Making a play in Oakland

[Tom Makinen]

I have been searching for markets outside of my home area, but what is everyone's thought on making a play in Oakland.  On the south/east side of Oakland, there are these old homes going for around 350-425K.  Yes they will need to be rehabbed and they are in sketchy areas, but they can easily come back in at 500-550K after a 20-40K reno.  It seems like another alternate play rather than earning $200/month on some other markets.  Also at a fallback, these homes can easily rent for $3K.  

[Rob Hoffman]

This is also a topic that I continue to struggle with myself. I own a rental off of 98th. I bought it as a primary residence about 4 years ago for under 270k. That property didnt require any work but I did remodel 1 bathroom and added forced air heating. After listening to podcasts and finding BP I became interested in OOS investing. After visiting a couple other markets and turnkey providers I ended up purchasing another primary residence here in Oakland early last year and renting out my original residence.

My plan right now is to build an ADU in my backyard to bring in enough income for this property to cashflow and purchase my next primary residence. For now I think my focus is value add duplexes or properties with 2nd structures that can easily be converted to secondary units.