rental marking in Oakland

[Minh Doan]

Hi all,

I'm in a process of acquiring a rental property close to Downtown Oakland.

As a newbie, I am trying to find out about the rental price to figure out if the number of the deal would work. I tried to look at craigslist to see the price in average. But the thing I'm worried is how strong the renting demand in the area. The tenants I'm targeting are high-tech people.

FYI: I will not rent the whole house but renting by room instead. I found from craigslist that it ranges from $600 to $1600 a room.

Could anyone give me some ideas about that or give some advise to do number-math?

Thanks.

[Ryan Scott Isacksen]

@Minh Doan

Craigslist is going to be your best bet for comps.

Lower end things and room shares that are affordable have a lot more draw right now than some of the higher end things right now.  I don't know how tenants will feel about the landlord picking the other people that share the house with them.

Use caution renting room by room rather than managing the unit as a whole.  You will be involved in tenant disputes and the rules in the city are much more tenant friendly than landlord (if you have to evict).   

You will also have higher vacancy rate if you are trying to find a specific type of tenant rather than anyone that qualifies income-wise.  

I like the idea if you are setting the common area up to cater to a certain group of people that you are targeting.