Looking for housing

Talka

I'm currently looking for a place to live in San Francisco, and could use some advice on how to approach my particular situation short-term and long-term. First off, I know this is a personal decision and I just need to choose what I think would suit me best. That's well understood, I just want an outside voice or two as a sanity check to make sure I'm not thinking crazy.

So here's the situation, briefly: I'm looking for both a job and a place to live in San Francisco. It's hard to say how the job hunt is going, I've been at it for three weeks and have had three phone interviews and two in-person interviews. I got the impression those have went well, and I'm waiting to hear back from those places in the next week or so. Also I would like to be getting more interviews a week than I'm getting now, and I'm working on that. But basically I'm unemployed, although I am confident that with my credentials and qualifications I should expect to find a job in the next month to three months.

I'm also looking for housing. The fact that I don't have a job or hard job offer has hurt my chances at getting a nice place. I am financially secure, though. I have more than enough in savings to pay for rent for over a year, and I get a $1,000 stipend a month anyways from my well-off parents. Still, few people want to rent a room to an unemployed recent graduate.

I've been looking at apartments at a rate of about two a day for the past three weeks. Maybe I have terrible luck, but about 75% of them have been really off the mark for me. Normally I have too big of an age difference with the prospective roommates for us to really "click" (I'm 22, most people renting at about 30). Other times we don't click for personal/cultural reasons. Other times the apartment is in an area I don't feel safe in, or is in an area too far from public transit. I also have a car I want to keep, so finding a place where parking would be an option further limits my choices.

The other 25% of the time I find a place that's great with roommates I'd be thrilled to live in, but again my unemployment hurts my chances and they inevitably pick a different guy to live with.

Currently, I'm living in a hotel. I lived on my friend's couch for three weeks, and while that worked well I didn't want to overstay my welcome, so I checked into a $40/night hotel. This is a short-term fix and I'd like to move somewhere less depressing ASAP. Still, I don't want to "settle" for a place in the city where I'd be miserable. I know there are these rare places (the 25%) where I'd be happy, I'm just not landing them because I'm still working on the job offer.

So short-term, what's best for me? Stay in the hotel (lonely and not particularly cost-efficient)? Find a week-to-week place in the city? Move back in on the friend's couch? Again, I know this a personal decision. I'm just thinking out loud.

Long-term, what should I be doing? Just keep chugging away at the job hunt while searching for that nice apartment with nice roommates? Should I cave in and get a place I wouldn't be happy in? I know, this is a personal decision. I just want some outside voices.

I'm not particularly discouraged or depressed at this point. In my mental calculations I told myself it would take me about two to four months to find a job and place to live. But hotels are lonely and the job/housing search is slow, so I just want whatever outside advice I can get. Thanks.

Thanatos

I looked at 18 places the first day I went hunting in Seattle. I found one that was ghetto, we weren't particularly fond of, but my roommate and I decided to put in a bid on, anyhow, because it was the best we'd seen. Someone already threw down a deposit.

The nineteenth place (the first place we looked at the next morning) was money. So, we had maybe a 10% rate of "looks good." 25% seems to be doing pretty fantastically well to me.

NotYou

Find a room to rent out on craigslist. It's much less scary than you think. If you have that much money, show a bank statement, and they'll be fine renting to you. Don't sign more than a 6 month lease in case you hate the new roomie.

edit: also don't rush. I was in a similar situation and was in a rush to get an apartment and ended up with one that made me miserable.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

NotYou wrote: »

Find a room to rent out on craigslist. It's much less scary than you think. If you have that much money, show a bank statement, and they'll be fine renting to you. Don't sign more than a 6 month lease in case you hate the new roomie.

edit: also don't rush. I was in a similar situation and was in a rush to get an apartment and ended up with one that made me miserable.

i was in a similar situation after my potential roommate ditched me for apartments in nyc

so i looked at rooms to rent out on craigslist, yes, it was difficult, because often if you liked the place then you had to have the other people choose you, as well as you liking them and the place. and sometimes other people beat you to the bunch.

took me a while, but i found something right now that i am renting out month to month. couch surfing got tiring, and it will for you too.

if you can find a situation like that it could be very convenient, because i can stay as long or as short as i want

also, a lot of people sublet for a month or two, and those rooms are easy to find and are furnished
you could sublet a room to give you a place to look at jobs and more permanent places from.

Zeon

I just troll craigslist. I looked for... 9 months for my current apartment? 99.9999% of the people renting rooms on craigslist are crazy. I met this one dude who was like "Yeah its my house, but i need to rent it out cus i cant afford it (it was in a really nice neighborhood). You get this tiny closet as a bedroom (about 5" x 7") and you share a bathroom with the six other tenants. You have to be in by 10pm and out by 9am as i have to work and i dont want people hanging around. No guests, no parking because i hate cars, and no cooking so you dont burn the place down". Really? Also met this other chick who kept telling me how "bad" she was 2 minutes into talking to her (in a creepy, sexual kind of way), which would have been awesome but also kind of felt like she would have killed me eventually. And then of course, the "artists" who are like "I hope its ok, but i make 200 square foot paintings using my own shit. The apartment smells most of the time, will that bother you?".

Eventually i found a posting that was like "Hey, so my roommate just moved out, i need another one asap. If you can pay rent on time thats awesome. We can work anything else out later". Went and met him that day, moved in a week later. Best. Roommate. Ever.

So just keep looking. Dont settle, it will make you miserable. Ive had so many bad roommates and bad apartments that the last time i had to look i just decided to take my time and wait until one felt right. I realise thats not always possible (i once had to move with 3 days notice, when my roommate canceled our lease, didnt find out until the landlord showed up to let people view the apartment). But even then, worst case scenario, find a place with a short lease, and if you hate it, keep looking. I know it sucks to move (ive moved 11 times an im only 25) but moving is way easier than dealing with a crappy living situation. Living somewhere or with someone you hate makes your life pretty shitty, it makes you unhappy all the time and generally ruins your attitude, or at least it ruined mine.

Gihgehls

It won't help you find roommates, but Padmapper.com is great for quickly finding places.

witch_ie

To save yourself some time while looking for a place to live, I suggest getting to know the general areas of the city that you would want to live (not ghetto, close to transportation, etc.) and ignore places that don't meet those criteria. Also, you might try expanding your search to outside of the city - Marin or San Mateo County can be very nice and the commutes to the city are doable.

If you want to live in the city and have a car, you've got to realize, that unless where you live has reserve parking (which you will likely have to pay for - my friends pay $100 - $200/month), you will likely be hunting for parallel spaces on the street. If you end up living close and working close to public transportation, you may not end up using your car as often as you think.