Multi family house hacking in the Bay area

[Kanti Pudipeddi]

Hello All , 

My husband & I recently moved from the midwest to Bay Area California. Currently we are renting a place but would like to get a house once our lease is up . We cannot afford getting a single family home as of yet so have been considering getting a multifamily (Duplex) and do a house hack. 

Looking for some advice ,on the following :

- Is it a good idea to house hack in the bay area 

- Locations with possibilities of getting good rental income 

Appreciate your help!!

TIA

[Sean Walton]

In the bay area in general but not always the duplexes tend to not be in the most desirable parts of the towns but not always. At a Real Estate Conference right before the pandemic started I heard Ben Leybovich discuss luxury house hacking. See the link below for more details. I've sort of done this with my personal residence. The in-law unit I built offsets more than half my mortgage. When construction costs go down and interest rates go down I will probably build another one in my backyard.

Read up on SB9. If you find a large enough lot you can potentially build 4 units on it. Once you have a property in mind and need an architect let me know.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/... 

San Francisco and the Bay Area are being pushed by the state to build more housing. SF has just committed to building 82,000 units over the next 10 years but no one knows how they will spur developers to actually build these. That could help lower prices but doesn't help you in the short term.