Parking is complex in the city! This is the How To guide for all things parking in San Francisco. For the related article on the rules when specifying parking, please click here: Parking Rules and Fields in SF.
UPDATED: April 5, 2022
The Parking Information section of the listing input form (for ALL residential types) has four subsections. Please note that we have rearranged the layout of parking fields in the SFARMLS listing editor to put the fields important to our members first, and the Parking Features below that. We hope that this helps you specify parking quickly and accurately when entering your listing data.
The top section has two numerical fields for specifying the number of spaces. In this section, you should specify the Total Parking Spaces count, followed by an optional number that must be smaller indicating how many of these are Carport Spaces. If none are carports, do not put a value in this optional field. These do not sum up! The value in Carport Spaces indicates how many of the Total Parking Spaces are carports. NOTE: carports don't particularly matter in the City, but they are fairly important in BAREIS, MetroList and the East Bay and South Bay MLS systems where outside covered parking is searchable, and therefore, valuable.
Once you have specified 1 or more Total Parking Spaces in the field, all other options for parking will appear. The section immediately following the count fields is used for declaring what type of parking the count represents.
The Parking Type checkboxes are critical for any type of residential (and residential lease) listing in our service area, whether attached/detached single family (SFR) or condominium (or condo-like, including TIC, Townhouse, etc...) in specific subtype (see Appendix A for a reference list of all Residential Subtypes).
Please carefully read the descriptions of the available selectable options to make sure you select ONLY the correct value. You may select up to three values if that situation truly exists.
On Site (Single Family Only) - if the Residential listing has a Subtype in: SFR, Halfplex, 2 Houses, 3 Houses, or Modular/Mobile/Manufactured and the Total Parking Spaces is 1+ this is the only checkbox you should check. Use the Parking Features checkboxes to further describe.
On Site - Assigned (Condo Only) - if the Residential listing has a Subtype in: Condo, Townhouse, TIC, Stock/Coop, or "Other" and the Total Parking Spaces is 1+ you should use this option if the parking space is numbered, specifically assigned, and fully included in a deed, 3R, CC&Rs, or other instrument.
On Site - Lease Available (Condo Only) - if the Residential listing has a Subtype in: Condo, Townhouse, TIC, Stock/Coop or "Other" and the Total Parking Spaces is 1+ you should use this option if the space is leased from the condominium/HOA or property management company to which the condominium-like dwelling belongs. External leases, managed by 3rd parties, are specifically EXCLUDED (see the related article Parking Rules and Fields in SF) do not check.
On Site - Mapped (Condo Only) - if the Residential listing has a Subtype in: Condo, Townhouse, TIC, Stock/Coop or "Other" and the Total Parking Spaces is 1+ you should use this option if the space is part of an assigned block where there are many spaces and no specific space is designated for the condominium-like dwelling. An example of this type is the situation where all residents of the condominiums on the 3rd floor must park on the 3rd floor of the attached parkade structure, or where units 101 to 181 park in Lot A, while units 201 to 223 park in Lot B.
On Site - Unassigned (Condo Only) - if the Residential listing has a Subtype in: Condo, Townhouse, TIC, Stock/Coop or "Other" and the Total Parking Spaces is 1+ you should use this option if there is a general parking lot with spaces designated for sole use of any/all of the residents of the condominium-like dwelling. An example of this case is a building with a single parking lot where there are no numbers on the spaces, but all valid vehicles/plates must be registered with an HOA, or a gate control exists that prevents unauthorized vehicles from parking.
None - always/only check this option when the Total Parking Spaces is 0 (zero) but this control is visible. When creating new listings you may never need to fill this field in as it is hidden. It exists for system compatibility.
Other - in the extremely unlikely case that you have an exotic-but-included parking space "edge-case" not covered by the above, this option can be selected. Please note that you may be challenged to provide proof of the validity of this assertion if you try to use it. Please do not liberally put a "1" in Total Parking Spaces and then tick this checkbox for some type of down the street parking, or around the corner situation. The rules (see the related article Parking Rules and Fields in SF) clearly mean that those cases are invalid and must be excluded.
