The Rentish Podcast

Tiny Home Hype & the Real-Life Magic of Jess’s Loft from New Girl

• Season 1 • Episode 20

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In episode 19 of The Rent-ish Pod, Patrick breaks down the hype behind tiny homes Tiny Homes in the U.S. Then in our RE Reel segment we unpack Jess’ loft from the show “New Girl”. Zach and Patrick go over how the characters were able to afford the cost of living, how much it might go for today, and other real estate fun facts. Whether you’re renting or managing property, this episode is packed with practical advice and real-world insights you can use right now.Got questions, hot takes, or real estate horror stories of your own? Email us at questions@therentishpod.com—you might just make the next episode. 

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SPEAKER_01:

Restart. Restart. Man, I flubbed that one hard. My brain is like, my brain, you ever have those sentences where your brain is just moving faster than your mouth can say the words? That's exactly what happened. We're your hosts for the Rentish Podcast, a podcast that's kind of about rental properties and hosted by two guys that work in the real estate industry and sort of know what they're talking about. But mostly don't. Nailed it. We're getting better. It's like week by week. We're greasing the machine. Are we getting better or are we getting worse with the flubs? Moussey, are we getting better? Producer Moussey, are we getting better or are we getting worse?

SPEAKER_02:

You guys are getting better. Thank you. Yeah, because I feel like before we would have been like, oh, we got to redo the whole thing. Is that how Elliot sounds? No,

SPEAKER_01:

that's how

SPEAKER_02:

Patrick

SPEAKER_00:

sounds.

SPEAKER_01:

We got to redo the whole thing, guys.

SPEAKER_00:

Or we just don't care as much and just don't, you know. No,

SPEAKER_02:

I think we care.

SPEAKER_01:

We super care. We care a lot. So much. That's the thing. And you're going to have fun carrying along with us and listening to us talk to experts and learning along with us or just kind of laughing at how little we know. The Rentish Podcast, you can find us in a bunch of different ways. But the best thing to do is just go to your podcast platform of choice and search for The Rentish Pod. Subscribe. Follow, download, like, review, comment. Give us all those things that we appreciate very much because it helps us. And share it with your friends. If your friends are into real estate or just getting into the business of real estate investing or have any sort of interest in investing, This stuff, this real estate stuff, share it with them as well and spread the good word. And also at TheRentishPod on Instagram. You can also email questions at TheRentishPod.com for any topic suggestions, any feedback, any movie trivia or general topics of conversation. Literally anything. We just want to talk to you guys. Send it in. We'd appreciate you. Patrick, how are you doing today? I'm good.

SPEAKER_00:

Nothing else to report. I'm just good. I'm not great. I'm not bad. I'm good. You're good. Yeah, how are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. I was waiting for you to ask me how I am. Yeah, you were fishing for that. I'm great, Patrick. You know why I'm great? Why are you great? Because yesterday, two big things happened in the world. Okay. Okay, so Patrick and I are movie guys, so deal with it. You're listening to The Rentish Pod. We're going to talk about real estate, but we also love movies. Yeah. Yesterday, new Superman trailer. James Gunn's Superman movie is coming out July

SPEAKER_00:

11th. Mark your calendars. You told me about it.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's my most anticipated movie of the year. I've been a longtime comic book fan, a Superman fan. New trailer, I'm on cloud nine. Patrick, I walk into the office today, I was like, Patrick is like, I saw it, it was good.

SPEAKER_00:

I just wanted to kick him. I didn't watch the whole thing either. I just kind of skipped around a little bit. God, it makes me so irrational and

SPEAKER_01:

angry. I can't even tell you. How many times have you watched it? It was like 25 or 30. And it

SPEAKER_00:

came out less than 24 hours

SPEAKER_01:

ago? Yeah, less than 24. No, yesterday at noon it came out. We're recording this on May 15th. But yeah, no, super excited. Love the trailer. You're into it.

