Realtor recommendations for the East Bay?
February 12, 2011 7:34 AM   Subscribe

Can anybody recommend realtors who could help us find apartment rentals in San Francisco's East Bay?

My wife and I are moving to San Francisco and will be in town next week looking for a walkable East Bay apartment. We're currently focusing on Rockridge (Oakland), Lafayette, and Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill, but are flexible.

I've already got Craigslist covered with sites like PadMapper, but my wife wants to include realtors as well. Any tips on who's good or who to avoid in the above or similar towns would be appreciated!
posted by cyrusdogstar to Home & Garden (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Realtors don't find you rentals out here. I take it there are people (probably not technically realtors, though) who offer this service in NYC, but I've never known anyone to do the same in California. Realtors will show you houses for sale, if you're looking to buy one, but since they make their money as a commission on a sale, they have no incentive to show you around to a bunch of rentals. I don't even know how they would do this if they wanted to, as there's no rental equivalent of the MLS where they could look up apartments.

Pleasant Hill and Oakland are like half an hour apart, more in traffic. Are you sure you don't want to narrow it down to a smaller area closer to where you'll be working?
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 7:51 AM on February 12, 2011


Are you sure you're not looking for property management companies, instead of realtors?

That being said, I don't know of any people who will show you apartments; I actually live in Rockridge but kind of fell into the place I'm living in through some connections, so I haven't searched.
posted by madcaptenor at 9:22 AM on February 12, 2011


Best answer: I'm a former SF realtor and I used to do rental tours for relocation clients. Realtors don't normally provide this service because there is generally no way to get paid for doing it. The MLS in SF and the East Bay don't include rentals. I did it because the client's company paid for the service. A lot of what I showed came off craigslist. I did have relationships with some firms and individuals leasing agents.

I can give you the name of my former real estate firm and you can call one of the East Bay offices and speak with the manager. Tell him you want someone to give a rental tour. You'll have to pay for this. I was paid $400 a day. (The companies paid $700, my cut was $400.) You're paying for my time, my gas and my knowledge of the area. If you're paying out of pocket they might negotiate with you. Ask for the manager. Don't just make this request to the person answering the phone. Call M-F, not on the weekend.

The area you're interested in is rather broad and most won't be knowledgeable about such a wide area even though they will tell you they are. They are going to use craigslist too so don't be offended by this. And yes, you already know you can do this yourself. But they should show you some other stuff too. (I'm an SF snob and don't know the East Bay; it's just over there but I think that's a big area you're asking about.)

That said, I worked with J. Wavro & Associates a lot and I see on their site that they also do the East Bay. They will do rental tours but they focus on their listings. I don't know if they'll show other properties. And as far as I know there is no charge but that may not be true if you want to see other listings.
posted by shoesietart at 10:17 AM on February 12, 2011


Yeah, chiming in to the chorus of "it's just not done that way here" - I also moved from a city where realtors had the prime apartment listings, but in the Bay Area, it's just not the case. Realtors may have a few listings, but definitely not the majority of listings or the best ones.
posted by judith at 10:35 AM on February 12, 2011


If you're moving to the bay area to go to school or for a larger company, what about asking someone at the department if they can ask someone to volunteer to show you around, or someone who has good knowledge of the area who is looking for a little extra cash for a tour? That way you get some insider information that you might ordinarily (I guess) hope to get from realtors.

I can't think of anyone who provides a similar service. When I was in the Bay area, new people on campus just sent out a desperate email to the departmental listserve and someone either helped them, or forwarded them listings they knew were available/awesome.
posted by arnicae at 11:25 AM on February 12, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks for all the replies! Had no idea it was that different out west -- just assumed it was the same in any large metro area as it was here in NJ/NYC (the only place either of us have looked for places to live, here and Philly). Definitely good to know; as mentioned we were already prepared to comb Craigslist/etc so I guess we'll stick with that.


Pleasant Hill and Oakland are like half an hour apart, more in traffic. Are you sure you don't want to narrow it down to a smaller area closer to where you'll be working? -tylerkaraszewski

We've got a bunch of criteria (proximity to public transit, price, neighborhood type, climate etc) which basically limits us to the East Bay, and the towns mentioned are ones we've visited and liked so far. Based on our pickiness and what I've seen so far on CL, the idea is that we need to have a few towns on our list if the first one or two we case for listings doesn't pan out.


You'll have to pay for this. -shoesietart

IIRC when we worked with realtor types out here they would take a cut of the rent in some fashion, sometimes being paid by the building owner instead of us. It definitely didn't feel like an out of pocket expense like you mention. Local knowledge is useful but not sure it's worth hundreds a day -- still, thanks for the specific info you shared, we'll keep it in mind.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 12:23 PM on February 12, 2011


When I moved here during the dot com boom, people DID pay apartment location services, if not realtors (I never even considered paying $400 a day though!). It was so crazy then that people would submit resumes to get an apartment, outbid each other on even the tiniest of apartments, and so on. It's not like that now, though.

Anyway, yes, people out here pretty much use CL and property management websites. Good luck.
posted by wintersweet at 2:04 PM on February 12, 2011


"...realtor types out here they would take a cut of the rent in some fashion, sometimes being paid by the building owner instead of us."

That is not how it's done here. With craigslist and a competitive market, owners are not going to pay someone for bringing them a tenant. Rockridge is a popular area. If the owner does an open house, a dozen people might show up, several of whom may want to submit applications. They have no incentive to pay a realtor.

I think in NY/NJ, realtors show apartments and owners know they'll pay the realtor who brings a tenant. Here, owners show their own properties or their leasing agent does. I think in NY rental listings are in the MLS and here they are not. Here, there is no way for a realtor to even know what's for rent, that's why they use craigslist and their leasing agent rolodex, which most don't have unless they're an experienced relocation agent.

By all means, use craigslist and ask your HR department for assistance. Most people move to the Bay Area and find their own homes. The relo agent can be nice, a dozen places all neatly scheduled for you but you can do that yourself. My clients were on their company's dime. I only had a few, usually desperate, clients who paid out of their own pockets.
posted by shoesietart at 3:11 PM on February 12, 2011


« Older my toes are burning. what gives?   |   It's the perfect template! Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.