Strange Rental Ad in Sunnyvale 94085 (San Jose, Walnut: subletting, apartment, rentals)

[Tomahawk1234]

Originally Posted by TR95

Definitely bizarre random pictures. If you are so interested in checking the out the property and what might be wrong with it, why don't you talk to the owner and go see it. I can only imagine owners inundated with dozens of emails, so why would an owner waste time with someone like you questioning everything without even seeing the property. I would have just ignored your emails, not worth my time. I'll move on to someone else who isn't being such a pain early in the process. Gives the owner a glimpse of what you might be as a tenant.

Huh?
TR95, I really think you completely misunderstood my initial post and now making these assumptions that I am "inundating the owner with dozens of questions without wanting to see the property".
That is not what is happening.
In the very first post I mentioned that I sent the owner an inquiry and ask that he or she post more pictures of the property - thinking that maybe multiple pictures did not upload properly on Hotpads dot com resulting in only 4 pics posted. That was it, that was my first email to the owner. No inundating questions about anything. I just wanted to see pictures.

The owner immediately responded via email but instead of posting the requested pictures - he or she wanted to "talk to me" on the phone to see if I was a good fit. In the email, the owner wanted to interview me. I did not express anything about any interest in wanting to rent - I just asked to see more pictures of the rental.

And talk about wasting time so early in the process ... and to belabor the point and repeating myself, the owner wanted to interview me over the phone and I haven't even seen the property. I have not express any interest that I wanted to rent.

Where I come from (in the midwest), its the other way around:
The renter sees the property online, gets interested, makes an appt to visit the property and if very interested, contacts the owner to say, Yes, I want to rent your property. The owner then sets up the "interview" where the rules, payment and the what-nots are laid out including credit and background checks.
The interview here is happening before I even said anything remotely close to "yes I want to rent".

In my followup email, I told the owner that all I want is to see pictures of the rental online (since only 4 pics were displayed) and if those pictures sparked my interest, that is when I will make an appt to go visit.
It would be a "waste of my time" to make a trip out there based on word-only description and 4 lousy pics.

That is when the owner responded back to say the property is "not optimal for picture taking".
And this is where and why this thread was created.

And I'll ask the questions again:
What does "not optimal for picture taking" mean in the SF rental market???
Is this normal rental culture for SF since I'm not from here?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

First, if something sounds too good to be true - assume it is. In other words, run the other way.

That price sounds way too good go be true, so I don't think it's worth all this hassle.

Also, you have to think in terms of what it will be like to deal with this person as your landlord. Do they seem like someone you want to deal with?

As far as wanting to do a pre-interview, though, that's not all that weird. I used to manage an apartment building in Santa Clara, and as a manager, I didn't want to waste my time, either. So, I'd want to ask you some questions to pre-qualify you to see if showing you the unit would be a waste of time.

For instance, I'd ask you questions regarding my criteria - do you make 3 times the rent, that I can verify by calling you HR dept? Do you have good references from your last two landlords - who are not related to you? Do you have a credit score of....whatever? Do you have pets? If it's a service animal, can you verify your disability by letting me fax a form to your verifiable medical provider? Does your pet have good references?

Anyway, I asked those kinds of questions before wasting my time with someone who wanted to see apartments.

But, honestly, if I was you, I'd keep looking, if you just get a hinky feeling that the deal is too good to be true and the manager/landlord is acting too weird.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk1234

I completely AGREE!
In this competitive market, it is beyond laziness or arrogance to NOT post visuals of your rental property.
Unless your house is well known like "Winchester House" or "Frank Lloyd Wright" - no one is going to be "interested and make time to visit" your place.
One does not need an MBA to know this is Failure 101.

Go to AirBNB, Hotels.com, Bed and Breakfast websites - imagine if the owner/proprietor advertise their listing based on word description ONLY, no pictures - how successful do you think they would be? They are not going to get any customers to sustain any business.