SPEAKER_00:

You saw it. I think it looks good. I think it looks like a fun vibe. I'm not huge on the superhero train now, but I would go see this one. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_00:

The other big

SPEAKER_01:

thing, and I'm repping the t-shirt right now, HBO flipped it back. They're back to HBO

SPEAKER_00:

Max

SPEAKER_01:

instead of Just Max. Snip, snap, snip, snap. They went from HBO Max to Max. To Max. To just Max. Yeah. And now they're flipping it back to HBO Max.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I think it definitely makes sense. Everyone I know still called it HBO Max or HBO, whatever. I wouldn't say I'm on cloud nine about that. I'm like, okay. With a shoulder shrug. You're wearing an HBO Max shirt right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we're back. We are back. So that's why I'm wearing the shirt is because we are back. What about Pete Rose? Pete Rose, that's right. Yeah, Pete Rose, the band Lift It Rose. We're getting into sports now, too. We say he wants to contribute.

SPEAKER_03:

We say he's a rogue.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like, all right, now we're going to talk about sports with some guy that really likes sports and then this guy that doesn't

SPEAKER_00:

know anything. I love the sport balls.

SPEAKER_01:

You went to your first baseball game

SPEAKER_00:

ever on Pete Rose. I've been to a Cleveland Guardians game. I went to my first Cincinnati Reds game. Got it. So it's not your first

SPEAKER_01:

baseball game. It was your first Reds

SPEAKER_00:

game. Yeah. Did you have a good time? It's just like a bucket list. Okay. I'll put it this way. I am glad that I went. This guy is about to say some crap. I'm glad that I went.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I can say I've gone. Okay. Yeah. No. I have no– yeah. We'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_02:

You told us you hated the hot dogs.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it was, it was like$2 hot dog night. So I had four, I didn't have four hot dogs, but like, I'm a big hot dog guy for our listeners who don't know. And they were just like, weren't good. you know yeah they're not good the ballpark

SPEAKER_01:

dogs I've never had a bad ballpark dog at the Great American Ballpark

SPEAKER_00:

they're not like I ate four obviously so clearly they were good enough for me to eat four but like they weren't good you know

SPEAKER_01:

maybe it was because they were doing the cheap hot dog night they were mass making them way more than they do the typical because when I get in on a typical like I go to a baseball game to get a hot dog it's like super hot fresh out of the thing all the toppings the bun is fluffy come on now wasn't it good He's just laughing at my description of a hot dog.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I will say that was not the case with these hot dogs. Like I would personally, like people are saying like, Oh, it's like$2 dog night. It's like, no, I would rather just go to a, to a hot dog shop and eat like really good hot dogs and then not have to watch baseball.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, okay. Shout out to the Reds. I love Great American Ball. Officially eliminated Reds yesterday with their loss to the White Sox. Eliminated from playoff contention. So, another year. Already? Yep, already. But we're not going to hear to talk about sports and or Superman and or Warner Brothers Media. Although that might be what sounds like, hey, if you enjoy that stuff, you know, hey, we're here for you. But today we're going to talk about some fun real estate topics. We're going to cover tiny homes in the United States. Patrick's got some fun stuff to talk with That's about tiny homes. And then we're going to talk about real, what is it called? Real estate real.

SPEAKER_00:

Real

SPEAKER_01:

estate real. Film Reel, R-E-E-L, where we're going to talk about famous movie television properties, and we're going to talk about the loft from New Girl. So, yeah, we're going to get right on into it, Patrick. You got some things to share with me about tiny homes. Tiny

SPEAKER_00:

homes. We're going to be talking about what they are, why people are turning to them, how they change the way we think about space, affordability, and sustainability in real estate. Okay. Tiny Homes 101. What are they? Zach, do you have a guess as to what a tiny home is?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I don't know. I don't need to guess because I lived it. You lived it? I've stayed in a tiny home. When did

SPEAKER_00:

you stay in a

SPEAKER_01:

tiny home? It was years ago. It was probably when that craze was first getting going or at least when I first heard about it. I stayed at an Airbnb in Asheville, North Carolina. It was a tiny home. It looked like a shipping container kind of house or whatever, but not like a barn dominium like we talked about on that one episode. Thank you. you but it was it was literally a tiny home it was one door you walk you could see the back of the house from the front door all the stuff just kind of squished into the in the middle of the of the house so i've stayed in one before it was just like a it was like a weekend airbnb thing gotcha yeah so it's a small house i'm so yeah tiny home tiny home equals small house it's not a tough question no i think tiny home just has better search engine seo than uh

SPEAKER_00:

friggin little small small house small house it

SPEAKER_01:

sounds better to say tiny home than to say small house.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I've never stayed in a tiny home. I would like to one of these days. I've stayed in like an RV. My grandparents have an RV. I don't know. That's not really the same thing. It's kind of a similar sort of, in terms of like the layout, like compact.

