Westside Rentals Empire Expanding
By Victor - Tuesday February 21st 2006 |
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WestsideRentals.com, the 800 lb. gorilla of Los Angeles area rental listings, is expanding, moving its flagship branch into a snazzy new storefront on Wilshire, next door to Temple Bar and the sadly-recently-deceased Anastasia’s Asylum (more on that TK here).
Curiously, the free information pinata and open market of the internet has not extended to the local rental listing market. Despite the advent of Craigslist (or more likely a result thereof), Westside Rentals has maintained a chokehold on the listings market, ostensibly for their ability to prescreen prospective tenants with their $60 membership fee.
While everyone’s got a right to provide a service and make a buck, Westside Rentals business raises some questions. Craigslist has of late cracked down (somewhat) on agency listings masquerading as individual listings, but who hasn’t been tempted by a link or newspaper blurb of that too-good-to-be-true listing that redirects back to Westside Rentals? Who hasn’t investigated the $450 “studio” in Marina Del Rey that turns out to be a docked houseboat? The “charming” $1000 2br/2ba in Beverlywood that may as well have been airlifted and transplanted from Beirut? The $600 Cheviot Hills “garden guesthouse” that turns out to be a glorified toolshed. Obviously the landlord bears responsibility for the description used–but they aren’t the ones charging you 60 bones. And the kicker is, that once you resign yourself to joining up with WSR, you often notice a slight discrepancy between the promising “guest preview” listings and the actual current listings.
Then there’s those three little letters A-D-J you find in listings (not just those on WSR, admittedly–though they certainly have helped to disseminate its misuse) the elastic application of which has distended its meaning beyond any useful description. I’ve seen West L.A. listings that were just blocks west of Cadillac Ave. In the current vernacular, Brentwood ADJ and Beverly Hills ADJ combined basically encompass a quadrant bounded by PCH, Sunset, Venice and La Brea.
More recently, they’ve started hosting these networking parties at their offices, which promise prospective tenants the opportunity to meet landlords. Anyone been to one of these? I’m curious to know what they’re all about. These sound great for property owners to make sure they are renting to the right kind of people. After all, you can only learn so much from one’s last name and credit report.
But setting these quibbles aside, let’s look at the very nature of rental listing-as-proprietary content. From their Terms of Use:
The purchaser of the information further agrees that the information is proprietary to Westside Rental Connection and that any misuse of the information is a breach of this agreement as well as a violation of California law governing trade secrets
A question for our legal eagles out there: What exactly is the basis for Westside Rentals proprietary claims on their listings? Trade secrets seems to be a curious shield behind which to conduct this business. Would it be some kind of infringement for a member to, say, for instance, copy their listings, to say, the comments section of a popular Los Angeles blog? How would that be different from a member sharing a single listing, verbally, with a friend? How about if a few words in a listing were modified?
We’re just thinking out loud here, folks. That’s all. After all, monopolies need to be able to stand up to scrutiny. Chime in with your views on the Westside Rentals.
EPILOGUE: Better Business Bureau grades WestsideRentals.com a “D”
P.S You also say if you dont like it dont pay for it…. that is a dumb remark due to the fact people normaly only find out the service sucks after they part with the money not before..
Clearly, I must have offended you all in some past life and it’s just caught up to me because I do not recall it. lol Yes, “if you don’t like it” (that is, paying the $60 for a service that you can clearly do on your own), than yes, don’t pay for it. It’s not dumb, it’s terse. It’s just logical.
Did you ever attempt to get your money back if you didn’t like the service? Though there is no guarantee on their website, if I recall, I did speak to them regarding the website being “down” for over two weeks and they offered to give me my money back. Again, my experiences are different, but just because I was treated nicely doesn’t mean it’s a terrible service. I’m not looking to move to the LA area, but the outlying areas. So, my experiences are different, right? I’m sorry that moving to LA is just a burden but that’s life in the big city. It’s a lesson best learned early.
Again its a dumb comment atthe time you are offered the service you are clearly lead to believe certain properties advertised are on the up and up once you sin up the brakes go on and everything you see advertised becomes on hold for someone else, the whole show is bogus and bullshit.
Now the dumb comment comes into play, its too late to go back in time and not sign up even though you now know you were better of on your own, and get real on the refund the whole refund policy is designed to leave you with nothing or get you to jump through hoops for months to get it.
