Anna Katherine Scanlon was eating sushi in Marina Del Rey when she received an urgent message from her best friend.
“I just saw another place that was horrible.”
Scanlon's best friend, who was moving back to Los Angeles from Texas, had been apartment hunting for more than a month and her deadline to move was approaching.
Between bites of salmon nigiri, Scanlon began checking apartment listings on her phone and found a 1920s studio in Los Feliz that she knew her best friend would swoon over.
“I sent it to him and said, 'This is fabulous,'” he says. “I'm going to go through it right away.”
Scanlon, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who also works at a nonprofit, hopped in her car to check out the rental, which had Art Deco tile, beautiful natural light, plenty of storage space and a stunning view of the Griffith Observatory—a “rare find” for $1,900 in the coveted neighborhood, Scanlon says. She sent a detailed video tour to her best friend, who applied instantly and signed the lease a few days later.
Anna Katherine Scanlon is the founder of LA Apartment Scout
(Heather Cox)
On the way home, Scanlon, 33, had a light-bulb moment: “What I love to do is something that most people find completely overwhelming and exhausting,” he says. You could turn your apartment hunting skill into something more.
So, after finding apartments for several other friends (not to mention a dream 1927 apartment in Echo Park for herself) and building a following on TikTok by posting apartment tours, Scanlon launched an apartment-hunting business, LA Apartment Scout. She helps her busy clients find characterful, historic homes in Los Angeles within their budget.
She's part of a growing group of apartment hunters: not licensed real estate agents, but savvy entrepreneurs who tour apartments, share videos on social media and, in some cases, work one-on-one with clients to find a place that fits their specific aesthetic and budget.
Unlike brokers (licensed professionals who act as intermediaries between landlords and tenants, commonly used in the apartment-hunting process in places like New York City, Boston, and Austin, Texas), explorers operate outside the formal housing system. They are not connected to the owners and do not handle requests or negotiations. Instead, they act as digital lookouts, searching for coveted older apartments that would otherwise be difficult to find without experience.
Demand from apartment seekers highlights pressures of The Competitive Los Angeles Rental Marketwhere vacancies are scarce and rental rates are among the highest in the country. According Apartments.comThe average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles was $2,182 in May, which is 33% higher than the national average rent price of $1,642.
“To some extent, it reflects a dysfunctional housing market,” said Richard Kent Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. “It's very difficult for people to search and find what they're looking for at the price they're looking for, unlike a lot of markets where it's pretty easy.”
Apartment-finding services tend to be especially attractive to younger Angelenos who feel priced out of homeownership but still want spaces that reflect their personalities and tastes, rather than the increasingly common standard modern unit.
“There are tons of people who want to live in a house that reflects the character of the city, the beauty, the glamor and the drama, that is creatively inspiring or just cozy, unique, that has character, not gray laminate floors,” says Scanlon.
Those looking for a scout might also live out of town or simply be too busy to search endlessly on rental listing sites, Craigslist, Reddit and Facebook Marketplace, and then tour properties. One of Scanlon's clients came to her for help because he was finishing his doctorate while preparing for a new job at NASA.
Scanlon's personalized services begin with a consultation call to understand the client's needs, then curate a list of apartments, tour the ones they love, and provide videos of the space and surrounding areas. Scanlon says he works similarly to a local expert guide and relocation assistant. Since the apartment-hunting market is newer in Los Angeles, finding upfront rates can be difficult (Scanlon would not disclose its fees).
Indya Stewart, interior designer and apartment hunter, inside a house.
(Gus Acord)
Indya Stewart, 24, of Hollywood, is another apartment hunter in Los Angeles. In late April, the interior designer shared an eight-second interview. tiktok with the words “hidden talent: finding castle-style apartments in Los Angeles at prices that seem illegal” and told people to contact her if they needed help finding a place of their own.
“Oh my god please put me on,” one person commented with a crying emoji face.
“I moved in the fall and I need you,” another person said.
“Hmmm yeah I'm moving to LA in a month and I only get to live in a fairy castle,” another commented.
After receiving a flood of messages from people, he decided that instead of responding to each person individually, he would share his department choose on your interior design website. The list is free and separated by region.
Unlike Scanlon, Stewart doesn't tour apartments for people, but instead provides a curated list of older apartments for people to explore on their own.
“I spend a lot of my free time looking for these places because I really love the process,” says Stewart, who lives in a 1920s-style house in Hollywood. “Sharing them is something natural.”
East Hollywood's Miesha Gantz went from dance to real estate.
(By Miesha Gantz)
While many apartment hunters do the work as a freelance side gig, some like East Hollywood's Miesha Gantz are starting to move into the formal real estate industry.
After stepping away from her career as a professional dancer due to a huge pay cut, Gantz set out to find a more affordable apartment. Their criteria was specific: a 1920s or 1930s Spanish-style studio with oversized windows, lots of natural light, a fireplace, hardwood floors and characterful tiles.
He started posting videos of his apartment-hunting trip on TikTok, and before long people were asking him for help. Soon after, Gantz, who has a background in real estate, launched a membership-based website called Hollywood Waitlist, where she posts listings of charming vintage studios and one-bedroom apartments primarily based in Hollywood. He updates the website weekly with homes that mostly cost less than $2,500 per month. People can access the website for $6 for a week and $12 for a month.
As her social media and website gained traction, Gantz connected with Rental Girl, a boutique real estate agency based in Los Angeles, and decided to reinstate her real estate license. He recently started working for the company janitorial teamhelping clients in a similar way to her previous job as an apartment finder. However, the main difference is that you can now work directly with clients throughout the application process and help them secure housing.
Although finding the rental market is extremely competitive in Los Angeles, these apartment hunters often foster a sense of community online. In TikTok comments, it's common for people to offer advice from their own apartment-hunting experiences, sharing whether street parking is actually feasible in a particular neighborhood, whether a building has a pest problem, or whether a real estate agent was rude to them.
“When people know better, they do better,” says Gantz, who is also a filmmaker.
It's worth noting that there are scams in the rental world, so be careful when using social media. As demand from apartment hunters grows, Scanlon says he hopes others will get involved, addressing different niches and neighborhoods.
“I don't feel protective of it at all,” she says. “I would love to see more people doing this.”
