Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#1

Post by rmanocha » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 1:18 PM UTC

I'm moving to San Francisco for the summer (June to Mid August) for an internship. I was wondering what's the best way to find an apartment for this period. I've checked Craigslist so far, but was wondering if there are any better options/sites where I can look up listings?

Also, I'll be working in Redwood City, so what would be the best area to live in? The office is very close to the BART station, so theoretically I can live in SF and come down daily for work. Is that a recommended option?

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#2

Post by mattdeboard » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 1:35 PM UTC

Rent.com is good, plus they send you $100 if you sign a lease you found through their site. I left the Bay Area for Indiana and was pleasantly surprised when I got a check in the mail from them. shrug That's a big plus IMO.

Also Redwood City is on the south end of "the peninsula," touching "the south bay." It's not a bad place to live, you're iirc 7 or 8 bart stops from the city. But yeah if you're gonna be there for the summer I would definitely consider living in the city and commuting to work. It would be a really awesome experience.

You can find inexpensive places to live and mass transit is EVERYWHERE, plus a lot of great night life in walking distance. Bring a bike. It's definitely possible to commute to Redwood City every day. Get a kindle.

tl;dr: I miss the Bay Area so bad, and I'm jealous of you. TAKE ME WITH YOU. I don't eat much, I promise.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#3

Post by kristofferR » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 1:46 PM UTC

padmapper.com is quite good

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#4

Post by hajrice » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 1:50 PM UTC

Your best bet is HackerHouse IMO. If you're really looking for an apartment, go with http://padmapper.com, really easy way to browse for apartments

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#5

Post by kroger » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 1:50 PM UTC

When I was living in the Bay Area I found my place in craigslist, don't know if it's still good. But yes, you should go live in San Francisco and comute to work.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#6

Post by plusbryan » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 1:56 PM UTC

Padmapper.com puts listings on a map, and includes a lot of useful features like remembering listings you've already viewed.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#7

Post by shazow » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 2:27 PM UTC

http://padmapper.com/ and co are great for finding apartment rentals, but I suggest you consider something like http://airbnb.com/ too.

It's very difficult finding a rental with less than a 12 month lease in SF. The best part of Airbnb or similar is, if you travel light, you can spend some time in different neighbourhoods which vary significantly in SF.

End of the day, you might even save some money compared to renting.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#8

Post by thedeuce » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 2:28 PM UTC

here's how my brother and I rolled. Packed up the car with a few belongings, left everything else behind. Drive across I-80 from PA to CA and then into San Fran. Met some people found an apt and made the deal. Lived in a hotel for a week until the room was ready.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#9

Post by rmanocha » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 2:28 PM UTC

plusbryan wrote: post #6

Padmapper.com puts listings on a map, and includes a lot of useful features like remembering listings you've already viewed.

Thanks for the suggestion. Padmapper indeed is pretty great, but the one problem I'm having is that most of the listings are for 12 month leases (or similar). Is there anyway to narrow the results to just sublets or listings just over the summer?

Re: Ask HN: Moving to San Francisco: Best way to find an appartment

#10

Post by ajays » Sat, Apr 02, 2011, 2:29 PM UTC

http://housingmaps.com/ is the granddaddy of them all. IIRC, it was one of the first such mashup apps with the newly launched Google Maps API (well, it was one of the first to become popular, at least (for the pedantic crowd who hasn't had their morning coffee yet ;-) ) )

Also: Redwood City is in the Peninsula (i.e. directly South of San Francisco). BART does not serve RWC; Caltrain does. Assuming you meant Caltrain, then you should look for places near the intersection of 4th St & King St (that's where all Caltrains start). There's ATT Park nearby, and a decent amount of stuff to do.

Also: it may be hard to find something now, given that you're interested in June. Most apartments are advertised just a month before being vacant.