Tips For The San Francisco Apartment Hunter
by Elissa - December 17, 2008
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After 2 months of disappointing apartment hunting, I finally found a place to rest my head. Here are some tips so you won't have to waste as much time as I did!
Prepare For Small
San Francisco is one of those cities where it’s okay to have a loft bed after college. Rather than calling it small, I prefer to think of my 10×10′ room as “cozy.”
Cost Plus World Market
2552 Taylor St, San Francisco, CA 94133
They sell space-saving pull-out beds here.
They sell space-saving pull-out beds here.
Read The Fine Print
Or you’ll end up finding out that there’s a territorial cage-free ferret after you sign the lease. I have narrowly missed visitations to apartments with babies, a 70-year-old-Italian-speaking woman, and a one-bedroom shared by five F.O.B. Ukrainian teens.
Desparate Generosity
(This is a direct quotation from Craigslist):
“I am looking for a vegan roommate to rent a room in my house in Costa Rica. The rent is $150 for the room a month. The house is located on a beautiful property by a native reservation and 45 minutes from Manual Antonio beach. You can be male or female and I don’t care about your age.”
Um…Make sure to tell your mom you love her before you take off for this apartment.
The Ad Has Lonely Myspace Photos
This girl was, to everyone’s great surprise, having trouble finding a roommate. Perhaps it was because she preferred a male, age 20-30 with a “preppy thug” style. Perhaps it was because she used the word “buggin’” so many times in the ad. But it couldn’t have been the photos. Could it have?
They ask you to do your interview via iChat
Remember, you’re interviewing these subjects as your potential roommates, and this space as your future apartment too, so it’s okay to take control of the situation.
Don't Assume There's A Livingroom
A lot of these old San Francisco buildings have very strange layouts. You may run into an alleged “Three-Bedroom” that’s actually two bedrooms, a closet and a kitchen. So before you get too excited about your $600 room in Russian Hill, be certain it’s not just a pantry.
During my recent apartment search, here are some things my potential new roommate desired:
Someone who maintains “active spiritual practice”
-Someone who will agree to wear paper slippers inside
“45-year-old White Male Seeking Gay Male Latino Roommate”
-A handful of vegans who don’t want any animal products in the entire house
-Someone who doesn’t mind “rabbit-sitting” 3 or 4 nights a week
T.M.I.
One girl wrote such a long description of her “amazing” apartment, (which turned out to be half a block away from a run-down housing project), that she felt the need to include the price of yellow onions at the market down the street. ($0.10/lb.!)
Do you think she might have been trying to make up for something?
Mickey's Monkey
218 Pierce St, San Francisco, CA 94117
Hunt for some cool quirky used furniture here. There’s plenty of junk to sift through, so come when you’re in a patient mood.
Hunt for some cool quirky used furniture here. There’s plenty of junk to sift through, so come when you’re in a patient mood.
Funky Furniture
1100 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Also great for some basic finds.
Also great for some basic finds.
Trade Rooms
If you apply to live at a work-trade apartment, you’ll either sign up for babysitting some devil child 24/7, or you’ll get scammed into giving your social security number to a hooker. Don’t do it!
Bad Grammar
(Another direct cut-n-paste from Craigslist):
ilive in a room whit own bathroom i want a roomate male withou furniture please call me
A Guy Tries To Sell You Meth In The Lobby
I knew I should have turned around right then and there. Not even a penthouse with a laundry room could have made up for that one.
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