SF/Penninsula RentFilter: Is this normal? (EOY 2023 edition)

December 11, 2023 2:34 PM

I've recently moved back to the Bay Area after living on the East Coast for a bit and am looking for an apartment. So far, every place I've contacted has had the agent or landlord requesting an online credit check and application before showing me the apartment. That seems fishy as hell to me, but is this just the new normal in SF & Peninsula?

I'm looking for cheap-ish ($1.4–1.6k) no-share apartment in SF or the Peninsula. I'm currently living with my parents—very fortunate they have a room and we generally have a good relationship, but it's really challenging for all kinds of reasons.

While there haven't been a ton of hits in my search, I'm finding a few that don't seem too good to be true (although if they fall in this price range and are larger than 250 sq ft, maybe they are?). Each and every one of these have replied requesting me to complete both a credit report and background check form before showing the apartment. They say they don't want to waste their time with ineligible people, which I get, but this feels like a potential data capture situation.

Is this just the way it is here now? I didn't encounter this on the East Coast, but I get it could be a regional thing. Thanks!

posted by smirkette to Grab Bag (9 answers total)

Best answer: Purely anecdotally, it does seem to be more common -- plenty of rental listings now will straight-up say they won't bother scheduling a showing unless information is provided in advance, and most have gotten pretty aggressive about requiring proof of income, etc. so your experience does not surprise me.

You could try applying via an online provider instead, since then you'd only be pulling your reports once and using the intermediary to distribute the information as necessary (eg: on Zillow, use their online rental applications service). I haven't done this myself, but here is the info they'll send to prospective landlords, so at least you'll know what's being passed around.
posted by aramaic at 3:55 PM on December 11, 2023

Best answer: These sound like scams. A $1400 to $1600 apt or studio in SF/Peninsula is very hard to come by, and the ones that I see advertised with those prices on craigslist are almost all fake. You can tell when you copy+paste the description into google and find Redfin/Zillow sale listings for the same condo with the same description and professionally-taken photos of the unit.

I've rented in numerous areas around the bay, and I've always been given the option to complete an application and credit check after they've shown me the apartment.
posted by extramundane at 3:56 PM on December 11, 2023 [15 favorites]

I'm looking for cheap-ish ($1.4–1.6k) no-share apartment in SF or the Peninsula.

That is stupefyingly cheap. I wouldn't expect anything with prices that low to actually be real.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 4:06 PM on December 11, 2023 [28 favorites]

Best answer: It might not even be data capture. The scam may be as simple as asking you to pay for a credit check on a site they send you to (the credit check is fake, they collect the credit check fee). Don't give anyone any money if they haven't demonstrated the ability to physically let you into the apartment, in person.

But yeah, rentals in the bay cost way more than that.
posted by agentofselection at 5:30 PM on December 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

We just went through this in Toronto. The credit check happened after the viewing. There's no reason to do it before, in my opinion and asking for it before seems super dodgy.
posted by ashbury at 6:35 PM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

It’s a known scam tactic. Very low end of rents for a private studio on the Peninsula is more like $2100.
posted by assenav at 8:01 PM on December 11, 2023

As another data point, a budget-conscious friend just signed a new lease in SF for a small studio at $2k for a building with no amenities/utilities or any real selling point beyond the location. She could've saved a couple of hundred bucks to live in the TL, but very slim pickings for lower than that without some notable downside.
posted by matrixclown at 8:38 PM on December 11, 2023

This was not my experience in Oakland (our lease started October 15). I was honestly shocked how casual a number of the landlords we spoke to were--more than one didn't want to do an actual credit check, they said "go print off your free credit report and we'll talk if there's anything worrisome". No actual proof of income required either. These were individual landlords, rather than corporations. We did encounter some corporations that wanted brokers fees, which is atypical for the Bay Area.

Agreed with others that $1400 is low enough to set off warning bells. We did find an inexplicably cheap two bedroom for like $2100 that was not a scam and didn't have anything clearly wrong with it, but it also wasn't a place that would work for everyone (and not us) and it was clear the landlord was willing to go below market if he could find someone who'd stay for years. Even after deciding that it wasn't going to work, we were still trying to figure out if it was too good to be true.
posted by hoyland at 8:46 PM on December 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: A lot of the places I'm looking at have no kitchen and under 300 sq ft so I had hope they might be legit, but I guess I'll be climbing the walls here for a while longer. Thanks, folks.
posted by smirkette at 9:33 PM on December 11, 2023