SPEAKER_01:

Similar, but that's like a place that's mobile. The idea of a tiny home is that it's completely stationary. You build it up and that's your house.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right, right. Well, some of them, I mean, in this article talking about mobile tiny homes on wheels but I'm just like that to me just seems like an RV I don't know yeah it's just like

SPEAKER_01:

we're just dancing around the fact that you basically have an RV you just don't want to call it an RV you just want to call it a tiny home

SPEAKER_00:

but yeah a tiny home compact living space it's typically under 400 square feet that's kind of like the size I saw as like what would be considered a tiny home right and obviously like the design of a tiny home is to maximize function and minimize footprint so like make get everything you need out of a home as like square in compact of an area as possible. So typically between 100 and 400 square feet, they can be custom built, DIY, or prefabricated. So I know, like I saw this thing a while ago on the internet. It's just like, it's like a, the model T of tiny homes. It's just kind of like factory made, like tiny homes. I don't know. I don't remember like what company was doing it. Um, but there's also like, you know, custom made tiny homes here to what you want. Um, basically they got to include a kitchen bathroom, a sleeping area, and a minimal, like living space in the place for you to keep your, your clothes and anything that you, that you might need. Right. Obviously without access. Right. I don't think my Blu-ray collection would be able to fit in a tiny home, for example.

SPEAKER_01:

I like that that's your primary concern, whether or not you would live in a tiny home. Should we talk about that now, of the would you or would you not live in a tiny home, or do you want to save that until later? We can

SPEAKER_00:

save that

SPEAKER_01:

toward

SPEAKER_00:

the end, because I'm going to bring up some of the pros and cons of tiny homes, and then we can discuss whether we would live in them. But first, where are tiny homes? They can kind of be anywhere. Where are they? They can be in urban... backyards or rural plots. There's even tiny home communities. I don't know if you've seen any of these, like a community of just a bunch of tiny

SPEAKER_03:

homes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, they exist. I know I've got a friend who stayed in Hocking Hills, actually.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen those online many times. It's like, want a nice little place, like a home away from home and a weekend visit to Hocking Hills? Yeah, they've got the little tiny homes there and they're super modern and luxurious. They're trying to make it like a premium hotel room, basically. Yeah. So

SPEAKER_00:

why

SPEAKER_01:

are

SPEAKER_00:

they popular? So there's a couple reasons. I mean, one of the big ones is with the average home prices topping upwards of$400,000 in the US, tiny homes... Much more affordable. Usually priced between$30,000 and$100,000. So obviously way, way more affordable to the average person. So it's an accessible path towards home ownership when some folks might not otherwise be able to have that as easily. Another reason it's popular is the simplicity and minimalism. Minimalism is of it. Is that the right word? Minimalism?

SPEAKER_01:

Minimalism. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

that's right. I think I was trying to think of minimalization, but that's not

SPEAKER_01:

a word. Minimalistic. Minimal. Minimalistic is the adjective. Minimalist would be the person.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So minimalists who want to practice minimalistic minimalism might want a

SPEAKER_01:

tiny home. That should be the title of this episode. Minimalists who want to practice minimalistic tendencies to be minimal.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, in the age that we live in, we're at a hyper-consumerist, materialistic sort of age. And I think some people are craving those simpler lifestyles, having less clutter, even less less utility bills and like just less things to like pay for and have and keep up with. So obviously tiny homes scratches that itch for those people. Yeah. And also, I mean, like you said, it kind of exploded. What was like 2018, 2019, maybe

SPEAKER_01:

when I stayed in a tiny home was like 2017, but I probably first heard of them when I was in high school. Okay. Yeah. Maybe it was a

SPEAKER_00:

little earlier than I thought. Um, but like on social media and there's like shows like tiny house nation, uh, never heard of trends on Tik TOK, Instagram, the, all their, all the social media, The hip

SPEAKER_01:

socials that the kids are using. The kids are using. Is the, producing me to say, is the rent-ish on TikTok yet?