The third set of parking information fields is dynamic and changes whether or not you specify that there are any fees, or hours limited. When the listing input form loads these three fields are blank. The field Parking Fees is required if you have set the Total Parking Spaces value to 1 or more.
The Parking Fees field will control whether or not you see a hidden, optionally required field, called Parking Fee $ (amount). If you select Parking Fees = Yes, the Parking Fee $ field becomes visible and required like this, where you will have to input an integer value representing the cost of the space per MONTH:
The middle field, Parking Access, is always required and you must select one of the following values:
Independent - Access to the included parking is open and not blocked in any direction. If there are 2 or more spaces, none of the spaces are 'blocked in' by the others.
Side By Side - If there are 2 primary parking spaces, they are side by side with one another, but both spaces are mostly independently accessible.
Tandem - This describes the common case in the City where there are 2 primary parking spaces (usually in a garage) where the vehicles are nose to tail. Getting one vehicle out requires the other to be moved out of the way in such a case.
The last required field in the bottom block is Hours Limited. Usually the value you specify here is No, meaning there are no time limits that control when the parking space is available. If you specify Yes, the listing input form add an extra required field that requires a description of the time or date limits for using the space:
This field is limited to 60 characters, but you can input text like "see Public Remarks" or "see Agent Remarks" if you need to explain something really unusual in greater detail.
The final long section for Parking Features contains the myriad of checkboxes covering every conceivable option for describing one, some, or all of the included parking spaces indicated in the top Total Parking Spaces field. These are pulled from the RESO Data Dictionary, and also includes some specialized values that don't appear in RESO's DD, but are important in California or in San Francisco in particular. In order to make certain that all conditions and cases are covered, there are two special checkboxes at the bottom "Other" and "See Remarks" which you should use if nothing else applies.
Some checkboxes apply to only one of the spaces. That's fine. These checkboxes are meant to facilitate searching later on, so that a buyer who requires RV Access is able to search for listings that have such a large parking space available. Some values in here duplicate our drop-down lists further down. Please be as accurate as possible with checkboxes so that your listing appears correctly on the dozens of other websites where it can potentially appear. You are limited to selecting eight values at most, use the ones that best describe your listing.
That concludes this extensive resource guide on using the detailed parking fields in San Francisco. The combination of expensive property values and very limited access to open space for parking requires us to diligently and accurately detail the information regarding parking for our listings. Other MLS systems in areas where space is not at a premium do not carry this type of requirement, but our situation in the City demands it.
If you have questions about the parking fields in Residential listings, please don't hesitate to reach out to our MLS Support team via email, or phone.
Appendix A: Property Subtype Value List
Appendix B: Reciprocal MLS Users and SF Parking
In our reciprocal MLS partner systems (BAREIS, MetroList, East Bay/Paragon and South Bay/MLSListings), parking data specification is often less detailed. When users of those systems input parking data, here is what happens when that data comes to our system:
BAREIS (using a Rapattoni system) member with listing in San Francisco (City) - A member of BAREIS MLS that takes a listing in the City will use the SFARMLS listing input form through the joint technology "REC-System" feature that exists for SFARMLS, MetroList and BAREIS members. Because they use our input form, BAREIS member listings in the City are expected to always correctly specify parking.
East Bay (Paragon system) member with a listing in San Francisco (City) - Members of bridgeMLS, CCAR and Bay East Association use a Paragon MLS system for data input. Their listing input forms do not have the same level of detail as the Rapattoni systems and a data mapping occurs when we get their parking data.
MetroList (using a Rapattoni system) member with listing in San Francisco (City) - A member of MetroList MLS that takes a listing in the City will use the SFARMLS listing input form through the joint technology "REC-System" feature that exists for SFARMLS, MetroList and BAREIS members. Because they use our input form, MetroList member listings in the City are expected to always correctly specify parking.
South Bay/MLSListings (Matrix system) member with a listing in San Francisco (City) - Users of the MLSListings system covering the south bay primarily use a CoreLogic Matrix MLS system for data input. Their listing input forms do not currently have the same level of detail as the Rapattoni systems and a data mapping occurs when we get their parking data.