San Francisco Craigslist Buyer's Review

Although I live in the Detroit area and have attempted to use the metro Detroit area Craigslist, I find that it's not as popular as it is in San Francisco, the birthplace of the beloved web site. I've been largely unsuccessful finding anything on the Detroit Craigslist. Craigslist is now found in other cities in the US, as well as in other countries. I can't speak to the effectiveness of Craigslist in those venues. However, I have used the San Francisco Craigslist with great success.

Residents of San Francisco swear by Craigslist, and rightly so. On this free site, located at www.craigslist.org, you can find anything, from a job to an apartment to a girlfriend. We were first introduced to the web site when my son was accepted into college in San Francisco. Before that, I'd never heard of it. The City has many colleges within the confines of the peninsula, but most of them don't have the luxury of dorm rooms. My son's college was one of these. The college gave us printed information on how to find an apartment or room in the area. One of the options was Craigslist.

In our Midwestern minds, it seemed rather progressive to place an ad for a roommate for an 18 year old, online no less, and actually come up with someone who wasn't an axe murderer or molester. In other words, it's just not done here! However, after checking out the other options, which included residence halls in the downtown area, I decided with some trepidation to take the plunge and place an ad for my son. (We were quite concerned about the entire process. This was done from Michigan, a good 2,300 miles away. My son, at the time, was not yet 18. My "mom" radar was up.)

Craigslist is a fairly barebones web site. Started by Craig Newmark in 1995 as a personal email exchange for his friends, Craigslist-the-web-site has a white background and blue letters, and you won't find any flashy banner ads screaming at you to click and buy doo-dads you don't need. My son has taken me by the Victorian house that is the home of Craigslist, located in the Inner Sunset area.

In my ad I explained that my son is a Conservatory student, meaning that he needs a certain amount of practice time within the house, and also needed to be nearby the school, which at that time was located in the Sunset area. I put a high value as to how much we were willing to pay for rent, and also indicated that my husband and I would co-sign any required lease. (This is key if you are looking for a place for a college student. Most of them, like my son, don't have a credit or job history.) Placing the ad was relatively easy to do. All that is necessary is a valid email address. Once you have formulated the ad, you submit it, and an email is sent to you where you have to click on it to activate the ad.

Within a couple of hours, I had several responses, and initiated email conversations with some of them. One was very interesting, and we decided to concentrate on this older person who was offering a room in his home. After a time, my husband and I had several phone conversations with the gentleman. We thought it was a more stabilizing idea to have our son rooming with an older person than to have him sharing his space with someone his own age. The homeowner eventually faxed over a rental agreement, which we signed and sent back with a deposit. In the meantime, my son graduated from high school, and soon afterward, he flew to San Francisco to meet the homeowner, before moving there later in the summer.

While I thought the match was a good one, especially after having met the man myself, a few months later my son called me to say that the relationship wasn't working out. Simply put, they were having a personality conflict. Again, while he was busy studying at school, I turned to Craigslist to try to find another roommate for him. This time, I was lucky and found a great match in the same area. This man was older as well and looking for a roommate as a means to help him with the rent. He was a musician and was easy to talk to. Again, we filled out a rental agreement and sent a deposit.

My son has been extremely happy with this rental situation. He's been there for two and a half years, and gets along well with his roommate. They have similar temperaments and sense of humor.

For those who are looking at roommates, I would strongly suggest many conversations with the person(s) who are offering the space, including religion, sexual orientation, smoking, opinions on drinking and partying, politics, food preferences, etc. As I have told my son, the key to any close relationship is open communication with your roommate.

While it seems risky to find a roommate on a web site, I would highly recommend using Craigslist, especially in the Bay Area. Perhaps we've been lucky, but *knock on wood* I've only had great experiences with the site.