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's

SPEAKER_01:

not. We got to start practicing like TikTok trend dances and have Patrick do them. It will be like dancing. To promote the episodes.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think our listeners saw that. But okay, let's talk about the functionality a little bit. So one of the big components of a tiny home is smart design. So every inch matters. So in a tiny home, when you're trying to maximize functionality in as small of a space as possible, things like like fold out beds, hidden storage, lofted beds and sleeping areas. Tiny homes are like, I don't know if like when I see the inside of a tiny home, sometimes I'm like, I'm like, how do you fit in this small of a space? But then I get the little tour. It's like, oh, this folds out. This has, you know, which is kind of cool. I mean, it's kind of like, what's that? What's that? Like, it's like a Lego set on. Maybe that's not the word I'm looking for. You know, like something where it's like, it's everything is like so perfectly designed.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. Yeah. I mean, like a diorama or something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. yeah maybe that's that's what I'm looking for sustainability a lot of tiny homes on top of being just compact have sustainability tactics to make them as as inexpensive as possible and maybe as undependent I guess independent not dependent on like external things like things like solar panels are really popular with tiny homes yeah obviously there's not as much power in a tiny home but you you guys a tiny home with solar panels it's like self-sufficient maybe that's the word I was like

SPEAKER_01:

yeah I mean we'll get to this when we talk about like our opinions on if we live in these or not but I do have to give a shout out to the sustainability aspect for sure like I think that that is very cool the idea of like I don't need this gigantic house with three four bedrooms that cost X amount of dollars to heat up and stay cool in the summertime and it's like I you know I can have this small little box that holds myself and maybe a significant other and maybe some cherished possessions, but yeah, I don't know. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it is cool. And then, and you know, and a lot of them have like things like composting toilets and eco-friendly materials and stuff like that. The last kind of point with tiny homes is the flexible living options. So I think a common thing, like, you know, as you've said, and I alluded to with the Hawk and Kills thing is, is kind of like short-term rentals. I think tiny homes are pretty popular in the short-term rental sort of atmosphere where like some people might not want to full-time live there, but it's like, oh, cool. I get to have this kind of experience for for a week, kind of like living maybe a little off-grid with all my stuff, but still have everything I need. I think it's popular there. Also, I mean, some people full-time live there. It's got that sort of living option.

SPEAKER_01:

And the concept of, like I said, my experience with staying at a tiny home was in an Airbnb. So the short-term rental investment sort of aspect is strong. Or it could be strong. We'll kind of talk into the popularity of this

SPEAKER_00:

stuff. Right. And one I kind of just thought of is maybe like a vacation home i don't know if that's the right word to use but it's not like it's something that you like own you know and but it's not like your primary residence right like you know tiny home in the woods i think that was that's probably something that's pretty popular do

SPEAKER_01:

you think so yeah i think

SPEAKER_00:

i would think yeah i mean not to spoiler alert uh we'll get to we'll get We'll come back to that point. But some of the benefits, obviously, I've said lower cost of living, the mobility and freedom. So you can kind of like have more flexibility where it gets placed. Tiny home on wheels, aka RV. Yeah. You know, you can move it around. Sure. Less debt. Sure. That's a good thing. We

SPEAKER_01:

like less debt. Less

SPEAKER_00:

debt. And then one of the points that was brought up was community living. I don't necessarily think this is really a valid point because like, yeah, there's tiny home communities, but there's also things called neighborhood you know like you don't need to have a tiny home to have a community living I think I don't think that's a valid point but that was one that was brought up but if it's like a community of people that

SPEAKER_01:

are interested in the same it's like it's like living in it's like being part of like a movie club you know it's like you know you can just go to any club but you know you're in a club with the people of the similar thing that you care about you know so the tiny home neighborhood it's like you just get to knock on your next door neighbor and it's like aren't you as excited about composting as I am right

SPEAKER_00:

some of the challenges do still exist there's zoning laws and regulations against it so some cities have or many cities don't have zoning zoning codes that support tiny homes especially the mobile ones which i again mobile mobile tiny home i still want to fully understand what the difference between that sure i'm sure there's a

