Ok you've got the tools. I'm seeing lots of things in your price range there.

Whats your pitch?

The thing about Bay Area housing is for some reason everybody wants to be there. So you got to sound interesting and move fast.

When I interned out there last summer my pitch was

    Hi I'm {name},
    Found your listing on craigslist I'm here in the valley interning with {company} for the summer.I'm a {student/in your case recent grad} from {hometown} and I'm interested, 
    would you be free for me to come visit after 5pm. You can reply to this email and/or 
    give me a call at {phone number}

You want to give people the fastest way possible to get in contact with you and the soonest time possible you can go see the place.

The pitch is extremely important because renters want to know several things before they will be ok contacting you about moving in.

- Who you are in the first place?

- Are you legit?

- Can you pay? and if its multiple months or times can you pay consistently

- Will you cause trouble.

Also in terms of using straight up CL vs padmapper remember padmapper does everything it can to only list places with addresses in them and it has a slight update delay. If you want to whole picture make sure to check the CL site as well.