Summer sublet in Somerville stalling?
May 4, 2016 8:05 AM Subscribe
I have to leave my three-person Davis Square apartment at the end of May, and need someone to take over the lease for June- August. I've been looking for a subletter with the blessing of my two roommates and landlord. I wrote a brief, nice description for Craigslist, posted tons of pictures of a tidy and sunny apartment, and was happy to see that my monthly rent was a little bit cheaper than many other rooms on Craigslist in the area. I prepared myself for a deluge of responses and then... got a single response over the course of the next two weeks, from someone who did not end up pursuing it.
Please assume that the Craigslist ad itself is fine-- it's friendly but concise, I've shown it to other people to critique and they said it was fine.
Is Craigslist just not the right forum for this? I've posted it on the Boston Facebook group for my college alumni group, but are there other places I could be posting it?
Or maybe finding summer subletters in the Davis/Porter Square area is just really hard for some reason I'm not considering?
Please assume that the Craigslist ad itself is fine-- it's friendly but concise, I've shown it to other people to critique and they said it was fine.
Is Craigslist just not the right forum for this? I've posted it on the Boston Facebook group for my college alumni group, but are there other places I could be posting it?
Or maybe finding summer subletters in the Davis/Porter Square area is just really hard for some reason I'm not considering?
But the summer brings in a fair number of summer people, who need just this kind of temporary residence. So it is a bit surprising.
Two thoughts: (a) mid-April may have been a touch early. In my experience, most Boston-area renting for the month ahead, at least in the Craigslist world, happens roughly now.
(b) While the area around the T stop at Porter and especially Davis is quite desirable, you can end up in a semi-transit wasteland in between that may be less appealing to someone coming in from out of town. MBTA bus service is disappointing (although still better than your average out-of-towner will have had access to!). If that's the case, that's not something you can fix, of course, but if the ad can emphasize what mass transit is available, it might help.
Have you tried listing with Harvard and MIT? My memory is that you don't have to be an affiliate to do so, but I haven't checked in a while.
posted by praemunire at 8:19 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Two thoughts: (a) mid-April may have been a touch early. In my experience, most Boston-area renting for the month ahead, at least in the Craigslist world, happens roughly now.
(b) While the area around the T stop at Porter and especially Davis is quite desirable, you can end up in a semi-transit wasteland in between that may be less appealing to someone coming in from out of town. MBTA bus service is disappointing (although still better than your average out-of-towner will have had access to!). If that's the case, that's not something you can fix, of course, but if the ad can emphasize what mass transit is available, it might help.
Have you tried listing with Harvard and MIT? My memory is that you don't have to be an affiliate to do so, but I haven't checked in a while.
posted by praemunire at 8:19 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've always gotten the sense that while generally the housing market in Somerville and Cambridge is very tight, because a lot of grad students want to leave for the summer and come back in the fall there's actually quite a bit of surplus summer sublet availability. When my roommates and I had a sublet available for the summer in Davis Square a few years back, we had to offer a several hundred-dollar-per-month discount on top of our very reasonable (for the area) rent to get any takers.
posted by dyslexictraveler at 8:24 AM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by dyslexictraveler at 8:24 AM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Check your memail. :)
posted by pazazygeek at 8:25 AM on May 4, 2016
posted by pazazygeek at 8:25 AM on May 4, 2016
The Davis Square LiveJournal (yes, LiveJournal is still a thing, at least in one place) gets some eyeballs.
posted by dfan at 8:29 AM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by dfan at 8:29 AM on May 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
There are also Boston-area subreddits, including one or more for housing, I think. Maybe try there?
posted by Sublimity at 8:54 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Sublimity at 8:54 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you everyone! I posted the room to reddit, Sublimity.
I just re-wrote the ad to mention more location keywords as praemunire suggested (before it just said "Davis Square Somerville" in one place) and now it's showing up closer to the top in more search terms than before on Craigslist, (and I just received 2 Craigslist inquiries), so I think lack of relevant keywords was part of the problem.
posted by loquacious crouton at 9:25 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I just re-wrote the ad to mention more location keywords as praemunire suggested (before it just said "Davis Square Somerville" in one place) and now it's showing up closer to the top in more search terms than before on Craigslist, (and I just received 2 Craigslist inquiries), so I think lack of relevant keywords was part of the problem.
posted by loquacious crouton at 9:25 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Have you tried putting it up as an Airbnb option?
I feel like sublets aren't super desirable in general but that's just me.
posted by chestnut-haired-sunfish at 9:25 AM on May 4, 2016
I feel like sublets aren't super desirable in general but that's just me.
posted by chestnut-haired-sunfish at 9:25 AM on May 4, 2016
I think you've got it with more keywords - stuff like "20 minute walk to Harvard, 30-40 minutes to South Station/Downtown via Red Line" is going to help people who don't know the area well find your listing.
posted by mskyle at 9:43 AM on May 4, 2016
posted by mskyle at 9:43 AM on May 4, 2016
Have you tried listing it on AirBnB? That's always the first place I check when I'm looking for rooms to sublet for 1-2 months.
posted by ClaireBear at 10:26 AM on May 4, 2016
posted by ClaireBear at 10:26 AM on May 4, 2016
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posted by sammyo at 8:09 AM on May 4, 2016