SPEAKER_01:

detailed breakdown if we google

SPEAKER_00:

yeah and then sometimes getting a mortgage or insurance for a tiny home can be can be tricky compared to like more traditional housing

SPEAKER_01:

yeah it's interesting we we reached out to some of our experts that gave us this this tidbit here about getting a mortgage or insurance for tiny home can be tricky but what we don't really have a whole lot of expounding on that why why why would you think it's harder to get a mortgage on or insurance for a tiny home just because it's like what why would you get a mortgage for something that i yeah cheap i don't know it's tricky it's like i don't really have a good answer for that

SPEAKER_00:

i don't know but something like a guess that i have is it's less established it's a newer thing i think maybe some people still think it's a bad or a phase or whatever it's not

SPEAKER_01:

a good investment because people won't care about this in

SPEAKER_00:

10 years right yeah versus like a more traditional sort of house or apartment complex it's like those have been around forever that's just that's my best

SPEAKER_01:

guess okay maybe they're more easily damageable like I mean there's smaller buildings like what if like you have a bad storm or whatever and then all of a sudden like high winds instead of like maybe damaging your back patio instead like high winds could damage your your left side of your house the entire the entire part of it

SPEAKER_00:

no yeah that's a that's a good point for sure But cities are getting on board. Places like Fresno, California and Texas are revising zoning rules to allow more tiny homes to be built. See, this makes

SPEAKER_01:

sense for places like California that have like population problems. Like if you've ever been to San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's just a sprawl of just like stuff. And so it's hard to get like a house in those kind of places. But if you could afford like a tiny home on like a small lot. positive

SPEAKER_00:

yeah right and yeah according to the research some cities are even investing in them to combat things like homelessness and uh and just housing shortages so like i think like in those areas like you suggested

SPEAKER_03:

okay

SPEAKER_00:

so who are tiny homes made for i think there's like a few different groups of people in terms of real estate buyers yeah there's first-time buyers it could be a good entry into ownership right if you can't if you can't afford like a more expensive property but there's a tiny home available and you can get to start buying that property and renting out of tiny home, you know, it's certainly a good entry point or could be a good entry point. Renters, obviously people who are maybe looking to rent one short term, even long term.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, could be. I mean, it's the vacation rental thing again, like I said, like that's a, that's, that's, I bet that sticks out as like a unique vacation

SPEAKER_00:

rental. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, and just investors looking to maybe invest in some, some.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. I would love to get to one of our investor friends on the pod and talk to them about this, you know? Yeah. Maybe we get one of our experts kind of talk about like, Would they? Won't they? What would they look for? Is this even something that they would? I can't even picture where the nearest tiny home is to like. Yeah. You don't see them very commonly in Cincy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, the city. Well, I like the idea of like build your own, like do it yourself tiny home, like make the tiny home how you would want it to be. This

SPEAKER_01:

sounds like a, this sounds like a, like a live stream we should do for the rent-ish or it's like Zach and Patrick each have 10 hours to build their own tiny home on a live stream or whatever. And the winner, what does the winner get? They get to live there. They get to move into the tiny home. Congrats. Oh, before you wrap up, Pat, I did want to kind of say, I was curious about this. So I Googled how many people in America live in tiny homes. Now, this is according to Ruby Home, which is a source I'm not super familiar with. But if you had to guess, how many tiny homes exist in the U.S.? Best guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I'm going to go

SPEAKER_01:

a million. A million? Yeah. 10,000 is what this website says. That's it? Estimated around 10,000 tiny homes exist in the U.S., representing about.36 of all residential listings. That can't be right. Is what they say. Wow, that's not many at all. Total residential listings. Okay, so there might be more, but that's how many at the time that they did this source, how many were listed. So maybe people buy them and just stay in them. So this could be a talking point on the fact that people will make or buy a tiny home and stay there, but At the time of this article's research, they only saw 10,000 in the U.S. for lists. Got it, got it, got it. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, would you, to the long-awaited question, would you live in a tiny home?

