I would add Lake Merritt to your "Oakland Hills" where people with good credit and high income wish to live, along with Grand Lake, Piedmont, and for some now...

Those barely use any water and are not considered energy hogs anyway on the grand scale of things in the unit.

Sometimes you get lucky and will hit a grand slam, but base hits will get you there! 

Sure, those upfront fees are really annoying but in the grand scheme of things, say 25-30 years of having access to all these resources, they are marginal.

Again, if accurate and the place is not falling down, then it looks like a grand slam.

And then you add up the $20/mo you were getting for 13 years and that adds another $3120 to it for a grand total of $61,844.40 of profit.

I'm not afraid of renovation-I'm in the remodeling business myself- But after I buy, I'm not looking to sink more than maybe 10 grand into each one.I'm going to check them out this weekend.

On top of that, he charged few grand up front for analyzing deals.

Even the cheapest, ugliest properties are worth a few grand here and it sounds like it was better than that.

After a few years, he would basically buy the condo back from me plus 15 grand for my trouble.