Plus, someone with that income can easily afford the median priced home here in Sacramento.Mid-career employees in tech are making an median of roughly of $130-160k, which is more than double the median income for the area.

However, the downside is the double taxation on the C corp, once at corporate level and again as dividend at shareholder level.  

This is one of those major items to double check for when calculating repairs and making an offer. 

@Matthew Hamilton, you're right; don't double count the Tax and Insurance in both the "50% Rule" AND "PITI" payments.

The potential double dip  in commission might incentivize the agent to let the seller know......"

What if that number doubles to 20k?  

You should double check with your lender to make sure.If you do indeed need to have the zoning changed to be able to get a loan on the property there are processes to get that done in the city, but plan on at least 6 months (probably longer) and unless you have a better argument for why the rezone is good for the city than you can buy the property, (or you are good friend with the planning commision) I would guess that you would not have any luck.

Personally, instead of looking for the home runs, I think it's better to go for the doubles and triples while slowly building wealth.

.), but not as high a level of scrutiny as will be faced by someone working for their family that suddenly has their income double right before they apply for a mortgage.

@Justin Fox  tax's are usually not germane in the front end of the deal.. especially in states that have owner exemptions... and this is were many investors get fubared.. they look at the tax's the home was owner occ with the exemptions.. they buy it and now its non owner occ and the tax's double or more.. no way to know what the tax's are...