SPEAKER_01:

Me?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No. I appreciate the environmental aspects of it. I think that that's very cool. Um, and I thought that it was fun staying in a tiny home for a weekend is like a unique getaway, like a, like a, you know, Oh, it's cool. It's a, but then I was like by Sunday, the novelty had worn off and I was like, I need more space to move around. Yeah. And also, I don't mind living with people. I've lived with partners, fiancees now for a long time. I need my space. In a tiny home, you cannot, it's near impossible to really have your own dedicated space. I need a place to go to sit down and listen to music or be with my own thoughts and like journal or write or read a book or whatever. It's like, I, when you're in the cohabiting a space with someone, even if you love and care about that person a lot, it's possible that you may clash. It's like, that's a small space for two people to co-inhabit. So me solo bachelor Zach, who knows? I mean, maybe he asked me that like 15 years ago, but like now definitely no, I could, I couldn't do it just too, too small, too confined. I need a little bit more space to move what about you

SPEAKER_00:

yeah I mean definitely long term I couldn't do and I agree I appreciate I kind of wish I was one of those people that could I just don't you know I like I agree I like my space I like yeah you know I kind of like collecting things I'm a bit of a collector that's the

SPEAKER_01:

thing too is I have I have a lot of storage if I moved

SPEAKER_00:

into a tiny home I would have to get a storage unit right however I could see myself having a tiny home as like a, a retreat, like weekend retreat, like a couple hours, like maybe like more nature and just kind of like disconnect from stuff. And like, I could see myself being in that, in that position. Patrick's

SPEAKER_01:

like, I invested in a tiny home outside the Red Robin. It's my home away from home. I wake up, I burger, I go back to bed. I wake up, I burger, I go back to bed. Dude, that sounds awesome. Patrick's taking burgercation.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, cool. Thank you, Patrick, for informing all of us about tiny homes. Folks out there, let us know what you think about tiny homes by emailing questions at therentishpod.com. Next up, we're going to go to Real Estate Real, and we're going to do a quick one. This is a super abbreviated one, and I think partly because one of the two people on this show has not criminally, I might add, seen New

SPEAKER_00:

Girl. I've seen a couple episodes. My girlfriend loves it.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll get into that. We'll get into that. All right. We're talking about Jess's loft. So the apartment in New Girl, the loft apartment, if you're familiar with the show, you'll know exactly what we mean. I mean, 95% of the show takes place in their loft apartment with, you know, all of the gang just hanging up out there, doing their shenanigans and getting into their, you know, fun relationship dynamics. I mean, clearly it's like a... New Girl is very much like a throwback sitcom. It reminds me a lot of Seinfeld or How I Met Your Mother or Friends. It's kind of in those same sort of veins where it's really just about a couple of adults living together, figuring life out as they go along. And that's kind of what New Girl is. Love Zooey Deschanel. I think that the show is awesome. We'll talk about our opinions on the show. But yeah, we're going to explore the sunny Los Angeles apartment here. One of the quirkiest, most beloved living spaces on television. It's where we watch roommates become best friends. where true American was born, and where almost nobody seemed to have a steady job, and yet the apartment was massive. So, in the show, the loft is located in LA's Arts District, which is part of the downtown LA, I love this abbreviation, DTLA, is that a common abbreviation for downtown Los Angeles? Downtown LA? The part of downtown Los Angeles, or DTLA, as it's known by the kids. In this show, in the show they refer to it as being at 8375 Melrose Avenue, but that is a fictional address. Just like many addresses in television shows, they just totally lie. Melrose

SPEAKER_00:

is a real

SPEAKER_01:

place. It's gotta be. It sounds right. Well, Melrose Place was another show. That was a sitcom. But in real life, the exterior shots were filmed at the Binford Lofts. Hey, throwback. You were just doing... Yeah, Binford Tools. Home Improvement. You were doing the Tim Allen thing. Located at 837 Traction Avenue in the Arts District. So what is the Arts District, you might add? Once a gritty industrial zone, the Arts district has become one of la's coolest neighborhoods filled with art galleries breweries cafes and converted warehouse lofts real estate fun facts here so obviously patrick you've seen enough new girl to have a general understanding of the loft apartment

SPEAKER_00:

yeah i have an understanding i would say of the apartment

SPEAKER_01:

let's give it a little

SPEAKER_00:

descriptor for

SPEAKER_01:

the audience

SPEAKER_00:

right it's open it's very open

SPEAKER_01:

open space yeah what do they call open floor plan yeah is what they typically like the each one of them has their own unique bedrooms or whatever but then it's like they have this giant communal space in That goes from the bedroom hallways all the way to the windows. And it's just these like giant windows, tons of natural light, open space, like lots of furniture and rugs. And I got to say, I think that it's super homey. I love the look of these loft places. It's always, I've always thought it would be cool to live in a place like this in Cincinnati. Like you see loft apartments like this go for rent, sometimes an OTR. And it's just like, it's beautiful. It's an open space. It's warm. It's welcoming.

