I'm trying to move to San Francisco during the peak of what realtors believe is a tech bubble/boom. It's brutal (and I have to move out of my current house on Monday without having found something else yet).<p>I went to an open house on Thusday for an amazing, slightly under market price 4BR in Cole Valley with cashier's check for the rent+security deposit as well as completed applications and credit reports -- and the landlord wouldn't take a deposit, and said she would make a decision about applicants over the weekend.<p>What are most landlords looking for when they decide between applicants? We're 4 people looking at 4 bedrooms east of the fogline (though Upper Haight/Cole Valley is ok) for $5k/month or less and keep coming up short. I'm close to giving up and living in Berkeley for another year while waiting for the economy to collapse again.
It is a sign of the times. In San Francisco in 2004, I placed about 10 calls to look at places in the morning and found a place by that night. In 2011, I tried doing the same thing and got no call backs at all. I guess you'll need to be more aggressive and/or crafty.