All Forum Posts by: Sudeep Jain

I spent nearly 6 months looking at homes in almost all parts of Oakland before finally buying a triplex in the millsmont area. Oakland is very block-by-block. One street could pass for any other suburban area (not even a city!) and the very next could scare the **** out of you. Look at the numbers in every opportunity without being emotional about it and don't forget to account for maintenance and unexpected expenses. Many houses also have a lot of deferred maintenance, so expect to sink a few thousand dollars to fix the deferred issues upfront. No point in fixing them later on when they blow up into emergencies..

Which opportunity works for you depends on your goals and strategy. E.g. A house may have a long time rent controlled tenant  and that will drag its price down for investors.. But as an owner occupier, it may make complete sense for you. Then again, its a once every few years thing, you cant do it more frequently than that.  

If a property has market rents, it will command a better price.. but then again, if the rents fall (and they have fallen in the past couple of years), you may be left paying a very large mortgage. 

For me, the best bet was to buy a stable property with long time tenants with not too low rents, that was also cash flow positive. If such a property materializes, the lower than market (but not ridiculously so!) rents offer you a margin of safety.. Even if the market rents go down, you are still cash flow positive because you can still raise rents at 2.x% that the rent control board will allow you to. 

All said and done, Oakland will continue to 'gentrify' and the number of people projected to live in this area is probably an order of magnitude more than the number of new houses being built. So in the longer run, the neighborhoods and the quality of tenant should keep getting better. 

Just remember to not over pay, run the numbers and maintain a margin of safety in your investment and you should be fine. 

Going over the property records again, I think this is what happened. When the last landlord signed the lease, the tenant had a two bedroom voucher, while the unit had 3 bedrooms. At this time, the voucher payment standards in Oakland were also lower. Her voucher changed to a three bedroom some time in between, while the voucher payment standards were also increased in 2016. The last landlord asked for 5% increases and ended up with a rent that is nearly a thousand dollars below market. I recently rented a one bedroom in the same unit for almost the same price that the sec8 unit is getting me. The only question is, how do I justify my rent increase request when the time comes for that.

Thanks David! How do I get the comps off of gosection8.com? do they look at listings or what has actually been rented at that price?

Thanks Saj! the rents in the neighborhood are lower than the standard, but only by two or three hundred dollars. What did you include in your application where you were able to get that increase? I will check out gosection8. Thanks again!

I recently bought a triplex in Oakland, and inherited a sec 8 tenant. The rent this tenant is paying is far below the voucher standard. The voucher standard itself is a little bit over the rents for the neighborhood. What is the best approach to bring the rent this tenant is paying more into line with the market rents?  

Provide the HA with comps in the neighborhood and ask for an increase? I am not sure this strategy will work as the rent is nearly a thousand dollars below the voucher standard.

Improve the features in the apartment such as access to garage, newer kitchen cabinets, floors etc.? and ask for a rent increase based on the improvements to the apartment?  

Help the tenant move to a different place and bring the unit to market rents? 

So far, my dealings with the HA have been far from smooth. For instance, they still have not processed the transfer of ownership nearly two months after I sent the required documents. They havent paid me the rent for December. In theory, the HA is supposed to pay market rents, but I am not sure how this policy works in reality. If someone has any experience dealing with the Oakland HA, can you please advise?  

Thank you!

 Hi jingjing, I am bilingual myself and have a huge amount of respect for our older generation in how they made it in what was to them a completely foreign country. I dont have a project lined up, but I may have saved up enough money in the next year or so. How can I reach out to you once I start the next project?

I did not. :-( Good GCs who are not already busy with their own projects are really hard to come by these days. 

I ended up buying a triplex thats in reasonably good shape. Need to get it humming and save some more money before I take up the next project. :-)

Thanks for the helpful tips! At what time do you consider dropping price or lowering tenant standards as the right strategy?

As a first time landlord, I am having some trouble zeroing in on the right rent for a 2/1 lightly updated fourplex unit in the Fruitvale area. I had a few questions:

1. Is craigslist the right tool to reach a Hispanic clientele? Most of the residents in that area are Hispanic. Should the ad be in Spanish? 

2. Are there some no-nos to mention in the ad that could turn off tenants? 

3. Are there any other advertising channels important to this clientele, that I am missing? 

4. Does 'staging' the unit/holding an open house make sense?

I have had the ad up there for a week now, I admit, my pictures aint special but I have had only one semi-serious inquiry. What is the ideal number of inquiries at which you think, you have the right number. IMO, one should have at least 2-3 tenants to pick from. 

What is the right approach in this situation. I took the rent number off of rentometer.com, but now I am thinking its excessive.