Has anyone out there used Craigslist to access a room or sublet? My son will be moving to St. Petersburg, FL. and thought it would be more cost effective to secure a room or sublet. He will be in the area for six months. Is this a safe route to use? Feedback on both positive and negative experiences is appreciated.

My son used Craigslist to rent a condo in the San Francisco area a few months ago. Looked at a couple of places (also on Craigslist) before getting the one he is in. Worked well for him.

You can get very good deals - or you can get stung. Since there is no one "checking" any of this. You need to ask all the questions, get all the info and do all the checking yourself.

Esp be sure that someone who is subletting to you actually has the right to do so (ask to see their original lease - and see if you need the owners OK - you usually do) otherwise you have no rights if any problems arise.

we found the B&B type place we stayed at in NYC on craigslist. it was a great place, great location. ultimately, we had some problems with it, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with having found it on craigslist.

i'd use craigslist again.

Let me know how successful you search was for Craigslist in St.Pete. I live in Tampa, but am from NY. My brothers and I use craigslist for everything in NY and San Fran, but the Florida lists are pretty lame.

Thanks for the update

It's craigslist.org, by the way.

It should be Craigslist.com (that domain works, by the way), considering that Craigslist is not a non-profit organization but a for-profit business. They make something like $10-$20Million per year on job ads. eBay owns 25% of it.

Andrew