Trying to find housing in San Francisco can be extremely intimidating. When I first moved to the city I didn’t know where to look, what to look for or what I should expect from the most expensive city in the US. Hopefully at the end of this article you’ll feel a bit more ready to tackle the crazy SF housing system.
Lets first start out with everything you’ll need to do before you even start looking at places. For starters, if you’re not originally from San Francisco housing is going to give you a huge case of sticker shock. Everything here costs extra. Don’t want to cook on a hot plate? Rent is higher. Don’t want to share a room? Rent is higher. Want a place to park your car? Rent is higher. Dishwasher? Rent is higher. Things that most people figure come with every home can be hard to find in this city. So before you even start googling places keep in mind that things are probably going to be very different from your hometown.
So, you’ve done a little research and most importantly you’ve set a budget! After that you’re ready to start looking at places. My favourite sites for house hunting are:
Craigslist
Craigslist has a bad rep but if you know what to look for you can find some great places. I found my current place on Craigslist and I promise it wasn’t as scary as it seems. When looking for places on Craigslist I like to enter my budget into the price option on the left hand side and always look from newest postings to oldest. I avoid any post that doesn’t have pictures, is over my budget or seems sketchy in any way (weird wording, written in a language I don’t speak, not actually in SF etc.) When you find a place you’re interested in feel free to email the renter and include your name, age, the fact that you’re a student and any questions you may have. The quicker you email them and set up a time to view the unit the higher of a chance you have at getting it. Never go to see a place by yourself and if for any reason they ask for bank information beforehand or tell you that someone besides the person renting out the unit will be showing it do not go. Getting money stolen or putting your safety at risk is never worth it.
Hotpads is great if you don’t know too much about how the city is laid out. You should once again add your max budget in, go to more and select what kind of housing you want (rental, sublet, room) and then click map view in the upper right hand corner. This will lay out all of the available units in your price range on a map of the city. This way you can easily avoid the Tenderloin (the most crime filled neighbourhood in the city) and see how close you’ll be to campus. When emailing people about places you’re interested in keep in mind the same things from the Craigslist portion. Playing it safe is always a lot better.
PadMapper
I personally like their app a bit more but the website is a great resource too. It’s laid out in a map style and allows you to click on different properties to view them. My favourite feature of Padmapper is the fact that it saves your information for next time. When you go back to the site all of the listings you’ve previously seen will still be grey and all of your past preferences will still be there. Their app is a bit more streamlined in my opinion and makes things easier to interact with but the site as a whole is a great resource. Not to sound like a broken record, but again always keep your safety in mind when emailing and going to look at places!
So, now you’ve emailed some places, maybe seen a few in person. What’s your next step? Check out the surrounding area. If you take public transportation to work or school map out your new potential map. Where is the closest grocery store that’s affordable? ie. not Wholefoods. Do you need a laundromat? Where is it? You should also look up the walking score and safety of your new potential neighbourhood. If you don’t feel comfortable being Downtown or in Richmond or in the Sunset then re-evaluate your original plan and make sure you like where you’re going to live. You never want to sign away your life for a year just to find out you hate the neighbourhood and are stuck there.
If you don’t have roommates pre-lined up, can’t afford to live on your own or something happened at the last second there are always roommate programs. SFSU has a roommate matching program called Roommate Finder where you can look at places to live with other students. I can speak for how well the program works of if I would recommend it because I have never used it. I do think that having as many options as possible is the best though so it wouldn’t hurt to look.
I know this was a lot of information but I hope you found a few things helpful. At the end of the day don’t feel bad about asking as many questions as you need to. You should know exactly what you’re paying for and be comfortable with the whole process!