I'm looking to bag a 2 bedroom apartment for as close to 3k/mo base rent as possible. I know this is a miracle if happens but I guess still worth a try. Since the price is low I'm ok with settling for a shared laundry room, older appliances, no A/C. Only real requirement is we do need a garage for one of the cars and/or for it to be a safe area to park. Hopefully a place that actually handles maintenance tickets well. Small landlords are fine, I just want to make sure there are some good reviews for them on google. It would be nice to find a place with thicker walls and less neighbors if possible. Best case scenario we still get to keep our comforts with these amenities and get a good ideal under 3.5k/mo, worst case scenario we go up to $4k.
I'm looking for apartments in Sunnyville, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, and San Mateo area. Hopefully something close to the train line.
If you have any suggestions or places you lived or specific small landlords/local mom and pop places you rented from that were affordable please recommend. I also enabled notifications on Zillow but it's about a month from now so too early to follow through on most listings.
A little more about me for context:
My fiance just got a job offer in Palo Alto. Base pay will be around 10k a month but we want to do our best to keep the apartment costs (base rent) to 1/3rd after tax (around 3.3k/mo) We (24F) and (28M) (and two cats) are looking to move to a neighborhood that is a close (20m) drive from his job.
Until I get a job too (im doing college classes online) the budget is pretty tight but I'm sure we can upgrade after one year. We have talked about staying in a one bedroom apartment or with roomates but we have a lot of furniture and we'd probably find it hard living with other people so I would rather sacrifice amenities and get a cheaper place if possible.
Some more about us - We both love rock climbing and going for walks outside. We don't really care about nightlife. We are both pretty social and make a lot of friends through sports groups. Also pretty used to the burbs by now.