Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with craigslist and apartment

Craigslist scam?

Tehanu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:36:56 -0800

Is this apartment ad on Craigslist a scam? It seems too good to be true of course, and it links to a suspicious-looking URL where they ask that interested people fax them a credit score. I've been running into the more typical scams (unbelievably good deal, landlord in UK or Mali, will mail you the keys, etc) but this ad is the only one I've seen that asks you to send a credit score. Typically the landlord asks for an application fee so they can run a credit report. Would a legitimate apartment manager ever ask you to fax your credit score as your first contact with them?

Renting an apartment on Craigslist - 4 very similar applicants. Is this a scam?

bradn — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:44:46 -0800

Renting an apartment on Craigslist - 4 very similar applicants. Is this a scam? I have had a 2 bedroom apartment listed for rent on Craigslist for one week today. So far, I have received 4 emails from interested parties that are suspiciously similar, but in every other way seem legit.
All are currently living out of town and are moving to the area to attend an area university. All are couples with a dog (our listing says "dogs allowed"). Two say they will be in town in a week or so and wish to see the apartment. One will rent sight unseen, but asked to have her brother look at the place beforehand. I spoke with this one on the phone, she was very nice and normal, seemed legit in every way. The fourth just said she will be in town next month and to keep her in mind if the place is still available.
Is it possible that this is a coincidence or is this some kind of scam? Does anyone have experience with this? Am I being overly cautious?
We rented the upper apartment 2.5 years ago via Craigslist, and we did get some scam replies, but they always involved a 3rd party that would be paying us, sometimes WAY over the asking price. Also, the interested party was usually overseas.
Have the scammers just gotten more clever and convincing? We need to rent this place soon, so I don't want to waste time on scam inquiries.
Thanks in advance.

Going rate for apartments in San Francisco

PercussivePaul — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:32:31 -0800

What's the going rates for apartments in San Francisco? Is it as bad as it looks on craigslist? So I'm idly contemplating moving to the Bay Area after I finish my Master's in eight months or so. If I do that I would work in Silicon Valley and I would want to live in San Francisco. (I did this before as an intern. Had a great time. Would likely be returning to the same company.) Last time I was there I found a room in a great 4-bedroom in Haight-Ashbury. Anyway this is all daydreaming right now but I'm just wondering what kind of life I could make for myself down there.

I'm currently happily set up in Vancouver and have my own apartment for the first time in my life and really love it. I'm not sure I could go back to living with roommates again. Real estate's crazy here and people tend to ask for way too much on craiglist - but they find buyers because there's so much traffic. The going rate at most apartment complexes is much lower, but they don't advertise on craigslist. I found my current place by walking past a "vacancy" sign and calling the number.

If I were to attempt to move to San Francisco and try to find something like this:
- studio / bachelor / 1 bedroom - not too small - maybe 300, 350 sq ft minimum? enough so I could have a few people over
- not in a basement, not falling apart or vermin infested or anything, proper kitchen and bathroom... doesn't have to be slick and new, but at least fully functional
- biking distance to caltrain?
- colorful neighborhood? (haight, mission, something like that)

Is this really going to cost me, um, what, $1200 or so? At minimum? Cause that's what it looks like. Or is the rate more reasonable if you walk around looking for 'for rent' signs?

Protect against apartment rental scam

lilybeane — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:27:02 -0800

How can I protect myself from a scam when I can't check out the apartment in person? I live in Boston and am about to rent a place in D.C. The place I found on craigslist seems good--they're offering the short-term lease length we need, the building is in the area we want, the rent is acceptable, we've seen lots of photos (although we can't verify that the photos are actually of the place in question), etc. We'd be renting a condo from the person who owns it (that's what he says, anyway).

I would go down there and meet the person face to face if I could, but I can't. I asked the person if he would accept a Paypal transaction for the security deposit so that I could pay with a credit card and later dispute the transaction if necessary. But then I realized that would require the condo owner to pay fees--and that's not something he wants to do, I'm sure.

If I pay cash from my Paypal account, I'll be on my own. Any other ideas?

Has craigslist really destroyed the local paper's rental listings? What now?

croutonsupafreak — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 15:14:23 -0800

Is craigslist now the only place to search for apartments in urban areas of the U.S.? What does this mean for the significant share of the population that is not computer literate? Four years ago, I did all my apartment hunting through the local alternative weeklies and the Sunday section of the daily paper.

I need to move again, and I've discovered that one of our local alt weeklies doesn't even have an apartments section any more. The other seems only to list places way out in the burbs. The Sunday paper mostly has big complexes, and very limited selection. I've only been able to find nice-looking close-in stuff by going to craigslist.

Fine for me. But I spend enough time around people from other cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to know that there are a LOT of people who don't have a clue about computers, the internet or craigslist. It seems that people in this demographic are the ones who would most benefit from quick, easy access to information about inexpensive rentals and rentals accessible by public transportation.

What am I missing? Are computer-illiterates being screwed on the rental market? Have the listings migrated somewhere else that they can find?