DS has been in San Francisco for 3 years. At first, he lived in a 3BR apartment with 2 roommates. One moved back to the East coast a little over a year ago. DS and other roommate moved to a 2 BR apartment. Now that roommate is moving back East. DS had arranged to move into a 3 BR with friends of a friend-or so he thought. He just got a text saying, oh sorry, someone else is going to be moving in with us. He does not want to try to find someone to move into his current apartment. He does not want to live alone. He does not know of any other friends or acquaintances looking for a roommate. Other than Craig’s List, how do you find a living situation in SF? I’m frightened that some random person could be anything from difficult to live with to a psychopath. I know that after 3 years living and working on his own that he is an adult and will have to figure this out, but I want to give him some helpful advice. Thanks.
AirBnB a room for a few weeks to buy some time to find a suitable roommate.
My kid thought she needed a roommate until she tried living by herself and actually liked it. Agree with the post above. He needs to test drive solo living for a few weeks to see if it works. If he can afford the rent, maybe he will be better off living alone… it will be easier to date, too.
Does his College/University have an alumni group he could post in?
My D has used SpareRoom; there are lots of apps besides CraigsList.
Good idea about the alumni group. I had suggested to him that the large company he works for should be having new college grads arriving to start work and must have some sort of digital bulletin board. Although, with everyone working from home, who knows if newbies are actually moving to SF.
Rents are dropping in SF – https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Bay-Area-rents-plummeted-in-June-See-the-biggest-15383584.php – so your son might want to factor that into considering his options. In addition to meaning that apartments that would have been unaffordable 6 months ago might now be in-reach for the still-employed; at the same time, it impacts the roommate/ apartment-sharing market because there may be less pressure for some to find roommates, while others might be finding it harder to fill a spot if the cost for a shared room is now suddenly well-above the going market rate.
My kids always used Craigslist back in the day – but I think in the post-Covid world people might be a lot more hesitant about apartment sharing with people they hadn’t met before. The whole process of finding a room through in-person meeting & interviewing is also a lot harder.
My S has been living alone since he started work and really prefers it. If he can swing it, it might be worth giving it a try, especially with decreasing rental prices. Good luck to him. I agree alumni networks and his company are other good leads if he really wants a room mate.
Goskid 2 (in SF) had two roommates move in with GF’s early this year. He used Craigslist for roommate hunt in Feb. Lots of face time and meet ups before mutually agreeing to give it a go. Thankfully/luckily, they have turned out to be good choices as they now are all WFH.
While they have a lovely, spacious 3 bedroom flat, Goskid has also spent time with us in the 'burbs to change things up a bit and give a some space to the others. One roomie is from London and other is from Washington, so not as easy for them to head home.
Goskid did network thru social media, college and grad school alumni. While he got some bites, some obstacles were timing didn’t work, commute issues and price.
Good luck to your S…
I’ve read those articles about rents dropping dramatically in SF. I went on Zillow and Trulia, (stayed up until 2 AM because who can sleep when your child is unhappy-actually, who can sleep period because hot flashes, but that’s a different thread ?) and I don’t see it with respect to studios and one bedrooms. (Still mostly unaffordable and, in this time of working from home, DS feels it would be too lonely). It only seems to be lower when you start looking at 2 BRs, (prices several hundred dollars less than what he is paying right now) which brings it right back to the needing a roommate problem.
On another note, I wanted to say it’s been a while since I’ve been on CC. I stopped when the format changed a while back. It seems like it has gotten easier to navigate. I have always been mostly a lurker (I think I joined in 2007), but so many names are so familiar to me and I even feel like I know some of you from years of reading your posts. Thank you for the responses and good wishes. I knew I could count on the CC community.
At least in NY, there are a bunch of apps like roomi, diggz, that my kid used to find his housing. Some require/offer identify verification, linking to social media – seeing someone’s linkedin was very helpful. They all have questionnaires for “matching” roommate styles – cleanliness, views on guests, cooking habits, etc. as well as neighborhoods, price range etc. Is there something similar in SF?
@JZMOM2 I would add that if your DS is looking in a specific area, he should walk around. Some just post a For Rent sign instead of going the Craigslist route. Look also for moving vans and chat with those departing.
Also…has he spoken to current landlord? Since Covid has allowed many to work from home, lots have left the City. Some landlords are a little more amenable to keeping any tenant in place vs. having no tenants.
I’m not convinced that Zillow and Trulia are the best/most accurate sources. Make sure your S tries lots of social media venues and websites. Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook Marketplace, Padmapper, Roomster, Roomiematch. Even have him get on Nextdoor for area he’s interested in.
My daughter just moved out of San Francisco (Bay east-off of 3rd) because the med school was assigning kids to different hospitals in Northern California but that’s a different story.
I would suggest that your son look at the postings for grad student housing or med students from any of the local universities. They’ve been switching so much lately, because of Covid, but I’m sure there’s something over there. (She loved living in that area, a little bit warmer with a nice breeze, farmers market, transportation, the new stadium, and lots of young people in that area.)
In NYC my D used Roomi and SpareRoom and eventually took over a 10 month sublet which worked out perfectly. They did require ID and social media links. Perhaps those or similar sites operate in San Francisco.
My S moved to SF last year and found his apartment on a facebook group called Alpaca. Search facebook for apartments, roommates, housing in SF. There were lots of listings, lots of people looking for housing or roommates, sublets… He lives in a 4 bedroom apartment and someone was leaving, so his roommates posted in that group and interviewed potential roommates. He checked out Craigslist but there weren’t many legitimate listings.