I'm David Weekly, one of the co-founders of SuperHappyDevHouse. Finding a very big, nice house willing to rent to a large group of twentysomethings is indeed hard. I had to spend nine months looking at over fifty houses to line up the current place. There were a number of just heartbreaking letdowns - amazing places where the landlord changed his mind at the last minute. I'm not at all surprised that elq was turned down at five places. Expect to look at at <i>least</i> ten places before you find one that you like and that is willing to rent to a non-family. <p>It is incredible that there really are people out there who hold out for an "executive family" willing to rent a place for $12,000/month on a one-year lease. What kind of retarded executive is going to blow some $150,000/year just on rent to live somewhere? And how many such people are out there?<p><a href="http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=&minAsk=6000" rel="nofollow">http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=&minAsk=6000</a><p>I guess some folks just got screwed over by their mortgages and feel like they have to hold out for someone who can pay that much. In reality, having six professionals on a lease gives the landlord a much more stable source of income (if one person loses their job, it's not a big deal) and less actual damage (have you seen what a three year old can do to a place in a month?). That said, most landlords are kind of patently insane.<p>So just grit your teeth, prepare for a lot of rejection and a long haul and get to it! (Hey, that's pretty good general advice!)<p>As an FYI, if you're willing to live in or near Half Moon Bay, you can find some unbelievably awesome homes with lovely views for decent prices.<p><a href="http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/357603523.html" rel="nofollow">http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/357603523.html</a><p>
I'm about to move out to Silicon Valley, and I need a place to live. I would really like to room in a house or apartment with a bunch of other hackers and/or entrepreneurial types.<p>Is anyone else is in a similar position? Or does anyone know of someone looking for a roommate or to sublet? <p>I am now regretting the fratty "Hacker House" parenthetical in the title, but I think it'd be fun as hell to bring a bunch of hackers together into a nurturing environment, where we sip not from foamy Dixie cups, but from the fountain of our collective knowledge.<p>If there're a lot of us, I'll throw together a hacker housing app to help everyone get in touch.
I'm also interested in this (but can't move in until december).<p>Someone should talk to David Weekly / shdh. I know there are a couple guys @ shdh that are looking to start up a geek house. I think they're also planning on using the house to host future shdh events.
I'd be interested, but not for a little while: I just signed a 6 month lease (so I could move in at the beginning of January). I moved out to the Bay Area to work for a startup a few weeks ago, but I've been planning to try and find a place with some fellow geeks. The rent here is pretty crazy, and it would be nice to live with some smart, like-minded folks.
Ask the guys who run SuperHappyDevHouse (superhappydevhouse.org), they have a house with ~6 nerds (I'm sure it was a huge pain to get organized, and many of them are older which I'd imagine helps). If you have enough reliable friends a small house seems like a nice option (they have a rather large house with a massive electric bill :-P).