I made the mistake of having my MC be good at numbers and calculations, and I never had to count more than four when I was in a band. To get the story going, she has to get a job before she can't make rent anymore, and Google tells me that the average apartment in LA might cost you $2,000 a month. Now, being Dutch, this sounds a little steep to me. For 2,000 you'd be living pretty large, and definitely in an actual house with a yard, even with the housing crisis. This leads me to believe that Google and I are having a communication problem. An apartment is probably not what I think it is, and the square footage I was shown (610 ft) is something the average Dutch person would sell their mother for. So, I have quickly drawn up a layout of the apartment my MC lives in, hoping that some of you might have an estimate on rent. - The square footage I've decided on is very Dutch, so that's open for discussion. - Location can be anywhere. Not downtown, though. But not inconveniently out of the way either. Just... okay living. - The neighborhood the apartment building is in is nice. There's no risk of finding a hobo on the porch and you don't have to worry about your purse on the way home. - The building has an elevator. - The apartment itself would be considered nice by most people. Or, to make it easier, though I'm looking into it myself: Can you get respectable living for about a 1000? If any more information helps, I can make it up as needed. Apartment attached (I hope), obviously not to scale.
$2000? Maybe in the ghetto. You can barely get a studio apartment where I live for that price. I've never been to LA, but if it's anything like the East Coast, minimum of $3-4K to live anywhere halfway decent for anything larger than a closet. Where are you getting 183 sq ft for a 2 bedroom? That's about the size of a small kitchen. My office at home where I'm sitting is 13 x 13 for 169 square, and this is a small office in a small house. If characters describe the apartment and the area as nice in a major US city, $2K might get you a tool shed. And California is about as expensive as it gets.
That is mad. I can't even grasp that now you're saying it. Is that at least all in, or will utilities be on top of that? 2000 dollars is roughly the same in euros, and for that kind of money you can expect some very upscale living. Hell, my girl and I live in an actual grown-up corner house and we pay 500-ish. Sure, some tricks have been pulled, but without it would be 1000 max. (Mortgage, not rent.) At this point I'm ashamed to say, really. It's the square footage of my old apartment, and if I hadn't shacked up with my girl, I would still be living there because it was great. Sure, I had to pay 800 euros for it, which was even steep by Dutch standards (then), but it was smack dab in the middle of town. Two rooms, didn't have to share a bathroom. I think by now the landlord will have pushed the rent up to over a 1000. Well, this might be the first time shitty prices work in my favor then. It won't be hard to make people believe MC is having trouble making rent. So, unrelated to my story, but the contrast is fascinating. How do people do it over there? Like, 2k is a month's pay for many people here. How do people even manage to do groceries after rent? Or maintain a car to get to the grocery store?
LA is very expensive, more expensive than pretty much anywhere else except maybe NY. it does of course depend where. A shitty walk up down in south central with crack house next door will be significantly less than a condo in Bel Air for an apartment downtown $2k is very low … I’d say twice that maybe. @EFMingo is your man for detail since he is out there as to how people make it salaries generally reflect it in professional roles. lAPD for example start a patrolman on $88k in the blue collar jobs that don’t you have to live in the aforementioned shitty areas
LA is an animal to survive in financially. Im in San Diego and that's not better. I lived in apartments in the crap end of town for sub 2k a month almost a decade ago. It's doubled. Honestly, in areas like that, it's just more feasible to go for property ownership even in the relative short term. Even a one bedroom in anywhere safe enough to live is going to be upwards of 350 to 400k with a 5% at minimum interest rate on the loans. Probably more like 6 to 7. That's looking at 2.5 to 3k a month before utilities, but including tax and insurance. Much more reasonable than 4k a month for the same thing unowned. That's living out here. It's the wild west of real estate. If you have any very specific questions, feel free to ask here or in private. I love talking about property. Going for my first pure rental property probably starting next year, on top of the normal home and vacation one out of state. But seriously. Renting is a siphon that's harder to stop flowing the longer you wait, that actively kills you the older you get.
In Europe and the UK, that's perfectly possible as an apartment size. Years ago, I lived in one abot that size.
Yeah, but his Floorplan had bedrooms and stuff. That was throwing me off. I still can't picture it. Where do you put the shower, guitars, wife, and shit?
The floorplan has a bathroom on the right. I assume a bathroom is an all-in-one, i.e. a bath, a shower, a toilet, and the usual sink etc. -- so, that bathroom is where the shower (and shit) would be. Guitars can go in the "living space" (in the middle). There are two bedrooms, so wifey can have her own bedroom if she wants one. If she's happy to share (after all, why not?), then the second bedroom can become a study. (That's what I've done with my two bedroom apartment). Wow. EFMingo, I bought my two-bedroom apartment (and put down a deposit on it) back in 2003 or so. Back then, this apartment cost me roughly $350K (including tax). Since then, the price of a two-bedroom in my area (i.e. St Kilda, which is near the inner City, here in Melbourne (the capital city of Victoria, Australia, with about 6 million people) ... anyway, it's has gone up and down. I recall that it spiraled to near 600K before settling back down, but the average price is roughly still $550K. (Looks like I did well). Some apartments here have a much higher asking price; St Kilda is a large suburb, so some apartments hover around the 450-550K area, while others (near the beach or nearer the City) are 700-800K or even more. I saw one apartment selling for nearly $2 million, which is incredibly unusual. (You could get a house in St Kilda for that much). So yes, I can easily imagine a one-bedroom for $350-400K. By the way: idly flicking through the flats, I found this two-bedroom St Kilda flat that sold ... for $25,000. I looked at it to see if I could spot anything unusual; it wasn't a murder house, not that I'm aware of. It's very close to the beach and schools. Carpets underfoot, blinds, walk-in robes, AC, kitchen (with dishwasher), bathroom (with double-sized shower, full-size bath), and separate WC ... and two bedrooms... for 25K. I give up! The owner must be a masochist with a taste for philanthropy. What do you think?
