Lovely's home base in San Francisco, who gave us the low down on the app’s features (which you should totally check out here) as well as some super valuable insight about our own city to keep in mind as we move—which neighborhoods are most affordable, which types of apartments give you the most bang for your buck, and which to avoid at all costs.

With that info, we went ahead and put together the Broke Girl’s Guide to renting in LA.

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