So you've been inspired by guys like Andrew Chen who move to SF on a whim, and now you're thinking about it yourself. SF is an exciting place to live, and the tech community is probably the best in the world. But for those who actually do it, I'd like to offer my sincere advice for the first step: finding housing can be a real pain in the ass. It's the hardest during the summer months, when the hiring machines inside companies are running full steam, and there's tons of immigration to California. This can be a real tough obstacle - so if you want to have an easier time moving, try the winter or spring.

If you are intent on moving in the summer be prepared to spend several weeks looking for a place. You might get get lucky and find it in a few days, or get unlucky and spend months looking. Having some kind of reliable short-term housing is critical.

The usual route is to use craigslist. In most cities, Craigslist usually takes a few days. But in SF during the summer, you're competing with hundreds of other people for apartments. Some of the more popular CL listings get hundreds of e-mails from prospective roommates. With numbers this high, you have a near-zero chance of being selected. It's especially bad if you're male. Landlords prefer females. Females prefer females. If you're a female, you're lucky. Otherwise, you have to suck it up and look harder.

The best thing you can do is avoid craigslist altogether. Contact your friends who are in the area. Use facebook or twitter status messages. Let people know you're coming and someone might have a room available. This should be your first step - it's not a time to be shy or passive.

If you do have to resort to Craigslist, you have to be persistent. From my experience, around 10-20% of the listings you e-mail will respond. If you can arrange a showing, you have a much better chance of getting a place. You should be able to find something after sending e-mail to ~50 listings. If you're picky, it might take over hundreds.

The first step is to create a spam message template. This is the message you'll be sending to every listing. It should be personal, well-written, and you should customize it a little for each post. The goal is to get as few people to ignore it. Tricks like including their name in the subject line help. There's technology that can make browsing listings easier, like custom Craigslist search RSS feeds, or mashups like HousingMaps . Keeping the e-mails organized helps a lot.

By far the most important thing is to be persistent. It's a huge schlep, but you'll get it eventually. Having been through this process, I understand the how painful it can be. Send me an e-mail and I'll try to help you out.