
Geek housing (&#919;&#916;C&#922;&#931;R &#919;&#920;US&#931;?) - ujeezy

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dweekly
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
_least_ ten places before you find one that you like and that is willing to
rent to a non-family.

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?

[http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=&minAsk;=6000](http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=&minAsk=6000)

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.

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!)

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.

<http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/357603523.html>

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acgourley
I wonder the same thing about those executive houses. In my 3 month housing
search I have seen the same places available the whole time.

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ujeezy
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.

Is anyone else is in a similar position? Or does anyone know of someone
looking for a roommate or to sublet?

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.

If there're a lot of us, I'll throw together a hacker housing app to help
everyone get in touch.

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elq
A few years ago I attempted to do a very similar thing with a few friends from
the goog. The issue that we ran into - owners really don't like renting large
places (like a house) to non-families. So the four of us (including one
woman!) were denied at each of the 5 places we applied.

I wish you better luck!

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menloparkbum
Were you trying to rent a house in Atherton? Group renting is very common in
the Valley. In San Francisco it is the default housing situation for almost
anyone under the age of 30.

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elq
No - Palo Alto and Mountain View were the focus.

There was 4 of us, each working at very well known companies and making each
over $100k/yr, so we wanted a nice 4-5 bedroom house preferably with a pool
and plenty of parking. Those types of homes were not very common and the 5 we
found _really_ didn't want to rent their home to a misfit group of mid to late
20 somethings.

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Sam_Odio
I'm also interested in this (but can't move in until december).

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.

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neilc
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.

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bkrausz
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).

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sbraford
Mod +1 for something like this up in SF.

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hoan
Me too

