First Choice Housing

I was a little concerned to go with First choice when I decided to move out from the Lorenzo because everyone warmed me how bad their staff were. I didn’t have any other choices at that time and I really liked the studio at 2343 scarff street, so I decided to give it a try. All I wanted to say is Patty the manager ROCK!!! If Patty stays as the manager, I believe First choice would be the best place to go at the USC area for housing! She is always on top of everything, understanding and providing solutions very quickly. Patty is so much better than any staff from the Lorenzo. Once I forgot my key in my room, Patty sent someone to open the door for me in 5 minutes! whenever I requested a maintenance request, things could be fixed within 2 days! I still remember when the garbage disposal broke down, Patty sent someone to fix it right away during the weekend. She even gave me her cell number and asked me to text her if it wasn’t fixed before 6pm so she could send someone to fix it the first thing in the morning! I’m so glad that I chose First choice, I didn’t have to worry about housing stuff like my friends did while studying at USC.
Patty explained that a lot people were complaining was because they didn’t get back the deposit. I’m gonna move out in July so hopefully I don’t get disappointed at that time regarding the deposit. lol

My daughter was a tenant in the Ellendale Place property for the last two years. It was an air-​conditioned apartment, older building, but maintenance was quick to repair any problems. Easy on-​line rent payment system. Our walk-​through at move-​out was smooth, with a big THANKS to Patty for her straight forward approach at explaining any charges to my daughter, and giving her opportunity to remedy them so she could get as much of her deposit back as possible. I would definitely recommend First Choice Housing if you’re looking for an apartment near USC.

First choice housing is great if you’re looking into renting a place close to campus (UPC) for a very reasonable price. They have a bunch of locations in the north and west side of campus in particular, so it’s more beneficial for me since I am mostly active on the west side.
You can get your own room, and share the living room and kitchen with other people in the same apartment. I like how they keep leases independent between tenants of the same apartment, so you do not have the burden of being the one in charge of making sure that the other rooms get filled. The rooms vary in size, so if you want to go for cheap, you can get the really small ones like I did. Honestly my 9×10 is a little too small for my taste, though, even if it is the cheapest out of everyone.
Some pluses:
Free micro fridge in each room in addition to the main big fridge in the kitchen, though if you’re unlucky you’d get a really old clunky one, not notice that it actually does not work, and when you decide to have it fixed would have to wait a long time to get a replacement (source: experience).
Large closet: I’m a hanger type dude so it works really well for me. Plus the closet doors are sliding mirrors so I get a lot of opportunity to catch a glance of just how fat I am (haha).
Air conditioning/​heater with thermostat. Warning: you have to pay for gas and electricity separately, but the cost is shared with everyone else so meh. Not bad.
Repair requests get answered (eventually). They also did some nice things like update our toilet from small to large seating, and when they replace your micro fridge for no extra charge for free if you tell them that it no longer works.
Free internets. Though it’s pretty slow, and the slowness is very apparent when there are a lot of people using it. When not many people are around though, you can stream some videos.
Elevator from parking floor to the first to the third floor, which helps with moving in/​out and laundry. They also have a bike rack in the parking lot, though it is ways in the back.
It’s safe. A lot of the first choice buildings are in the zone protected by USC, so you often see those USC security people standing on the corner. The building itself is also locked. I have a set of 3 keys, for entering the building, then the apartment, then my room.
There is a cleaning person who maintains the kitchen and the restrooms once every other weak, hired by the company who also bills you for sending in the dump truck.
1 – 2 restrooms per person
Generally cheaper than most places in LA
Some minuses:
No open air window. My mom freaked out how we’re all trapped in our rooms and that the only exit in case of fire is the front door. (I live in the very back corner so welp.)
A bit moldy atmosphere. Expect your food to go bad twice as quickly as it would back in your parents’ house or something, even if they are in a fridge. On second thought, it might be because of my apartment-​mate growing plants indoors. Idk. However, when I returned from winter break (3 weeks), I saw molds grow in my fridge after leaving it unplugged and had to clean it out.
Repairs take a bit too long. Sometimes requests get buried in their paperwork. I suggest following up with a phone call to HR if you begin suspecting that it is the case. Unfortunately first choice compartamentalizes its offices a tad too much, making miscommunication or lack thereof probable. They are getting better with it though.
A bunch of sort of extra costs. Electricity, water, gas, trash, and the biweekly cleaning you get, from different companies. You’ll need to sort it out with your apartment-​mates on who pays for what and then redistribute the cost. Oh yeah, parking is $ 100/​mo.
Your contract lasts for a whole year. So you have to pay (on a monthly basis) for move in on August and move out by July, regardless of whether you were planning on actually moving in later and moving out earlier. I was planning on not staying for the summer, but I still had to pay for the rent during the months of June/​July. On the bright side, I got $ 25 dollars off of my rent in March for deciding to lease again for another year.
Laundry relies completely on coins. Ugh. If only they can come up with a system where you swipe your debit card, or get some privatized ID card.
Trash bins are outside in the back, so always remember to bring your keys when you get out lest you get locked out. Also, I don’t think the dump truck comes in during the summer, so it gets pretty smelly.
For my building in particular (W 37^th Place), the bike ramp after entering the parking lot is illogically made to run along the wall with a sharp turn around a corner, which is impossible to turn through without stepping off your bike. Also the ramps are all the way in the aback, so a lot of bikes end up being parked near the railings near the front where they shouldn’t be and clog up the whole place

