Looking to rent in DC for one - safe, cheap and barebones

[Anonymous]

I need to rent an apartment in DC. I’ll be staying there during the week and going home on the weekends. Any recommendations. - preferably Northwest DC, downtown or Palisades Foxhall area. A room in a house is a no go but am interested in studios, one bedrooms and/or potentially someone who needs to get out of DC and wants someone to take over their lease.

Thanks for any tips/advice. Also am very familiar with all parts of DC - have worked here for years but have not paid attention to apartment buildings, etc.

[Anonymous]

Sorry but cheap and safe don’t go together here unless people are still doing group houses.

[Anonymous]

What budget level are we looking at here?

[Anonymous]

Just get on Zillow and Hotpads already. You’ll find plenty there.

[Anonymous]

WC Smith has rent controlled studio apts. Get a really small one in an older building. They have a bunch of buildings.

[Anonymous]

https://wcsmith.com/apartments/brunswick-house/

[Anonymous]

Cheap rentals are in cheap areas like silver spring or PG. there are reasons poor people move places but the tipping point is safe erodes quickly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap rentals are in cheap areas like silver spring or PG. there are reasons poor people move places but the tipping point is safe erodes quickly

"Cheap" doesn't really exist in any decent part of Silver Spring, unless you are OK with a run-down, old building that has a pest problem. But sure, on average, it's "cheaper" than Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

You probably want a finished basement in the home of someone who will accept lower rent in exchange for having a quiet tenant who is rarely there.

[Anonymous]

How much is cheap? We have studios for $1600 all utilities included. Awesome building with parking, gym, pool. I'm moving nowhere from here.

[Anonymous]

Park Crest in Glover Park.

It checks all your boxes, the tradeoff is it's a bit out of the way. Glover Park is already a bit of an island and Park Crest is at the far west end, so it's like a 6 block walk to the Glover Park strip and most of the buses.

Not sure about what's going on with the new bus plan but there did used to be the D1 bus that picked up a couple blocks away that went downtown weekday mornings and back to GP in the evening which was my lifeline when I lived there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get on Zillow and Hotpads already. You’ll find plenty there.

Exactly. You can find a studio in premium parts of NW DC easily for 2K or less. Foggy Bottom, West End, Dupont all have a lot of apartment buildings. No need to go to more residential areas like Glover Park or further into NWDC. Even Gtown is a bad deal since it's mostly rowhomes.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You probably want a finished basement in the home of someone who will accept lower rent in exchange for having a quiet tenant who is rarely there.

This

[Anonymous]

Having just done a rental in DC during a reno, I'd be careful of some of the newer buildings which have high and fluctuating utility and common area monthly fees. A place without separately metered utilities will be more stable in cost.