patrick.net

I had a nice smaller house that I rented in Millbrae while working in the Bay Area. Nice area and near the High School. Found it on Craigslist.

According to rentingforhalfthecost, you can rent for the same price today in the bay are as in 1997. Based on this, you can look at more expensive rentals and tell them that they should lower the price to what it was 17 years ago.

apartmentlist.com

Older people who own places outright may use local offices, etc. not always Craigslist.

The real estate management or similar is what these offices call themselves.

Drive around the town you are interested in and see what storefronts are involved with "property management".

http://www.padmapper.com/

for $3500 you shouldn't have any problem at all

except draining your wallet into someone's mortgage

Thank you for the suggestions.

Please note that I am looking for a detached single family home... something with a garage/yard, 2bdrm, 1000sq-ft...

It really is remarkable how high these prices are here on the Peninsula. It tells me that there are a lot of high earners here and/or people are really stretching themselves. But alas I want a home and no commute so I'll have to take it on the chin at least for some period of time.

I called a couple property management companies in the area and was shocked at their sales skills/initiative/motivation. Basically they wanted to show me their lackluster inventory and had no interest to take my contact information in case something new pops up on the market that better fits my requirements.