Patty, Cameron, all the leasing office staff are amazing and welcoming! They have flexible moving in/​out dates and their units are amazing, i would strongly recommend.

The signing process was extremely easy and the leasing agents were all very friendly and happy to help accomodate our showing requests. Cameron and Patty were a great help and the signing process was quick and easy!

This is my first year living with First Choice Housing… So far so good.
So far I am really enjoying living in my apartment. Some of the features are a little out of date, the tile in the bathroom, the floor baseboards, the shower/​tub and some of the kitchen appliances are old-​looking, however everything works well. It’s not the most glamorous place to live, but with a little decorating and what-​not, I think I’ve achieved a pretty home-​y feel here. First Choice definitely did make sure that the place was clean and ready for me to move into, though! And they updated my place with wood floors so I really liked that.
I feel save living in my complex and the First Choice Housing staff is very resposive to any issues I may be having. For example, they were very helpful when I was trying to set up my cable and wifi, giving me directions on where I should go to get my cable box etc. It’s always easy to contact them and they are very open, understand and willing to listen and help me with any concerns I may have.

Overall I had a very positive experience with first choice housing (especially compared to some other housing companies in the area). The room was clean (honestly, close to brand new) when I moved in. There were some maintenance issues in the common area, which took up to a couple of weeks to be resolved, but they were all eventually taken care of (and without having to ask more than twice, which around here is saying something). The front office is actually composed of pleasant people, which took a while to get used to (but I’m not complaining!). Solid renting company that I’d work with again if I weren’t skipping town for good!

My boyfriend and I moved here from Chicago in August. We came in April to look at apartments. FCH showed us 4 places and we fell in love with the last unit we saw. FCH was really attuned to our needs and made sure to show us all of the options they had available. The process was smooth. They were very responsive and kept in contact when we went back to Chicago.
Once we moved in Patty became our go to person for questions and concerns. She is really quick to respond. Also, the online system makes it easy to submit maintenance requests and pay rent.
Our place isn’t a luxury apartment, but I think it’s worth what we pay and we always get compliments when guests come over. When we moved in the apartment was clean and needed few repairs (e.g., kitchen drawer, fan). The only downside is that there is only one a/​c unit in the apartment (living room) and barely any storage. Aside from those things, the unit is nice.
Overall, FCH is great. We plan on staying in our apartment for another year.

This leasing company provides excellent service as well as honest and fair practices. They are extremely helpful, while also working in a timely fashion. I absolutely recommend this leasing company to anyone in the LA area looking for clean, yet affordable housing. Try to find Ernesto if possible, he was very helpful and knowledgeable.

ZERO STAR!
Scheduled an appointment with them days ago, which they completely denied when I actually met them in person. Terrible leasing office, terrible staff, terrible attitude. No apologies was made and gave you the look that simply says, «so what do you want from me, I ain’t got nothing for you, get the hell outta here». The old dude literally says I’m not gonna lease it to you people since you’re terrible people. All I said was I scheduled an appointment, so what do you have for me. (The staff that talked to me on the phone said there is one studio left and available for move in next May, so I was interested.) They repeatedly denied of such an appointment and said they received no phone calls from anyone.
Think about it, if they treat you like this even before they got you to pay, imagine what happens when you actually paid. You’ll be miserable and probably wish to live in the streets instead.
Put First Choice Housing at the end of your list of housing options, even after the one that says «street/​homeless».

