Neighborhood Classifications in East Bay & Alameda County?

[Scott Causey]

Hi Everyone! 

First-time discussion board poster and couldn't be more excited/nervous of starting out in real estate investing. 

My (soon to be) wife and I are looking to buy a 2/3br condo in Oakland to serve as our first step into real estate. With a $350,000 to $450,000 price range & utilizing an FHA loan, cash flow is key so we're looking for low FHAs & rising rents. This will most likely be a buy & hold to use the positive cash flow and equity for bigger projects.

Now the question:

Does anyone have suggestions of solid, up & coming B & C Class neighborhoods in Oakland to start looking at for our situation? The place doesn't have to be turn key by any means (in fact we'd prefer to do some cosmetic work ourselves to learn the trade early); my lack of local neighborhood knowledge (we live in SF) makes bargain hunting for C-Class housing in B-Class neighborhoods difficult.

Any help or discussion is appreciated and I'm excited to see what you guys have to say! Cheers!