Ask HN: Short term housing for founders / entrepreneurs in the Bay Area / SF?

4 points by eggbrain 257 days ago | 1 comment

I've been searching for the past month for short term housing in the San Francisco / Bay Area, especially where I can live with fellow founders / hackers / engineers, but everything I find feels unideal:

- There's Furnished Finder, but the site was set up initially for travelling nurses (and it shows), so there's no real way to search for places with other engineers / founders, or any other features that matter (e.g. fast internet).

- There's a few hacker houses out there, but some take equity in your startup, while others are invite-only, and still others are just so huge (e.g. 30+ people) that it feels more like a hotel than a group of people with shared interests.

- There's DirectorySF, but the amount of places listed there is pretty low, so you have to get lucky for a place to overlap timing / requirements / price wise.

- I know Bookface / Y Combinator has some resources for housing for founders that have gotten into YC, but that won't apply to me.

On top of the search aspect, it's a bit frustrating as even if I wanted to rent an apartment traditionally, places will require you to submit proof of income, which as a founder who is focusing on building a startup may not be available (even if you have good resources saved up).

I think the closest "fit" has been DirectorySF in terms of what I'm looking for, but I'm just surprised there's not better websites out there to help entrepreneurs / founders / engineers moving to the SF area, unless I've been missing something.

Any thoughts / ideas? Would love to understand how to better find housing for like-minded startup people.

k310 257 days ago |

Welcome to the maddening and toxic world of real estate. I sold a home in the bay area as part of a divorce and can't afford to come back and buy a home, but statistically, I'd be damn lucky to outlive any mortgage. (I really try to keep fit). I may rent.

Every once in a while, someone invents some new cure for the Byzantine real estate/MLS boondoggle. No dent has been made in the Death Star.

Right after the fire that leveled Paradise, CA, I wrote to "Saint Jeff" Bezos suggesting that he create communities (probably mobile or manufactured homes) quickly for displaced residents, with the added sugar coating that Amazon drop boxes could be placed there so that people could donate purchased goods to fire victims (the ones that survived). And, with the current real estate shortage, could turn a profit after people are able to rebuild.

No soap.

The "Techno-Nirvana" planned near Travis AFB in the Sacramento area seems to have tripped on its shoelaces. The idea of "purposeful communities" is a good one, but mighty hard to implement. And, no offense, I find many tech leaders to be more than slightly sociopathic. You know their names.

One would hope that boomers like me who sold homes for whatever reason, or are hanging onto one, would contribute to the housing supply. But a lot seem to be handed down to children. I already gave my daughter a big chunk of savings to get her started in home ownership. I am glad of that, but when I do sell this home, it will be in the Sierra foothills, OK for WFH, but not going to help you that I can tell. I might compete for a rental in the bay area, who knows?

Anyway, this is part of a larger problem, and we seem to be approaching it from opposite ends, but I'm glad that it's being brought up.