SPEAKER_00:

I like the exposed brick.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. so cool love that some trivia facts though so true loft living the binford lofts are classic live work warehouse conversions so think exposed brick high ceilings concrete floors and giant windows which are super popular with creatives that's true when i see a loft like this i immediately think like oh you must be a painter

SPEAKER_03:

yeah

SPEAKER_01:

you have an easel and you're listening to mozart uh adaptive reuse boom um in the early 2000s la passed an adaptive reuse ordinance which makes it easier to convert industrial buildings into residential spaces, transforming neighborhoods like the Arts District. Oh, interesting. I didn't even think about that. So it would probably help with them becoming rising and popular. I remember when I was going to college, getting out of college, and people started to talk about where are we going to live? Oh, we're going to find a loft. It was a hip thing. I'm sure that it still is, but I'm sure that that helped it out a lot, especially in very industrial places, which Cincinnati, very industrial especially like the west side you go it's like tons of industrial buildings that have just you know been run down or like you know aren't being totally utilized anymore i'm sure people identify those kind of places to you know put in good lofts right um dtla resurgence once considered too gritty downtown la has become a hotbed of development with luxury lofts and new construction commanding high prices so let's talk about the loft real quick it's massive right i think that's the biggest thing especially by la standards it's a sprawling open concept with four What does that mean, sometimes five? That's what I was trying to think. I have no idea. I don't remember them ever having more than four. A fifth bedroom sometimes appear conveniently when there's a new character. An editing error. They were like, oh, we constructed a fifth bedroom. But yeah, two bathrooms, a large shared living area and kitchen, a mezzanine, and a second floor nook. A rooftop access, often seen in later episodes. The unit looks like it's about 2,500 to 3,000 square foot. Wow. For a downtown LA loft, that's palatial. Warehouse conversions like this don't often follow typical floor plans and rooms may be oddly shaped or have semi-permanent walls, but it adds that nice little touch that a lot of people look for. Okay. Okay, do you have like, could they afford it? Who? I mean. That's what we're about

SPEAKER_00:

to find out. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

A three to four bedroom loft in the arts district in the DTLA, as the kids say, might have gone for about$2,500 to$3,500 a month. That was back in 2011.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Honestly. Oh,

SPEAKER_00:

that's good. Just like when the show. Not as

SPEAKER_01:

much as I would have thought. A comparable multi-bedroom loft in the Binford building or nearby would likely rent for$6,500 to$9,000 a month. Possibly more with rooftop access. Yeah. Buying that unit. expect about 1.5 to 2.5 million dollars

SPEAKER_00:

for the unit depending on the size and the finish and DTLA yeah that sounds about right

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know so could the characters afford it well that's the thing is that like the intro kind of mentioned it is that much like a lot of other sitcoms these characters don't keep the same jobs they flip flop around a lot of stuff like Winston was kind of like not even like employed for a while in the show like he was in school Jess is a teacher which we all know her criminally underpaid so it's like she definitely was not making the amount of money to afford that kind of monthly rent also they're balling out constantly

SPEAKER_03:

yeah

SPEAKER_01:

they're always like playing they're having parties and going out to bars and like oh my gosh i can't imagine their bank accounts are in like the negative

SPEAKER_00:

yeah

SPEAKER_01:

like way negative

SPEAKER_00:

what are that wait so there's five there's

SPEAKER_01:

five of them four of them so jess jess nick schmidt winston and coach there's like variations of that group coach leaves for a It's complicated. Jess is a school teacher. Nick, bartender most of the time and entrepreneur. The sweatshoot, that's one of my favorite things is the suit that looks like a sweat. I can't, the swoot I think is what it's called. He designs a suit that's made out of sweat pant material. And so he wears it to a job interview and he's like, I'm comfortable and I'm gonna get this job. The swoot. Yeah, it's great. Schmidt is a marketing bro. So he's probably the one that's like shouldering most of the rent cost in this situation. Winston, LAPD officer eventually, but again, he spends a lot of the show kind of like hopping between employment. And then Coach was a personal trainer. So personal trainer in LA, maybe making a pretty penny there as well. I don't know. Yeah. Only Schmidt could afford his share comfortably. The rest, not so much. But TV logic is greater than real life budgeting.

