Buying a duplex in North Richmond CA. Thoughts?

[Eduardo Zepeda]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone with direct experience or knowledge of this area might be able to shed some light. I'm in contract to purchase a duplex in North Richmond, which is an unincorporated part of Contra Costa county. I'm buying as an investment and the reason I pursued this particular deal is because it's one of the only deals, if not the only deal, in the Bay Area where the numbers made sense in my target price range. I've been looking for a while now in other metros as well and I thought it would be advantageous to invest locally if I could rather than remotely. I'd also like to add that I grew up in the Bay Area and I live and work in San Francisco, but since I haven't spent a ton of time in the east bay, I'm not as intimately familiar with this community. Here's what I'm wondering. Firstly, I know Richmond, and in this case N. Richmond, has the reputation for being riddled with crime. The crime map on Trulia says the crime is low, but I'm almost sure this can't be accurate based on other sources I've found during my research. Some of these other sources, including news stories, other crime stats, etc., are a few years old or may not pertain specifically to this small area of N. Richmond but rather Richmond in general, so I'm struggling to find reliable information on just how dangerous (or not) this community is. Does anyone know just how high the crime rate is, or how I could reliably ascertain this info?

Secondly, the property itself is two 2/1's, with the property being on the smaller side at approx 1,370 sf, making each unit 685 sf. Per my research, 2/1's in Richmond rent for $1,600-1800. The agent of says confidently that each unit would rent for $1,800. When I ran my analysis, I used a conservative number of $1,650 to make sure the property could still cash flow as a rental. Do these rents seem realistic for the area considering its size?

Thirdly, how does the fact that it's an unincorporated area affect me as a property owner, if at all? 

Any insight on these matters would be very much appreciated!