San Francisco's overheated rental market is so extreme that listing amusing Craigslist hoaxes has become a collective pastime in this town. Every few weeks someone puts a sinkhole, Muni shelter, or crap-filled shed on Craigslist for an insane (but not … unreasonable?) amount in attempt to lighten the mood or, at least, show us how much worse it could be. Photographer Scott Hampton even did a whole series devoted to placing For Rent signs on trash cans, mail boxes, and wooden planters to great tragicomic effect. Things are, in fact, so acute that it's sometimes hard to tell if these listings are satire or just really inspired lifehacks that no one's thought of before. So when a Craigslist post offering up the interior of a box truck as an $800/month rental popped up on Facebook last night, it definitely confused people.
From the listing:
Hey! I have to move from SF - and this was a project i was working on- Its a box truck that I had just put wood flooring in and started to use instead of renting an apartment. You just get a parking spot and we will leave it there (If you need help finding a spot I can help)
I would like to just rent it as a living situation instead of a driver for liability reasons.
You can add anything to it, ie: Bed, cabinets, couch.. I have it all but the rent would be higher for it to be fully furnished.
Let me know!
Thanks(I had a 24 hour fitness membership for all of the amenities and chose a parking spot near that) :) 15 bucks a month
Sadly, the reference to bathing at the gym, rather than being a giveaway, lends a certain amount of vérité to the pitch, this being a real thing landlords advertise. For us, the offer to assist the prospective renter with "finding a spot" to park in was the real giveaway. The wood floors are also a really nice touch.
Shoutout to tipster Andrew S.!
· San Francisco's Median Rent Climbs to a Whopping $4,225 [Curbed SF]
· One-Bedroom Sinkhole Seeks $2,800/Month; Cats OK [Curbed SF]
· $4000 Castro Rental Seeks "Newly Minted Tech Employees" [SF Mag]
· Craigslist Hoaxer Lists a Shed Full of Crap for $1500/Month [Curbed SF]
· Parody Photos of the SF Rental Market Are Darkly Funny [Bold Italic]
· Box Truck Apartment [Craigslist]
· It Came from Craigslist [Curbed SF]