No, I actually converted it to feet. It's about 55 square meters, but if I'm not mistaken, which I might be, the bathroom area isn't included in that. I could probably live in your closet and feel like I made it big. Yeah, same here, but an average job that gets most people through life here is probably what you'd consider underpaid. When asked what we think we should earn here, we generally speak on a per month basis, sometimes even per hour. So calculating back, that comes to about 7300 a month. Compare that to the monthly salary of our police force, and keep in mind that isn't starting, but average: 3300. For the people who need to keep us safe, get assaulted when trying to do their job, and let's not get into the one time a year when the Dutch have access to fireworks. Next time I see one wailing on a protester, I'm just gonna pat him on the back. "Yeah, let it all out, buddy. Need a hug?" If I come up with actual substantial questions, I'll give you a holler, thanks. For now I'm just amazed at the differences. Yah. Renting is just pouring money into a bottomless pit. Unfortunately, buying isn't really an option for most people. Getting a loan isn't that impossible, but a loan high enough for something more than a garage (oh, we mortgage garages alright, just garages) will require you to make the sort of money you don't get at the age you should be buying. Picture what you probably got, but as a plastic house in the backyard where your kids play. You thought that 183 ft up there was bad? When I started out, I lived on 82 square feets with my then girlfriend and a chinchilla in a big ass cage. I could literally make lunch, play guitar, and take my first tentative steps on that newfangled internet without getting out of bed. Had to share facilities, too. Which is no fun at all if you have an Indian guy using the same toilet... and who later turned out to have a record for sexual assault. Anyway, the floorplan up there is just spitballing. It had to have two bedrooms because two non-intimate people live there. The all-in-one bathroom is just there because I had space left over. And I think there might be some leftovers from watching decades of Friends reruns. Either way, it's something I'd move into in a heartbeat. Not for 2k, though. Which, going all the way back to the actual story, it sort of was. Not a study, but the second bedroom was being used as a walk-in closet, until MC asked her friend to move in for financial reasons that now make a whole lot more sense.
In the UK the house I’m renting is about 400sq ft plus the garden ( it is quite run down though and in the middle of nowhere) I pay £725 a month ( which is about 900 dollars I think)
I'm in New York right now, lying on the bed in my hotel with a full view of the Empire state building in NOMAD. There are three apartment buildings in my POV with signs big enough to Google. 400ish sq ft studios are about $4500 - $6000. And that is reasonable for midtown NYC. Crazy, but you can't beat the view.
It's not run down, it has character. And character is a hundred quid extra. Unless you're in that little thing in front of the Empire State Building. And by the looks of it, that would probably still be considered tall here.
No, no, no. *shakes head* Character is for -- well -- characters. The phrase you're looking for is "Fixer-upper". "Quaint". "Charming". "Original Tudor". (At least, that's what a less-than-honest real estate agent would call it. In real life, finding an 'original Tudor' house is almost impossible, though there are exceptions. Like these.)
Okay. I'm not insane. Was going to say no way in hell you can have a 2 bedroom for 183', but didn't want to sound like a stupid(er) American. Your rent just doubled @Bakkerbaard.
Yeah, looks like the draft alone is gonna cost you a "quaint" 500. Ah. I would just like to point out that I am a writer and not a mathematician for a reason. Still weird to me that telling Google to change the Dutch numbers into American numbers gives me, like, feckin Greek numbers or something. Don't worry. Dutch people are stupid too. We're usually just better at doing it in private. ;o) To add insult to my injury: My MC is a math genius. Or, was, I'm starting to think now.
Probably did. Why do you think people in the past had wood fires in every room? Unfortunately, the chimneys didn't work all that well, even in palaces. Imagine The Mask in the Tudor era ... smokin'.
Dude, screw LA rent. We gotta get on this. If some schmo can sell Son Of The Mask, we can pitch that idea and earn enough to afford, like, a garage in LA!
Ah, yes. The Mask in a ruff, doublet and hose! Or maybe one of the Yeomen Warders. Good morrow unto thee, Master Lieutenant of the Tower. Officer Stanleah Ipkysse, reporting for duty, sir! Good morrow and at ease, Officer Ipkysse. First day, is it?
Storywise, I'm just not pinpointing anything. In fact, I'm holding off on actually even saying California unless I absolutely have to. I've picked California for myself, so I could ask more specific questions and if I really, really need to, boot up GTA and figure out... uh... How to get run over, I suppose.
GTA is a very miniaturized distortion of the entirety of LA county. An okayish place to start, I guess.
I'm also writing an LA story (actually a trilogy) I started with blogs, books, and the internet... GTA's not generally going to be all that good a guide to the geography or lay out
