San Francisco Apartment

Yesterday we got a call telling us our application for an apartment in San Francisco has been approved. This is great news as the current rental market in San Fran is tighter than a -insert inappropriate metaphor here-.

There are people who have been looking for an apartment for weeks. We know because we see them at all the same open homes we attend. We've been to open homes for particularly well-priced apartments where there have been almost 40 people waiting outside. A couple of them required around $250 just to apply for the apartment (most, but not all, of which is refunded if you don't get the apartment). People were literally waving their checks at the leasing agent (who, I should mention, didn't even try to sell or talk-up the apartment. She just opened the door ("Only 15 at the time. 15! There are too many people in here now, some of you get out.") and let everyone fall over themselves to apply for it.

So the fact that we managed to get a 1-bedroom place in Nob Hill (one of the nicer parts of San Francisco) for only $75 more than what we pay for our current apartment is both surprising and very lucky. Doubly so when you consider that every apartment we attended required a credit check, and we have no credit history in the US at all. In this case it just so happened that the first person they processed (first come, first served) had what I assume were glaring credit problems, and by comparison our blank slate looked appealing. Also, our combined income was apparently high enough to work in our favour.

I'll post photos as soon as we have them, but for now here's the rough location. It has bay windows and hardwood floors.