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Updated about 7 years ago, 09/18/2017
Newbie from Mountain View in San Francisco Bay Area
Hi Guys: My name is Micah and I live in Mountain View, CA in the "South" part of the Bay Area. I'm the VP of Finance at a venture backed startup in South San Francisco.
I just joined to begin the process of getting up to speed on getting into my first property. I plan to begin aggressively looking for properties in the spring, esp. 2-5 unit "house hacking" opportunities. I will be targeting the Redwood City to Millbrae corridor on the Peninsula, though may consider going further North as well (e.g. Brisbane) or more exotic (e.g. Pacifica).
Not ready for any service provider intro's at this time, but if anyone else is scratching the same itch on the investor/developer side of things, could be fun to touch base and compare notes.
Look forward to learning more in the months to come!
Warm Regards,
Micah
Originally posted by @Micah M.:
Hi Guys: My name is Micah and I live in Mountain View, CA in the "South" part of the Bay Area. I'm the VP of Finance at a venture backed startup in South San Francisco.
I just joined to begin the process of getting up to speed on getting into my first property. I plan to begin aggressively looking for properties in the spring, esp. 2-5 unit "house hacking" opportunities. I will be targeting the Redwood City to Millbrae corridor on the Peninsula, though may consider going further North as well (e.g. Brisbane) or more exotic (e.g. Pacifica).
Not ready for any service provider intro's at this time, but if anyone else is scratching the same itch on the investor/developer side of things, could be fun to touch base and compare notes.
Look forward to learning more in the months to come!
Warm Regards,
Micah
Hello and welcome! Best of luck to you!
@Micah M. welcome to BP. The BA has a ton of great BP folks. The area you are looking at is a great niche. Try to get out to the local meet ups, @Johnson H. has one down in Milpitas and @Jeff Pollack has one down in San Jose. Both of these meet up have been around for a long time. There are also some up in SF and Oakland.
Good luck to you,
Arlen
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#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
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- Oakland, CA
Welcome to BP! I own property in the East Bay and have some furnished rentals in Mountain View and Redwood City. The market is definitely hot down there, but I love Silicon Valley over the long term. (Would rather see a recession first, personally...) But when you look at the long-term employment growth in the large, more stable tech companies (e.g., look how much property Google has bought in Sunnyvale recently, Apple's space ship, I believe Adobe is hiring more in San Jose, etc.. They want to be there for the long term. You work in biotech? Or are the South San Francisco stereotypes not totally true? lol
As I recommend to everyone, meeting people in person is always a great way to get connected and talk to other owners down in the South Bay. @Johnson H. has a great meetup in Milpitas, with some local owners. @Anthony Addessi is the kind of Redwood City, so if you're looking for more insights into that city, he's the one to talk to. Just don't buy any of his prospects!! lol
What do you think about the commute from Pacifica? Do you work remotely a lot? Or are you good with it? I recommend driving it a few times during your normal commute hours if you're looking out there.. A lot of people bought in Santa Cruz to work in San Jose, and I think some have come to regret it later. Different area, but similar coastal to inland commute with small roads and high demand. Also, don't get one too close to the cliffs that's going to fall into the ocean!! lol (google pacific apartments cliff)
Hopefully I'll meet you in person at one of the meetups when I get back to the Bay. Enjoy BP, and go meet some other local investors! :)
@Micah M. Welcome from the Bay Area! As others have mentioned, the meetups are a great place to start and get to know other investors in our area. Unfortunately there aren't any meetups in San Mateo County (yet!) but there are great meetups in the South Bay and in the city, as well as the East Bay.
@Ariel Smith Thanks for the kind welcome message!
@J. Martin Great to e-meet you! I'm with you re: the market. I am trying to be optimistic but we'll see how much "house hacking" is possible and for how much $$$. May be "next next" spring, but at least I'll be in the flow a bit more. Otherwise, yes I work in biotech, though I'm more of a hardware / energy guy. However, the South City stereotypes exist for a very excellent reason!
Will definitely take your advice re: meetups, though probably in a few months once I can have a half-intelligent conversation :)
I think that Pacifica has brilliant potential as a suburb for SF b/c you can drive a short distance and hop on BART. The problem with Pacifica is that it is NOT kid friendly. I drove around the entire area a few months ago and wasn't impressed. Very few playgrounds. Very few good schools. Maybe some diamonds in the rough, but I also want to raise my kids there, so I'm trying to thread a very find needle. I'd rather do a fixer-upper in Burlingame :)
Thanks again for the thoughtful note!