I agree with this too... when you're literally browsing through HUNDREDS of rental ads (especially on Craigslist), there is no reason for me to waste my time calling about a home without photos. In fact, I will usually click "has photo" in the filters, so the photo-less listings don't even show. Who has the time to visit hundreds, or even 20ish rentals, without knowing first if it's a decent fit? And yes, you can usually tell from the pictures if it will be suitable for your needs.

FYI: In this case, I wonder if maybe they just hadn't finished cleaning from the last tenant? Or maybe they're doing some renovations, but want to get it on the market now? Also FYI, I live in Sunnyvale and pay "only" $2100/mo for a tad more square footage - only a 1br, but it's also a duplex with a FENCED YARD, and in the better part of Sunnyvale (near Cupertino). So that place might not seem like a bad deal, but you can probably do better if you look hard enough. Or did I just get very lucky?

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

First, if something sounds too good to be true - assume it is. In other words, run the other way.

That price sounds way too good go be true, so I don't think it's worth all this hassle.

Really? You think $3000/mo for just over 700sf is "way too good to be true?" Again, I pay $2100 for probably MORE square footage in Sunnyvale, with a private fenced yard no less - and I've only been there for a year, so it's not like I moved in 10 years ago and haven't had a rent increase. It's kinda old and could use some renovations, but perfectly suits my needs for now. Oh, and my landlord is awesome, utilities are included, and he allows ALL of my pets (50lb dog + 3 cats and 12 snakes) without even charging an extra deposit or "pet rent." Guess I just struck gold?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

Really? You think $3000/mo for just over 700sf is "way too good to be true?" Again, I pay $2100 for probably MORE square footage in Sunnyvale, with a private fenced yard no less - and I've only been there for a year, so it's not like I moved in 10 years ago and haven't had a rent increase. It's kinda old and could use some renovations, but perfectly suits my needs for now. Oh, and my landlord is awesome, utilities are included, and he allows ALL of my pets (50lb dog + 3 cats and 12 snakes) without even charging an extra deposit or "pet rent." Guess I just struck gold?

Count your blessings and don't tell anyone how to contact your landlord.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

Count your blessings and don't tell anyone how to contact your landlord.

Haha, guess I did get lucky! He warned me that the rent will go up (not sure how much) this year, but said he can hold off for another 6 months... as long as it's not TOO big of a hike, I suppose it's still a good deal. Doesn't feel like it when I hand over an entire paycheck every month, since that's about what I take home every 2 weeks.

I still wouldn't call $3000/mo for 700sf "suspiciously cheap," though. I did a quick search on Craigslist, and found about 20 listings (of similar or bigger size) in Sunnyvale for under $3000. Nothing fancy, but certainly liveable.

[gizmo980]

Btw, shouldn't this be posted in the San Jose forum? Sunnyvale is waaay closer to SJ than to SF.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk1234

And I'll ask the questions again:
What does "not optimal for picture taking" mean in the SF rental market???
Is this normal rental culture for SF since I'm not from here?

OP, these questions were already answered on page 1. We made the best guesses we could, with the info available. The exterior of the house looks fine; it looks like a nice place. He must be renovating or repairing the interior. By now, he may even be done.
You could call one of the RE companies advertising the place, and ask if an agent there has seen the place, and try to sound them out on why there aren't better pictures. You can pick their brain, if there's someone there, who's been inside the house in the last few weeks or months. I think you're better off dealing with one of the RE companies, at this point, than the owner. It will cost you nothing to inquire. Since the property is listed with them, it's their job to answer questions about it.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

First, if something sounds too good to be true - assume it is. In other words, run the other way.

That price sounds way too good go be true, so I don't think it's worth all this hassle.

.

It sounds like more or less the going rate, to me. The amount of square footage is what many 1-br. apartments typically used to have. $3K is a lot of money for 750 sq. feet.

[marcopolo666]

Like many things in life, the answer is : walk away, stop thinking about it, move on.