How can I find a GREAT apartment in the bay area?

Question

I'm planning on moving to the San Francisco / Bay area (Somewhere between SF to San Jose or Fremont, or those cities ;) )
I have looked at apartments.com, but all the apartments that look really great here have awfully bad reviews at apartmentratings.com. I'm looking for a safe, rather luxurious 1000+ sq feet, 2+ bedroom apartment that I can really enjoy.
But where can I find them? (I live outside the US right now so I can't look myself :( )

THANK YOU!!
- Paul

Answer 1

look on the coumputer some more = )

Answer 2

I wouldn't attempt to rent an apartment here without seeing it first. I recommend staying in furnished apartments/hotels or corporate housings for the first few months, and take your time finding an apartment. That way you will know which areas you prefer, how bad the commute is and (if applicable) rather it's in a good school district etc.

If you know anyone that works at any of the big south bay companies (i.e. google, yahoo, sun, cisco, hp) ask them to check their internal web sites for rentals listing by owners.

Here in the south bay, Avalon (http://www.avaloncommunities.com/north-california-apartments/) runs several of the bigger newer properties (I am not recommending them, but I hear they are okay).
In Santa Clara, Santa Row (http://www.santanarow.com/apts/) is suppose to be really nice (not sure how the property is managed though), but also very expensive.

Answer 3

go to apartment.com or craigslist.com