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Bay Area Apartment Hunters Offering 3, 6 Months Of Rent In Advance To Score Leases In Hottest Neighborhoods

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- If you're looking for a place to live in the Bay Area and you're not finding too many options—it's not just your imagination, and it could take some renters are offering months of rent in advance to secure rentals in the hottest neighborhoods.

"I just asked, hey, can we get this place, and I'll put three, six months of rent, and most people are pretty amenable to that.  Because, when we checked this place there were like forty people at the door," one San Francisco renter told KCBS reporter Holly Quan.  His 2-bedroom apartment in the city's North Beach neighborhood sits right above a popular tavern, with Washington Square as his front yard.

San Jose and San Francisco's markets have the lowest real estate vacancy rates in the nation.

New data released by the firm RealtyTrac show the San Jose market with just a point-2-percent (0.2%) vacancy rate—and San Francisco with a point-three-percent (0.3%) vacancy rate.

"I will say if you're looking on Craigslist, and you see an apartment or a listing without a photo, that's usually a good sign.  If they don't have photos then not that many people will go. That's how I found mine, and it was a good one," another San Francisco renter told KCBS.

 

 

 

 

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