SPEAKER_00:

I just wonder how some of these shows like give false expectations toward people moving to like places like LA and New York. Totally. You know, it's like

SPEAKER_01:

you can make it too. I don't know about that. Some fun math here. The LA renters are advised to spend no more than 30% of income on rent. So if rent is$1,600 each, Jess would need to earn at least$64,000 a year. And public school teachers in LA average around$55,000 to$70,000. Okay, so on the higher end of that, she could make it. Maybe. But even on the high end,$70,000 for a teacher in Los Angeles. Yeah. You would assume that they would be paid way more than that. Right. Crazy stuff. So just to quickly wrap everything up. I mean, if you've seen the show, you know what it is. I love New Girl. You're a little bit more lukewarm about it. You want to

SPEAKER_00:

hit me with your New Girl? I think lukewarm is pretty generous. I don't know. Generous? Yeah. I don't like it at all. To me, it's just like stinks of like L.A. written bake. It's just not my thing. L.A. written has a smell? Yeah. I don't know. It's very inauthentic to me. I don't know. I just don't. I'm not a fan. The show is not for me. Okay. You know, my girlfriend loves it. We found other shows that were, you know, there's a Venn diagram middle section that we both agree on. And that's one that's just like, you know, every now and then I'll watch an episode when she has it on. And yeah, I don't know. I don't love it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't know. Some of my favorite TV shows, especially comedies, are if you can write really relatable characters that are, you know, comedy is all about character for me. It's like, it gets annoying if it's like you have all these wacky characters doing all this wacky stuff but I think that the group really balances each other out everyone has their very unique distinct personality and it plays into all the different stories and different situations they find themselves in so like personally for me I think that the interplay between all the characters is what makes the show great and it dips hard because I love New Girl but there is a season when Zooey Deschanel leaves the show because in real life she was pregnant and and had a baby. So in the show, they replace the lead character with Megan Fox for a season. And it is atrocious. Nothing against Megan Fox. Because I've seen her in some stuff that I like. But like, oh my god, it's bad. It's like, it is so bad. They probably would have been better off taking a year hiatus from the show. But still, sitcoms gotta make their money. And it's a network sitcom show at the time. It wasn't like a streaming show. So like ABC or whatever, needed to make their money off of weekly episodes I think it might have been on Fox but I don't remember but so besides that one blemish I think it's a great show and I think it has a great ending I think that the very last episode of the show is actually like a very heartfelt way to tie up everything together and leaves you thinking like I feel good about these characters and where their lives are gonna go from this point okay and after spending six seven years of being invested in the characters I like that I like when a show ends and I have a good taste in my mouth so that's good I don't know new New Girl, good show. But yeah, I got to give a special shout out to Jake Johnson as Nick, who is the best character in that show. He's so freaking funny. I love his portrayal of that character. He's like the perfect schlub. It's awesome. Lazy, works when he can as a bartender, but he's kind of got that heart of gold that you just appreciate. And I love the Schmidt character. I actually think that Schmidt is like... He goes through the best emotional journey in the show. His description on the document here is marketing bro at a high-paying firm, but he's a lot more than that. He ends up changing and growing and becoming a better person over the course of the show. I like the characters a lot. Again, like I said, you got good characters, you hook to Zach. Okay. But that's it. Thank you all for listening to another episode of The Rentish Pod. Follow us at The Rentish Pod on Instagram. You can email questions at therentishpod.com with any topic suggestions or feedback or anything that you might have that you want to share with us. Your opinions on New Girl and tell us why Patrick's wrong about everything. And especially about Superman. Email me about Superman. And then, yeah, subscribe on the podcast platform of choice. Rate us, review us, and give us a comment. And we love and appreciate all of you for doing so. I've been Zach, that's been Patrick, that's been Musée, and we'll see you guys next time.