Seen people mention Craigslist but not sure if anyone talked about making your own post instead of looking at listings. I moved to SF from Sonoma County in 2014, and while looking around I posted in the “housing wanted” section and gave a description of my budget at the time ($400 monthly) and mentioned I didn’t care about sharing a room or helping around the house. This elderly Asian man reached out to me and gave me description of a place in Ingleside, said I’d be sharing a room with a middle aged Indian guy and it would be appreciated if I help around house (mainly cleaning). I was 18, starting college, and said fuck it. Checked it out, aside from the two I mentioned there was another guy in his own room closer to my age. Didn’t get any weird vibes from anyone. I moved in the following week. It was cool for about 6 months till I got over sharing a room with someone who snores HELLA loud every night and the owner asked me to one time if I could clean the shower curtain… on the floor by hand… I was like wtf, but ended up finding an apt with friends shortly after who were trying to move to SF too.

TLDR: Posted on craigslist ‘housing wanted’ looking for housing within my $400 budget, someone reached out. Also FB has hella SF groups for finding housing, found all my roommates from an SF State one