What San Francisco landlords actually write down
We read every listing description in our own San Francisco set and counted which requirements landlords state. Measured 2026-10-25; re-run monthly.
Quick answer
Almost nothing, and never an SSN as a requirement. Of 18,129 San Francisco listings we hold, 16,007 have a written description. "SSN", "Social Security" or "ITIN" appear in 1 of them, and that one names Social Security as a source of income, not as a number to supply. Any screening requirement at all — income, credit, guarantor, application fee or background check — appears in 1,591, which is 9.9%; on Craigslist alone it is 7.5%. Where an income rule is stated, the most common multiples are 2.5× and 3× the rent. The requirements that decide your application mostly live on the property manager's own page, not in the listing — which is why we quote those pages separately.
The counts
| What the listing mentions | Listings | Share of listings with text | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSN, Social Security or ITIN | 1 | 0.0% | No listing in the set gates on the number. The gate, where there is one, is below. |
| Income, pay stubs or W-2 | 745 | 4.7% | The most common stated requirement; the multiple is in the next table |
| Credit score, check, history or report | 444 | 2.8% | Fewer than income; a stated minimum score is rarer still |
| Guarantor or co-signer | 114 | 0.7% | When it appears it is usually offered as the route in, not as a bar |
| Application or screening fee | 873 | 5.5% | Amounts below; most are property-manager feeds repeating one number |
| Background check | 54 | 0.3% | Almost never written into the listing |
| Renters insurance | 679 | 4.2% | Usually "required"; the limit is in the lease, not the listing |
| In-person viewing | 379 | 2.4% | Matters if you are applying from abroad |
| Deposit | 4,479 | 28.0% | Mostly the amount; California has capped it at one month's rent since 1 July 2024 |
| "No credit check" or similar | 4 | 0.0% | Almost nobody advertises it — the flexibility is negotiated, not posted |
| Any screening requirement | 1,591 | 9.9% | Income, credit, guarantor, fee or background check |
Our own listing set, 18,129 listings, 16,007 with a description of at least forty characters, measured 2026-10-25. Each row is a case-insensitive text match on title plus description; the exact patterns are in the script that produces this page. Percentages are of listings with text.
Where a number is stated
| Income multiple stated | Times stated | Share of statements |
|---|---|---|
| 2× the rent | 106 | 26.5% |
| 2.5× the rent | 117 | 29.3% |
| 3× the rent | 177 | 44.3% |
| Application fee stated | Times stated | Note |
|---|---|---|
| $45 | 346 | Property-manager listings on AppFolio and Craigslist |
| $63 | 165 | UDR's $63.90 per adult, repeated across its feed |
| $40 | 156 | Property-manager listings on AppFolio and Craigslist |
| $55 | 71 | |
| $47 | 52 | Property-manager listings on AppFolio and Craigslist |
| $50 | 47 | |
| $56 | 40 | |
| $65 | 24 | |
| $20 | 12 |
Only amounts stated at least ten times are listed. California Civil Code §1950.6 caps the screening fee at $30 per applicant adjusted for CPI since 1998 (read 2026-09-05), which is why the real numbers sit above $30 — see the statute lines on the renting page.
Where the requirements actually live
The share depends on who posted. Property-manager feeds carry the same screening paragraph on every unit; individual Craigslist posts mostly say nothing; Chinese-language community boards say nothing at all.
| Source | Listings with text | State any requirement | What that tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craigslist | 14,987 | 1,129 (7.5%) | The one-in-ten that do are usually agents; the rest expect you to ask |
| UDR and AppFolio-hosted managers | 531 | 462 | Boilerplate: one rule set repeated per unit — read the manager's page once |
| RentSFNow, AvalonBay, Equity feeds | 393 | 0 | Their rules exist, but on the manager's site, not in the listing text |
| Chinese-language community boards | 96 | 0 | No stated screening at all; the conversation happens in chat, so ask before you send anything |
Zillow-sourced listings are excluded from every percentage on this page because our copies carry no description text. Source labels are the ones shown on each card in the product.
What to do with this
- Do not screen yourself out on the SSN. No listing asks for it. The document that decides is proof of income in a form the landlord names.
- Budget for 2.5× to 3×. Those two multiples cover most stated rules; if you are short, the guarantor and savings routes are on the renting page.
- Read the manager's page, not the listing. Nine in ten Craigslist posts say nothing; the feeds that do say something repeat one paragraph. Put Roots pulls that paragraph out per listing and shows you the landlord's sentence with the date we read it.
- Treat a fee above about $65 or a deposit above one month as a question, not a rule — both sit above what the statute allows for almost every landlord.
How we counted
- The set is every listing we have collected for San Francisco, active or not, as of 2026-10-25. It is our crawl, not the market: Craigslist dominates it, big-portal listings without text are excluded from percentages, and community boards are a small slice.
- Matching is on words, not meaning. "Deposit" counts a listing that merely states the amount; "credit" counts a listing that says credit is not a problem. The counts are upper bounds on how often landlords raise a topic, not on how strict they are.
- Every match on "SSN", "Social Security" or "ITIN" is read by a person. A listing that names Social Security as a source of income is counted above and described as such; one that asked for the number would be reported as a requirement.
- The script and the patterns ship with the site; we re-run it monthly and change the date above when we do. Nothing on this page is typed by hand.
- No landlord, manager or portal pays us, and we do not rank sources.
Common questions
Do San Francisco landlords require an SSN to rent an apartment?
Not in the listing text: across 16,007 San Francisco listings with a description, measured 2026-10-25, the words SSN, Social Security or ITIN appear in 1, and that one names Social Security as a source of income, not as a number to supply. Where a manager's own application page addresses it, the pattern is "SSN or ITIN", and one large operator's document names a visa, I-94 or Global Entry card as the second ID for people with neither. The requirement that is actually written down is income, at 2.5× to 3× the rent, proven with documents the landlord names.
What percentage of San Francisco rental listings mention a credit check?
2.8% of listings with text mention a credit score, check, history or report — 444 of 16,007 on 2026-10-25. Income is mentioned more often, at 4.7%. A stated minimum score is rarer still; of the seven managers whose pages we read separately, one publishes a floor and two say in writing that they do not decide on the score alone.
What income multiple do San Francisco landlords require?
Where a listing states one, 2.5× and 3× the monthly rent account for most statements, with 2× the remainder: 2× stated 106 times, 2.5× stated 117 times, 3× stated 177 times in the 2026-10-25 count. Whether the multiple is applied to gross or after-tax income varies by manager and is written on their page — one San Francisco manager uses 2.2× after-tax and adds 1.1× per additional occupant.
How much is a rental application fee in San Francisco?
The amounts stated in listings cluster at $45, $63, $40, and the seven managers' published pages we read run from $35 to $63.90 per adult. The statute sets $30 per applicant indexed to CPI since 1998, so anything in that band is normal; the fee must be partly refunded if the landlord never pulls a report, and you can ask for a copy of the report you paid for.
Do Chinese-language rental posts in San Francisco state screening requirements?
In our set, none of the 96 community-board posts with text state an income, credit, guarantor or fee requirement — the number is 0. Those posts are conversations rather than applications: the landlord decides in chat, often on a short call, and there is nothing written to hold them to. Ask for the terms in writing before sending a deposit, and treat any wire or gift-card request as the scam sign it is.
The seven managers' rules, quoted with dates: renting with no US credit history. See the same counts per listing on the map.