Contact me if anyone wants to spilit the cost. We can meet at Westside rentals and get the password together. [email protected]
DO NOT EVEN EMAIL ANY JOKER OR FUCKER THAT ASKS YOU TO “SHARE THE COSTS” OF THE WESTSIDE RENTALS..THEY WILL SCAM YOU!!
They are bastards. Westside Rentals. They truly annoy me. Anytime I see the Westside rental sign on an apartment, I’m like: “Oh well, fuck it”. I had a friend that paid the $60 and didn’t get shit. The best way is NOT craigslist, now that’s just full of overpriced lies (ie: “Silver Lake APT” and when you click on the map it’s Korea Town or East Hollywood). The best way is drive your ass around and find a deal. Not everyone in this city knows that you can charge people $1500 for a one bedroom in the ghetto. And not every landlord is into ripping people off. I have a Studio with HW floors and a backyard for $600 a month in Burbank. (Not the hippest place, but it’s still $300 less than anywhere in my neighborhood) My landlord just doesn’t agree with ripping people off. He’s a sane person. Lazy fuckers put shit on Westside Rentals and jack up the prices to a cool million a month for a “Eagle Rock ADJ” just because they know people are desperate to live in this fucking overpriced city. C’mon, remember when Echo Park used to be a gang battle-ground? Now it’s Hipster Ville and people are selling their souls for a bachalor with shag carpeting. Bastard landlords. Bleeding everyone dry. Anyway, where was I? Just crise around: You’ll find something. That’s my advice.
I was taken by this bunch of assholes, yeh yeh I fell for the hype and flashy adverts, once I paid up I was told one story after another about all the homes I saw advertised that were now on hold, reading these posts makes me now realise how true they are about this company, I am just pissed I was told they were no good but went anyway.
I would have been happier throwing sixty bucks to a charity instead.
Its a shame that WSR sucks so much but people keep throwing money at them.
Craigslist is better but still sucks, Ive seen the same property on two different websites but it was more expensive on CL, maybe because its gets more traffic?
Ive got an idea to the rent problem, everybody take your sixty bucks and send it to me and I will build a time machine. Then we can all go back to the fifties or sixties and buy a house when they were cheap. Problem solved.
Westside service is basicaly useless you will blow all your cash on gas and calls dealing with this company.. Keep your money in your pocket.
[...] all the content on this website, few posts generate as many passionately eloquent arguments as the individual articles regarding Westside Rentals. Every renter in the city has formed a distinct opinion about [...]
[...] all the content on this website, few posts generate as many passionately eloquent arguments as the individual articles regarding Westside Rentals. Every renter in the city has formed a distinct opinion about [...]
The funny thing about this website is that I’ve posted a couple of positive comments about Westside Rentals… and now they are removed. Whoever is running this web site only leaves on negative comments about Westside Rentals, no matter how outrageous and obsured, and leaves out a majotiry of the positive comments. weird
Westside Rentals is a great service. I don’t know what some of you fools are talking about. I found my place in 2 days after trying a month on my own of driving around.
I had a great time using westisde rentals. Moving to Culver City, and eventually to Mar Vista. A few of the places I called were rented, but for the most part the service was good. The beauty is that they have operations on live chat 24/7 and that i can call to get an actual person, and never a machine.
I didn’t find out about westside rentals from a friend, or from their signs. When I moved from Arizona I made the tragic mistake of using two other companies who i won’t mention, but my only good experience came from westsiderentals.com at least for los angeles and santa monica apartments. Look, i’m not saying that 60 bucks is a lot of money, i know it is… but how often does one move? anyway, i paid it and i’m happy… my 2 cents.
westside rentals is really a good website ,especially when it comes to rent apartments in los angeles and santa-monica. Thing that i really liked about this site is that it is updates several times in a day. Also, we are directly connected to a real person not any type of answering machine when we call them.
Information provided on website is really useful and their are some great deals on this website nowadays.
Paying 60$ to westside rentals for registering with them was a really good experience for me. These guys treat their customers really well. Options they provided me to choose my apartment were very vast and I was really impressed with the options they provided me.
I really got my dream apartment that I was looking in LA.
I am one of the landlords who are getting benefits from the westside rentals. Actually, I had some apartments for which I was looking for some tenants , but it was really a hectic procedure. Thanx, to westside rentals , that they had found people for my apartment in less than a week.
