patrick.net

I think you should keep looking. Alamo is nice but I don't think I would want to live in a house that has been parceled out like this. I would keep looking in Alamo, Danville and the W.C. / Alamo border areas.

you could check with the city/county and see if it's legal. Why does she need to part out the place like that? Is it in foreclosure? She's obviously broke if she can't afford a gate for the pool. Any deposit might be kept when she goes under and you'll be looking for a new place.

The woman who owns the place had it for sale, it didn’t sell, and now she is trying to rent it.

Check her mortgage information in http://www.propertyshark.com. If her property is underwater and her rental income does not cover her mortgage, there is a probability that sheriff will show up someday to throw all the tenants out and put a lock on the property.

Considering the fact that foreclosures are very common nowadays, every renter should check the property history to verify if the landlord is in risk of losing the concerned rental property. Landlord checks credit history and income of tenant to make sure that the tenant can pay rent. Nowadays renter should check landlord too. Of course the landlord will not volunteer information in his/her own. That's why you need to gather publicly available information as much as possible.

wrong thread

4k for 1 bedroom? No garage? This is a no brainer... move on and find something thats not totally insane.

Also, "decent kitchen (no granite"...... Bloody granite counters. Builders/owners put in effing granite and think "my house value just went up 10k!". Granite is nice and all but holy hell people, its not the second coming of housing materials. You'd think people are eating directly off of it ( after they've sealed it for the year).

No....the house has 3 bedrooms, but I am using all of them. The guest houses are totally seperate units, but one shares a "covered throughway" with the main house. The agent told me that tenant doesn't even use that entry, but goes in the house thru the garage. Granite is MUCH EASIER to keep clean than white tile and white appliances. White tile shows every speck of dirt. You are always cleaning white tile...especially for the number of meals I make per day for my family.

Can someone please answer my question...is $3500 a fair offer considering no garage, and property is shared w/ 2 other tenants? Along w/ a 4k deposit? We will only rent it if she fences the pool. She is renting the house because she couldn't sell it, and she moved someplace else. I like this house because of the lease terms: 6 months then month to month. This way...if we find something to buy, we don't have to worry about finding another tenant or subleasing.

pkowen says

Oh and Tivo, I would need Tivo in my contract.

Amen!!!

According to Zillow, her property is worth 1.9MM and thats what she had it listed as, but it didnt sell.

Again...can someone answer my question...

Is $3500 a fair offer for the monthly rental with reduced security deposit PLUS the pool house for storage in lieu of the garage?

Not familiar with rental market in this area but it seems to me to be over priced even if it was a stand alone. It is interesting that these properties that are carved up with granny units, garage conversions, guesthouses etc. are not much if any discounted in the rental markets. It would seem most people looking for a stand alone single family house and willing to pay the extra cost per bedroom typically associated with same, would object to living in what at times resemble compounds. Remember you have not only the people living there but also their guests. At times these can be done with the privacy of the individual units considered but this is not common due to the typically small lots in CA. While it is possible they are legal I would guess at least one of them is not. The deal has the smell of a distressed seller who is now going to become your landlord. At best I would expect poor to non-existent responses to repairs etc.

samsmom says

Is $3500 a fair offer for the monthly rental with reduced security deposit PLUS the pool house for storage in lieu of the garage?

It is your call if you must live in Alamo with a bunch of other renters in your back yard. For this price you can get plenty of executive level homes in Danville, San Ramon:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa/eby/52?query=&catAbbreviation=apa&minAsk=3000&maxAsk=4000&bedrooms=3&neighborhood=52

I found another house w/ 3300 sqft on a huge open lot sort of "way out there" in Alamo. Its a nice home, but the finishings are from the 90's. They are asking $4250 per month plus a 5k deposit and 1 year lease plus extra pet deposit. The lease agent said there was "wiggle room". This house does have a garage, but it has a long staircase to get into the house from garage. With toddlers and groceries...not fun! No granite in the kitchen either. Everything is white. so constant dirt. The area is pretty farm land like w/ few neighbors.