Completely unprofessional in how they communicate with their tenants. They never respond to emails and they wait around for a call to actually update their tenants on their enquiries. Very complacent in management and the properties they manage are designed to rip you off when you move out (maintenance costs, repair costs, cleaning costs are all charged to your security deposit).
Never move into their apartments unless you cover your ass 100%. Because they sure as hell know how to screw a student over who hasn’t.

I have lived at first choice housing for over 3 years now. I like this place and especially the manager of my apartment patty has been nice and considerate of students needs. She makes sure to keep the common areas clean and also encourages tenants to keep their apartments clean. The security is very good at this place as they have setup video cameras to look into any suspicious people. Thank you patty

Patty is the best! Staff are always willing to help you out. For those who have complaints about FCH, don’t understand why.

After hearing all the positive reviews from my friends I decided to check out their apartments. I took three days to check out all the different buildings that fit my needs, and revisit them if I had to. In this process, the staff was very patient and helped find the best unit for me. Also my move-​in process was extremely quick and easy!
Overall, the staff at FCH is extremely friendly and accommodating :)

I stayed in the Scarff St. apartment for 2 years and love it. The front office is really helpful especially Ross and Patty are the best. They ensure everything works fine for you with very fast maintenance service and easy communication. I would definitely recommend first choice housing.

Best experience in terms of living and any apartment requests were resolved within a day. A big thanks to Ernesto for helping us out while moving in and moving out!

I have nothing but good things to say about FCH. Compared to another agency in the area, they made renting, moving in, and moving out a breeze. Paying rent and submitting maintenance requests here is incredibly easy, and every one of my requests (even the silly ones!) were completed faster than I could have expected. I lived on Portland Street, which is a super convenient location to get to USC. Also, there were constantly DPS officers roaming around outside to make sure the area was safe.
Patty, who works in the front office, is absolutely an angel. I have personally experienced her go out of her way over and over again for residents to ensure they have the best possible experience. She truly cares about every resident, going above and beyond whether you lock yourself out at 3AM, need immediate attention with a maintenance request, or any of the other insane housing needs us college kids come up with. My personal experience at FCH would not have been nearly as wonderful and easy without her.
FCH is willing to work with their residents to make sure they are happy. I definitely recommend living in a First Choice Housing property. :)

The front office has been nothing but helpful and pleasant. Patty helped me bring some of my food deliveries up to my room, and paid personal attention to every maintenance request, which illustrates how the organization treats its residents as a whole. They have been polite and thoughtful, and truly pay immediate and close attention to their residents.
While they don’t price themselves as competitively as properties on Ellendale or west of campus, you get a first-​class management team, and the best security and privacy of any apartment in the area*.
*I speak only from personal experience, having stayed at Hoover House.

This terrible company made me to write my first review on Unilocal.I rented an apartment from the company last year. I have to say, First choice housing is the worst housing company ever. I was a student from USC. I sincerely suggest all USC students avoid this company.
I didn’t have time to come to LA in advance, so I found the place online. I signed the lease online when I was in London. I truly learned my lessons! Dirty apartments, terrible service and cold staffs.
I gave them $ 1200 as a deposit. Before we move, they told my roommate I could get $ 1100 back. But when I got their check, I was shocked. I only got $ 25 because of so called floor damage! WTF! They sent someone to inspect the apartment before we move, and the floor was definitely fine. So again, avoid this awful company.

THIS IS THE WORST HOUSING COMPANY EVER!!! DON’T BE FOOLED! we saw bad Unilocal reviews before signing the lease and we thought it couldn’t be that bad, but IT IS!!! Every time it rains, water leaks onto my bed from the ceiling light bulb and management kept saying they had fixed it but they didn’t! our apartment is also infested with beetles!!! Also my bike got stolen when it was locked in the biking storage inside the apartment complex downstairs, so sketchy!!! The first floor has also been flooded on several occasions, like ewwww! The management team is also AWFUL!!! We didn’t have hot water and they didn’t tell us. oh also, the only dryer for the entire building broke and they didn’t even put a sign up!
DON’T LIVE HERE!!!