Attn plants: Please space out your faked praise comments, if you would. kthxbye
hey john @68 ,,,,r u some kind of blogger on hire whose work is just give negative replies for the websites u r told for.
Its my personal experience that westside rentals really provides good service and they is deserved to be praised.
Westside rentals are really proving some good deals plus a lot of options for apartment. When I was looking for the apartment in los-angeles, I used to surf many site multiple times a day ,related with this rental business.
And you know what.. every time i visited westside rentals website I saw new options for apartments and new deals within a day . That was a great experience.
Really westside rentals is becoming more and more reliable source for taking apartment on rent. I had registered with them few months back, and now I can say that I had made a very good decision at that time.
Westside rentals are ready to help whenever I need from them. No, other organization could be so helpful and caring as they are.
I heard this name,westside rentals from few of my friends. They really got great results after registering with westside rentals. But, I was fool , as I didn’t listen them, and had gone with some blogs ,which were saying all negative for westside rentals ,, and u know I ended up with just wasting my time by searching apartments on other websites.
Atlast, I decided to hear my friends , and experience that i had after talking with them was awesome. And I found my dream apartment in just 3 days.
I will say to all my friends that don’t go by all these blogs , just visit westside rentals portal once and give them a call. I am sure it will save a lot of your time, which I had wasted when I was searching my apartment.
Registering with Westside rentals is really advantageous. They save you a lot of time that you would be waste in searching your apartment.
And it is very much worth $60, as it saves me a lot of time. I just got a new apartment on rent within 2 days after registering with them.
Me enjoy save time that I would be waste. I got a new apartment the very first day, and the day after that! And the day after that! I have three apartments, I live in them all, I eat breakfast in one, then go to the next one to check the mail; me save time, no waste!
I wasted most of the time by visiting to brokers and calling many landlords, when I was searching apartment in los-angeles. Then I heard of westside rentals from one of my friends.But , I thought $60 is bit expensive to get registered with them.
But in end I was wrong , 60 bucks is nothing in front of the services and options given by them.
I got my apartment 2 months ago. Me and all of my friends who got apartments from westside rentals , are enjoying their lives hassle free life. We don’t have any kind of interference from landlords. Really we are feel ourselves lucky as we register with westside rentals.
This service is great. I wish I had thought of WestsideRentals.com a few years ago. They must be making serious bank. The name is kinda confusing though…I found a spot through them in Pasadena and they even have an office there. I guess they’ve outgrown their own name! good problem to have I suppose.
There were so many worries for me ,at the time of taking an apartment on lease. Like, where to search from and whom to trust. Then i contacted my friends who gave me name westsiderentals.com and I am thankful to him . I got the apratment like the one which was in my thoughts. Plus helpful landlords and a lot other facilities from them .
I see those WestsideRentals.com signs everywhere! They’re even on office buildings now. I don’t get it…you have to pay to sign up? My buddy in Pasadena said it’s totally worth it though.
I got my apartment by just keeping track on emails send by westside rentals.I added my range on westsiderentals.com ,and they just send me mail ,whenever some options are added into that.Thank you westside rentals for it.
I finally get the WestsideRentals.com deal. At first I thought it was crazy that renters had to pay, but I guess they have so many listings because
landlords put them in there for free. Beats the heck out of those mega-complex magazines they have for free on the streets!
answer me this, westside rentals plant, does it beat the heck out of craigslist? i think not.
I liked the way they recieved my call , actually it was not picked up by any answering machine. This shows that how dedicated are they towards their customers.
ok weird, almost all the comments from 2008 are fake, i mean…scary fake. How do i know you ask…well it’s because only someone who had a labotomy talks with so much “praise” and “love” for WSR, ok did the web host become a pussy and totally disown his site all to make WSR look good??? C’mon i want to hear not only the PROs but the freakin CONS!!!
so far im 50/50 in deciding to sign up with WSR and the previous comments from 2008 did NOT make me like WSR anymore.
Web host pls!!!! be fair to your readers and do not delete posts from actually users from WSR!
i thought WSR was a waste of money. all the properties are managed by the same collective of big property management companies and, for the most part, these rental units suck. the best way to find a place (IMHO) is to go to the area you want to live in and walk around looking for rental signs.
the other thing i hate about WSR is that jackass who flails like a retard at the kings games. i’d cheer louder if someone cold cocked that idiot than i would if the kings won the cup.
