US and Canada Report

San Francisco, California – October 21, 2019 – It can be a daunting task to start the search for a residential rental unit in San Francisco, let alone actually find something suitable without going crazy. Dave Chesnosky is committed to changing all that and explains how to go about it and save precious time and lessen anxiety. 

Dave Chesnosky is the Founder of RentingSF, Inc., and has spent the last 16 years involved in Leasing over 15,000+ furnished and unfurnished apartments, condo’s and single-family homes.  Most recently the Senior Director of Leasing for the largest landlord in San Francisco, he is uniquely qualified in the San Francisco real estate market. 

Decide what neighborhood you want to live in, The San Francisco Chronicle website has great guides on SF neighborhoods: https://www.sfgate.com/neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods in San Francisco have older buildings which were built prior to 1979 therefore these are Rent controlled apartments. SOMA, Mid-Market, and Mission Bay / Dogpatch has the newest apartment complexes built which are non-rent-controlled but may have annual rent caps. Condo’s and Single-Family homes don’t fall under SF rent control, but always ask the owner / property manager / leasing agent if the unit is rent controlled or non-rent controlled. 

Start your search a month in advance, almost all of the inventory to be seen that is available is available for move in NOW. Most owner / managers will give a week or two to start the lease, you can always ask to move in beyond that, but then you are getting into doing some minor negotiating. 

Almost all landlords / property managers / leasing agents in SF use Craigslist for their available rentals and some ONLY use Craigslist, so if you are checking only Zillow or Hotpads or Aparments.com or one of the now 70 rental websites out there and not Craigslist you may be missing out.  Craigslist first and frequent, new listings pop up daily and always look for when they were posted so you know they are fresh and not stale. 

During a recent interview, Dave made these comments, “Believe it or not, some owners / property managers actually still use “For Rent” signs posted in a window and that’s it. I always tell people this is how to find a very good deal on a place, but they are hard to find. If you want to try this route, get out and walk the neighborhood you want to be in and call or email the contact information on the sign, it’s a slow process and sometimes these owners / managers are not very responsive, but can be well worth the effort. Good Luck!” 

Work with a relocation agent to help line up rentals and then tour with that agent, there is a fee associated with this, but it’s a huge help to have someone who knows the rental market in SF search for you, then line up showings. Dave’s relocation partner at Compass is Wendy Wilbanks from SheMovesYou who has been in business for 8 years. 

Have a one page bio to hand out to whoever is showing the rental, it’s a great way to start and get your information in even before you fill out an application, most agents/owners will want you to do both, but if you want to be prepared have that bio ready to hand out. 

Move quickly when you find the right place and get ALL of your information in and ask how soon you will hear back on a decision. If you do get selected make sure you are given at least a day to review the lease, if they are using an SFAA lease then it’s a hard copy and should be very standard, if it’s not an SFAA lease you want to review and maybe even have an attorney take a quick look if you have time. 

For complete information, visit: https://westwardadvisory.com/davidchesnosky/

Instagram: @RentingSF

Media Contact
Company Name: Dave Chesnosky
Contact Person: Media Relations
Email: Send Email
Phone: 415.218.3700
Address:891 Beach St.
City: San Francisco
State: CA 94109
Country: United States
Website: westwardadvisory.com/davidchesnosky/