Santa Rosa renters need perseverance, clever tips to land an apartment

One year after moving to Santa Rosa, Ann Pickering learned that the rent for her two-bedroom apartment was about to jump 10 percent, to $1,755 a month.

Rather than stay another year at the complex in Bennett Valley, Pickering this spring once more joined the throng of Sonoma County apartment seekers. Despite limited selection and loads of competition, she managed to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Larkfield. In so doing, she saved herself more than $250 a month compared to the new rent at her old unit.

Her secret? She used Craigslist email alerts to notify her whenever a new rental with her designated criteria became available.

“That really did turn out to be my best tip,” said Pickering, who does administrative work for a Santa Rosa engineering firm. Whenever a new alert popped up, “I could immediately view it and make an appointment.”

Finding rental housing in Sonoma County has been described as a challenge when things go well and an ordeal when they don’t.

Rent for the average county apartment has risen 45 percent in five years, hitting $1,746 at the end of March, according to Real Answers, a Novato company that tracks data from large rental complexes. The closest size to that average would be a two-bedroom, one-bath unit. The county’s occupancy rate has eased slightly, dipping to 95.4 percent for the year’s first quarter, compared to 97.2 percent a year earlier.

So what does it take to land a place you can afford here? Renters and other experts say success requires preparation, effort, flexibility and perseverance in the face of difficulties and rejection.

“Don’t give up hope,” said Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa. “There are rentals and there are people finding rentals.”

Over the past year, Catholic Charities helped nearly 600 people acquire rental housing, Holmes said.

Even so, rentals here typically are neither cheap nor easy to find.

“Property rents across the whole Bay Area are crazy, and Santa Rosa is no different,” said Andrew Woo, director of data science for Apartment List, a San Francisco-based rental listing website.

Santa Rosa property manager Keith Becker said, “The market is very competitive … so much so the city felt compelled to step in.”

Becker, the owner of DeDe’s Rentals, was referring to the 4-3 votes last month by the Santa Rosa City Council to design a rent control program and in the interim to limit rent increases to 3 percent for about 12,000 apartments.

The rising rents have affected a broad section of county residents. Four in 10 families here - more than 75,000 households - live in rented apartments or homes, according to U.S. Census estimates.

When contacted, several county renters voiced frustration with rising rents and the rental application process. Some expressed support for rent control and “just-cause eviction,” a process that limits the conditions under which tenants can be removed from a unit.

Nancy Schwab said she moved out of a Petaluma apartment complex last fall after the rent there jumped 28 percent. She said she eventually purchased a manufactured home in a west Santa Rosa mobile home park at a significant savings compared to what she would have paid for her old apartment.

If she hadn’t found her current home, she said, “I would not be in California.”

“It’s just a feeding frenzy,” Schwab said of the rental market. “It’s gotten to the point where everything is out of whack.”

Property managers and landlords insisted the solution to the current difficulty is to build more housing units rather than to place more regulations on landlords. Some suggested that too many rules have held back construction of both single-family homes and apartments, creating a situation where demand far exceeds supply.

West county property manager and landlord Karl Anderson said “it’s time to shift gears” and encourage the building of new housing projects.

For those in the hunt, the rental search involves at least three steps: finding the right place, making sure you can afford it and persuading a landlord to give you the keys.

Apartment List and other websites today offer rental listings and the ability to receive alerts when places become available. But by far the top search site named by apartment seekers and property managers was Craigslist.

Becker, whose DeDe’s Rentals oversees 500 units consisting of single-family homes and small apartment complexes, uses Craigslist. But he warned that apartment seekers can’t verify listings and the site is “still very much the Wild West.”

“Please be aware of the possible scams that are out there,” Becker said. No matter how incredible and enticing a story you may be told, he said, never send money directly to a so-called landlord who is promising in return to send you the keys to a rental.

Instead, meet face to face with those who will show you the rental or take your rental application.

When determining what renters can afford, landlords typically expect monthly household income to amount to at least three times the monthly rent, said Woo of Apartment List. Also, there are additional one-time costs at the time of rental that may include application fees, first month’s rent, and cleaning or security deposits.

In more expensive areas, that prompts many people to share rentals.

“I would say that getting a roommate is the single easiest way to reduce cost,” Woo said. Savings can be substantial even when all the parties get their own bedrooms.

For example, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the county was $1,539 at the end of the first quarter, according to Real Answers. The average two-bedroom, one-bath apartment cost $1,759.

Thus, those who took the two-bedroom unit and split the rent in theory saved $659 a month over those who opted to rent the smaller unit alone.

When it comes time to seek a particular unit, property managers offered several tips.

“They really need to understand the primary concern of the landlord,” said Anderson. “And the landlord wants to see the ability to pay the rent on time.”

When he contacts past landlords of potential renters, Anderson asks two questions about them: Did they pay the rent on time? Would you rent to them again?

Apartment seekers should be prepared to show the landlord pay stubs or other verifiable forms of income, he said. Bring a list of references. Be truthful, follow the application instructions and show up on time for any appointments.

Some property managers, like Anderson, allow applicants to bring a copy of their credit report. Others run their own check and charge a fee of $30.

If you are offered a rental, be ready to make a rapid decision on whether it will meet your needs.

“If you don’t hop on that dream apartment quickly,” said Woo, “it may be gone by the time you come back to it.”

Pickering said she was ready when the manager asked her if she wanted the Larkfield apartment.

“I’ll take it,” she recalled saying. “Here’s my deposit. Here’s my money for the application fee.”

Those who qualify for federal rent assistance with Section 8 vouchers need to be aware that some landlords may be initially skeptical, but might be won over by those prepared to make the case they will be good tenants, according to those who work with low-income residents.

“When you first contact the landlord, just don’t open with the line, ‘Do you take Section 8?” said Christopher Bowers, a social worker for a county nonprofit. (He declined to name the agency, as he is not authorized to speak on its behalf.) Instead, he said, “have them get to know you a little as a person before you bring it up.”

Holmes of Catholic Charities agrees that such renters can benefit when initially meeting prospective landlords by working “to build that relationship. Build that rapport.”

While much is required of today’s renters, those who consistently pay on time and maintain good interactions with landlords and fellow tenants are valued, property managers said.

Even with today’s high occupancy rates, Anderson said he keeps rents for existing tenants below the market average because he doesn’t want to lose them.

Such a strategy partly seeks to avoid lost revenue from empty units, property managers said. But it also acknowledges the prospect that a future renter might not be as good a tenant as the current one.

“If you have a vacancy,” said Becker, “you have all the costs associated with the vacancy, (plus) a possible risk of whoever comes next.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit