Our journey after the Palisades fire: Finding home, trusting friends, and rebuilding together

Like so many others, our own Michael Rauch, General Counsel here at RentSpree, lost his home in the Palisades fire. Here, he shares his story of resilience, community, and rebuilding in the aftermath.

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Losing our home in the Palisades fire has been one of the most challenging experiences my family and I have ever faced. Like many of our neighbors, everything we owned that wasn’t hastily thrown into a duffel bag during the evacuation was destroyed. While the loss was devastating, we’ve come to realize that most of it was just “stuff”—replaceable, albeit sentimental. Beyond a few cherished items like photos of my parents and drawings from our kids, what truly matters is that we are healthy and fortunate enough to rebuild. It’s a cliché, but it’s true: we’re grateful for what we have and the position we’re in.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, my wife and I faced the daunting task of finding a rental place for ourselves, our three kids, and our dog. We were incredibly fortunate that friends of friends—people we’d never even met—offered us their home for a week. But we knew we needed a longer-term solution quickly. Even though I’ve been a homeowner for the past 13 years, my job as General Counsel at RentSpree has made me well-acquainted with the rental world. RentSpree simplifies and automates the rental application process, but even with that knowledge, I was genuinely surprised by how seamless the process turned out to be when we applied for the home we are now so lucky to call ours.

Our first call was to Chuck, our real estate agent who helped us buy our house years ago. Over time, Chuck has grown to be a close family friend. At RentSpree, we often emphasize the importance of building and maintaining relationships, and Chuck’s consistent presence and the trust we’ve built with him over the years made turning to him in this challenging situation an easy choice.

Chuck didn’t sugarcoat things. With all the fires in the area, there were tens of thousands of displaced families and a very limited number of rental properties in the Greater Los Angeles area. He told us we had to act fast. The next morning, my family (dog included) piled into the car and spent the day touring rental homes across the city. It was a sobering experience. Most homes we visited were crowded with other families who, like us, had lost everything. As we drove away from the first house Chuck got a call from the landlord’s agent informing him that the rent had gone up by several thousand dollars. I wish I could say that this was my only experience with this, but this happened with another property (and also occurred to friends of ours who were in the same situation).

Late that afternoon, we found a house we liked. It was close to our oldest son’s school and had enough space for all of us. Chuck urged us to apply on the spot if we were interested, so we did. The landlord’s agent provided us with a RentSpree application link. While I didn’t choose RentSpree in this instance—it was the platform the landlord’s agent used—I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and relief as we applied. Sitting in the car, we entered our information, submitted the application, and had our background checks processed. That evening, we received confirmation that we were accepted.

We feel incredibly lucky. We found a home that suits our needs and a landlord who didn’t raise the rent in the face of soaring demand. Unfortunately, many of our friends haven’t been as fortunate. Some are still living in hotels, anxiously watching their insurance coverage dwindle while worrying about their kids’ schooling and searching for stability in a world that suddenly feels very unsteady.

This experience reinforced for us the importance of relationships—with people like Chuck, who went above and beyond to guide us through this crisis—and the value of tools that can simplify life during incredibly stressful times. While the road ahead is still daunting, we’re grateful for the kindness of strangers, the support of friends, and the ability to rebuild together as a family.