Recently I moved from Boston to San Francisco, and after a few weeks found a great apartment in Nob Hill. SF is an exciting place to live, and it’s even more exciting if you work in technology. For those who are thinking of moving I’d like to offer some advice for the first painful step of finding a place to live. The difficulty of finding a place varies throughout the year, but it seems to be most difficult during summer.
If you’re moving in the summer be prepared to spend several weeks looking for a place. Of course you might get get lucky and find one in a few days, but usually the process takes longer. Another tip is to get some short-term corporate housing until you find a more permanent place.
The usual route is to use Craigslist. But in San Francisco, the more desirable listings get dozens of e-mails a day, which makes it difficult to stand out. It’s especially bad if you’re male – female room mates are generally preferred.
It also helps to contact friends in the area that might know of rooms available. That’s how I found my apartment.
If you do have to resort to Craigslist, you have to be persistent. From my experience, only around 10-20% of the listings you e-mail will respond. If you can arrange a showing, you have a much better chance of getting a place. Sometimes it helps to bring a friend because it shows that you’re sociable.
Another tip is to craft a nice message you’ll send to every listing. It should be personal, well-written, and customized a little for each post. The goal is to get as few people to ignore it. Tricks like including their name in the subject line help. There’s technology that can make browsing listings easier, like custom Craigslist search RSS feeds, or mashups like HousingMaps. Keeping the e-mails organized helps a lot.
By far the most important thing is to be persistent. It’s a huge schlep, but you’ll get it eventually. Having been through this process, I understand the how painful it can be.