Owner occupied multi unit - calculating financials

[Chris May]

My wife and I are looking at a few duplexes and triplexes in Oakland/Berkeley for owner occupancy. I was curious what methods other people use for evaluating the financials of these deals.

I was thinking I would just consider the mortgage + expenses - rental income as our "rent" and compare that to market rents for similar properties in our area in order to come up with an offer price. 

Anyone else have another approach? Even using that approach I'm worried we'll still be coming in at the low end of the offers received on each property. The market around here is nuts right now.

[Harrison Harner]

I live in an owner-occupied duplex. I keep a running log of income and expenses and then look at it two ways: 

- As if it were a single family home. I take a loss in this scenario, but it shows me what I'm paying to live.

- As if I lived elsewhere, and both units were performing the same. This shows me what my investment might look like in the future when I move on. This is the one that really counts for analyzing my strategy for moving ahead.