@Arlen Chou Thanks for the kind welcome message and the great meetup recommendations. Will check them out for sure!
@Micah M. - A belated welcome to BP! The community here is extremely helpful. I have learned a ton by asking questions and arranging phone calls with other BP community members. I'm a fellow high-tech guy working in SSF. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about Bay Area RE investing.
If you are looking to immerse yourself in a cheap weekend of great RE education and networking with hundreds of local and out-of-state RE investors, check out the Oct 7-8 RE Summit in Oakland being organized by
I'm looking forward to it.
Have you considered doing AirBnB rentals as a more lucrative option than regular long-term rentals? Depending on the # of units and ongoing costs, you could combine a house-hack with AirBnB rentals and earn enough to have your tenants cover your costs-- especially if you're willing to manage the properties. I have done reasonably well by buying homes in SF that needed work, getting them remodeled, renting them out and self-managing them. I am realizing after a few years of doing this that AirBnB rentals are generally quite a bit more lucrative than traditional L-T rentals.
Re: areas to invest, I think Brisbane is an undiscovered gem that's going to pop. It's not exactly cheap now, but it feels like a quaint small town right next to SF that is only going to increase in value. Also, have you checked out the neighborhoods in Pacifica around Frontierland Park (amazing, sunny inland park with great playground) and San Pedro Valley Park? (Beautiful hiking trails). Hope that helps!
@Ethan Cooke @Micah M. Indeed, Brisbane is an undiscovered gem.
Peaceful, quiet and a short drive to SF. Arguably one of the best weather in the Peninsula... something about the tail end of the fog meets Californian sun and shielded by the hills from high winds...
Completed commercial developments in neighboring SSF gonna bring more biotech jobs (and traffic) and their marina area already earmarked for commercial + residential development.
Thanks @Aziz Raji
@Ethan Cooke Thanks for the warm welcome and the tips about other investor meetups. Fair warning. I'm probably 6 months away from pulling the trigger on anything...here mostly for education at the moment.
@Ethan Cooke @Jason Ong I love Brisbane as well. The location is awesome even if public transport is not direct. Location is beautiful. Largest problem is only 2 elementary schools, one good, one horrible (at least according to rankings info I can find), so it's basically a coin-toss for your kids (I have 1 in elementary, and another that will be in K in 2 years). Still trying to get data about how difficult it is to get your kids into the good school, and how expensive it would be to mitigate downside school risk by going private for 1-X years (could get expensive if BOTH are in private!!!)
Anyway...just my early thoughts.
@Ethan Cooke I still need to dig around northern Pacifica more. What I saw in the Southern end didn't impress me at all, with the exception of Vallemar, which was great, but very few buying opps!
@Account Closed Thanks Boris!
@Micah M. Nice background. I'm the Director of Finance at a venture backed startup in the North Bay. Actually moved from SSF last year.
>> I'm the VP of Finance at a venture backed startup in South San Francisco.
I'm looking at investing in the North Bay, and the numbers work (on paper) by adding an Accessory Dwelling Unit. However, I'm told that the market is so hot that it's hard to actually close deals..
Welcome @Micah M.,
I'm somewhat with Boris. I live in HMB but invest in the central valley. Too me the margins are tight up here but that is just my personal newbie opinion, for what it is worth. I think most places in the Bay Area are banking on the appreciation or speculation factors and actually being able to get into a property without much capital is tough so I'm starting out small and going to buy one SFR at a time rent them. Maybe they appreciate maybe not but then plan to offload them at some point and 1031 them into something up here. Perhaps you have the means for down payments up here and if so I'd say just look in the places you mentioned and make sure your numbers are sound and you should be in good shape.
Just know that there are other places in CA that may not be as fancy as the Bay Area but hold good enough margins that you can get a return and still have at lease a little cash-flow. In the middle of my first project in the hometown I grew up in. Bought for $77K, with $7K in fix up costs, rehabbing now and comps in the area show I will be able to get about $130K on the refi. Take 75% of that and cash out the difference, around $95K total. Going to try and get about $950 in rent in the mean time. Not a home run but defiantly a solid line drive single! Always open to chat, and good luck! My goal is to do the same thing in this area one day with numbers that match the scale. Go get'm!