Three days before I got myself registered with westsiderentals.com and today I got my apartment fixed at the location I want.
I had been a long time since I was finding an apartment for me ,,tried many other big names,,,but all failed . I can bet that Westside Rentals are really best , especially in the area of los-angeles.
See their impressive listings where one can find more than 18000 choices for their apartment.They are really expanding especially in area near los-angeles and santa-monica. Also relations of WSR and landlords are also becoming more strong than before.
Not only tenants are getting advantages from westsiderentals.com , landlords too are getting benefits from them . As, they just have to register with westsiderentals.com and leave rest of your headache to them.
Westsiderentals is the biggest scam in LA. If you’re looking for a place to rent, you’re better off driving around with a pen, paper and a cell phone. WSR purposely leaves the properties on their website even though it’s been rented out months ago to lure more paid subscribers. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll find a legitimate property once in a while. But from my experience I say more than half of their listings are there just to get you to sign up.
@Lorane …WestsideRentals Members (tenants) shall be eligible for more than $60 in discounts and rebates on basic services they are likely to purchase around moving time making their search for housing effectively free of charge. Discounts provided by the WSR Members Benefits Desk include hi-speed internet, satellite television, moving, self-storage, furniture, and car and truck rental.
Believe me westsiderentals.com are the bestexpecially in area of loas angeles and santa monica,, many of my frnds got benefits from them like me.
The post above is a WSR employee trying to spin the negativity.
The fact is WSR is a rip off if they really cleaned their lists up they would have more like 800 properties not 15000 old rented ones that are used to suck people in.
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@93. If u dont have any idea about the listings of WSR ..its better not to say negative too..
Listings are new and also more than 19000,,, the reason behind is the satisfaction level of landlords ,,and their faith on WSR ,,as landlords gain various benefits from WSR.
I know plenty about the listings and system behind westside the lists are inflated because old/rented are not removed immediately, landlords generally do not complain because service is free to them they also do not bother calling in half the time when their home is rented leaving the listing full of rented properties also many do call and the homes still stay posted.
Its about hooking renters in who get reamed out of $60 for property adverts that suddenly become on hold the second they pay or we are trying to reach that landlord but he still has not returned our call why don’t you carry on looking in the mean while at our other properties.
GIVE ME A BREAK its all about bait and switch your employees lie to get people to sign up period call and say I have seen an advert for a soggy cardboard box under a bridge is it still for rent? .. You will get the chirpy response of either YES we still have that one available or sorry that one just got rented but we have others now what I need you to do is bring your dumb ass down to my office with a photo ID and $60 … The fact is you could bring a picture of a monkey for ID and they will still take your $60 and then throw you into the vicious circle of rented listings and wasted gas.
so many complaints, and only a few mentions of trying to get money back.
I lookeda the BBB rating (which is C, not F by the way) and it says there is a “provision for refunding anything you paid over $50 to you if you obtain a rental elsewhere and a provision for refund if they do not provide you at least three available rentals meeting your specifications within five days after you paid your fee.”
if you have not been satisfied, why not try to get your money back and get in touch with the BBB?
LMFAO maya, off course there is a refund policy like the Holy Grail you will never get to see a refund.
I got my apartment in just 3 days and now i m getting member benefits from westsiderentals.com, so i just could not stop myself from praising them.
Now with westsiderentals.com is southern california ,anyone coming here won’t have too much problems in finding an apartment .
I’m part-time building manager. When I have apartments for rent, I use WR for one reason – it weeds out people who aren’t willing to pay $60 toward their apartment search. Yes, it’s elitist, but the laws in California and particularly Los Angeles are so unfavorable for landlords, we discriminate in any legal way possible. WR is a legal discrimination service that helps protect landlords. That’s the bottom line for me, plain and simple, I’m just being honest with you all. I wouldn’t dream of using Craigslist because of all the freaks and scammers.
The building I manage is a lovely building in a very nice neighborhood, and the apartments are one-bedrooms and very reasonably priced at market rates. Because of rent control, I am very picky about who I rent to, because I might be stuck with these tenants for 20 years. If you aren’t making over $60k a year, you’re not going to get my place (even if it is affordable for someone making $35k), and if your credit score isn’t in the 700s, you’re not going to get my place.
And if you’re not willing to shell out $60 to join WR, you’re not going to get it either.