The great thing about looking for housing and house-shares on Craigslist is that it's possible and even appropriate to be long-winded enough to show a bit more of who you are.

The last time I moved I posted a "housing wanted" and then got on with reading the "housing available" ads. I didn't get any usable leads directly from the ad I posted, but I wrote to lots of people with ostensibly-suitable brief ads of what they wanted to rent, and pointed them to my longer ad and asked if we were a good fit.