Oakland ca house hacking

[Enrique Gonzalez]

Hi, BP My father and I just started looking for a home in Oakland we got pre-approved for a single family home at 589,000 however ive been strongly considering finding a multi family home so that the mortgage payments aren't 100% being payed by us. Any help or advice would strongly be appreciated.

[Sam Mueller]

Hi @Enrique Gonzalez I would say don't limit your search to strictly multi-family properties in Oakland. I'm not saying buy any single-family home. There's a niche type called "multi-generational" or "house-hackable" that are technically a single-family home since they only have one meter/address, but if the property is sectioned off, you can create a hybrid duplex. What some homeowners do is turn their downstairs into a separate unit by turning one bedroom into a kitchen-family room combo and walling off the downstairs from the upstairs for example. They do this so their parents or grandparents can live with them. The property would ideally need two separate entrances, two kitchens, and some sound proofing work since single-family homes weren't intended for this use. Last year, I was also stuck not being able to find any affordable multi-family homes in my price range in Oakland. I changed my strategy a bit to include a separate search for single-family homes that have been converted into a duplex. After a week of changing my strategy, I lucked out and found a nice multi-generational home in the Oakland Hills with a motivated seller on the mls.

I would also caution on buying multi-family in Oakland. From what I've seen, the majority of multi-family homes are in areas you won't want to live(medium to high crime). Also, multi-family purchase prices are usually much higher than single-family which matters to first time homebuyers. Another benefit of the single-family alternative is that tenants technically rent rooms in the property and are deemed 'lodgers' so the property isn't subject to rent control laws. This will help you increase rent which is one way to increase cash flow. 

FYI, I recently refinanced, and am living for free after ALL expenses(mortgage,capex,utilities,vacancy...etc).