22yo student moving to SF in August - need housing advice please! (Oakland: apartments)

[Alex149]

Hi everyone I'm new here and I've been desperately looking around for help.

I'm graduating this month and will move to SF from Arizona sometimes late July early August for grad school (GGU). I read some about neighborhoods and narrow down to Nob Hill, SOMA, Mission, Russian Hill (but I heard it's expensive), or Downtown (not anywhere near Tenderloin).

I'm looking for a studio in a safe neighborhood (being a girl living alone is quite scary), my budget is as cheap as it gets but max is $1100. I've been looking on craiglist and some other websites but the price is so out of range. Do I need to actually walk around looking for an affordable place? If you guys have any recommend properties, any information would be highly highly appreciated!!

The thing is I can only move there around 29th 30th of July. Do landlords there allow us to put down a hold deposit until we move in? I heard it's difficult during hot season like July or August. I just don't want to be homeless and live on the street when I move there

Thank you guys!

[bmw335xi]

You should rent a room from a shared apartment. It's very common with students and young professionals and you'll be able to afford a place in a cool district.

[mayorhaggar]

Very basic 1br's in nice parts of SF start around $1400. Studios are around $1000-1200. Living with roommates would be about $700-900, it's a good way to meet people if you find good roommates.

I would focus on Nob Hill and the Mission, but in the Mission stay west of Mission Street to avoid all the crime and grime. Also maybe North Beach. Russian Hill is very ritzy and SOMA is honestly desolate and dumpy in most parts except for the eastern corner which is a lot of new condos that are out of your budget range. "Downtown" is not a residential area. You see a lot of places listed as "downtown" or "union square" or "Lower Nob Hill" or "financial district" or "civic center" on craigslist but they're all in the Tenderloin. Anything listed in those areas that is west of Masonic is the Tenderloin, and you won't see any apartments for rent east of Masonic and south of North Beach and north of Market, because it's mainly office buildings.

Very rarely you will see studios for less than $900 in nice parts of SF, but it will be tough to get them because every college student in town will be trying to get the place, or there's something wrong with them. You often see studios for less than $1000 in the Tenderloin but believe me you want to avoid pretty much anywhere in the TL unless you like junkies, homeless people and drug dealers.

Also you could also check out Oakland, you can get 1 br's in nice areas for $900-1100 and studios for less than that, and it's about 20 minutes on BART to downtown SF where GGU is.

When you are looking for a place be aggressive, bring a credit report and a filled-out generic rental application. Go to lots of viewings that you find on craigslist, wandering around looking for "for rent" signs will get you nowhere. At the viewings there will be dozens of people so show up early and if you like the place and the area it's in, tell the landlord you want to apply. They probably won't let you put down a deposit unless they decide right away to rent to you, usually they take all the applications (probably 50-100 or more applications for each place!) and pick the person they like the most, which is insane because how do you stand out from 100 other people? But some landlords just want to get it over with and will let you make a deposit to hold the place, so be kind of pushy about trying to get them to agree to it, but without annoying them.

[mdwstrnkid]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Anything listed in those areas that is west of Masonic is the Tenderloin, and you won't see any apartments for rent east of Masonic and south of North Beach and north of Market, because it's mainly office buildings.

I think that you mean Mason Street, not Masonic as it is a couple of miles west of the Tenderloin.

[mayorhaggar]

^
oops, yes, good call, thanks.