I was thinking about offering $3825 which is a 10% reduction from asking price, along with a $3825 security deposit which matches 1 month rent.

Does this seem fair?

samsmom says

Can someone please answer my question…is $3500 a fair offer considering no garage, and property is shared w/ 2 other tenants? Along w/ a 4k deposit? We will only rent it if she fences the pool. She is renting the house because she couldn’t sell it, and she moved someplace else.

No, this owner is broke. Although, as others said you probably need to do some analysis about the owner, this house IMHO is not worth it. I know some nicer houses with excellent facilities 3b/2ba in Danville going for less than 3K. And, you can walk from there. I understand if you are buying a place, but to rent, why not look in surrounding city as well?

It seems that you are ok with everything, you just want to see if your offer is good.

Your best bet is to make a list of items you would like, and think about what you would accept, with reasons for each. Then give it to her. Don't make it demands, but an open offer that you're willing to discuss.

- Pool house because we have no storage and no garage, which is very unusual.
- Fenced pool, immediately (I'm guessing you have children) as they would be responsible if something happened. Make sure it's in their best interests to get that thing in place asap.
- Concession on the deposit, with reasons why you are worried about it. You can see her property was for sale, and with the sheer number of foreclosures, it is more likely you will lose your deposit, than she will need to use it. Perhaps offer to let them speak with your previous land lords to verify you're clean. Let them know that if they enter forclosure, the difficulties you will be faced to get your deposit back.
- Perhaps offer something about paying rent until the house is sold, assuming she places it back on the market. Offer some incentive for her, in the event she tries to resell.
- Concession on the rent. It might be what she requires, but it isn't inline with the other properties being offered around there. Note the reasons why that area is good due to large properties and distance from neighbors, but show how that property has neither of those.

There are no houses in the 3000sqft range in decent condition for 700k in Alamo, WC, or Moraga. You are lucky to get something decent for 1MM in those areas. Anything for 700k will be under 2k sqft and need structural and/or cosmetic rehabbing, unless it is a condo.

Yes. You found the property. I just got an email from the broker and the owner hasn't contacted them yet. Maybe she isnt that serious about renting out the main house w/ 2 other tenants. She also asked me if I planned on having other children over to the house for playdates and how often...which is a weird question. Maybe I should just pass on this place.

I cannot find any decent house anywhere in the neighborhoods Im interested in even to rent right now. Either the house is on a really trailer park looking street, or it is too small and dumpy, but the neighborhood is ok, or it doesn't have air conditioning. or they won't take a dog, or it is totally over priced. A lot of these really expensive rentals are from people who cannot sell their home.

I looked at 2 in Lafayette yesterday in the 3700-4K range....both total dumps. The one for 3950k was filthy w/ 40 yo stained carpet, dirty nasty kitchen, all the walls were "home made" painted w/ slightly off shades, yard had dead grass, no bathroom in the master bedroom, but they could "remove a wall" so the bedroom shared the bathroom w/ the "guest house" which was really a nasty shed w/ a really crappy bathroom and tiny shower they called a guest house. Oh...and they wanted an extra $500 for the "guest house" so really $4500 per month. They had 1 remodeled bathroom in the house which was nice, so I think they figured they could charge and extra 2500 per month for it.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/1495677612.html

The other house was practically under a freeway, a "first time rental"managed by a seller who bought another house, had no air conditioning, uneven ceilings due to sloppy home made additions, super old appliances probably from the early 70's, a broken hot tub, no gardening service w/ a filthy yard, but they did offer to potentially take care of the front yard, no W/D, and no garage. $3700 per month. Who are these people paying these ridiculous rental prices for dumps?

I wouldn't live in Concord. People in the "good parts of town" wont have playdates with you even if you live on the BORDER to Concord. The last time I drove there I saw 3 women prostituting themselves on the freeway exit at 7PM. It was pretty sad. Probably why the rent is cheaper. Nobody wants to see that everyday, unless they don't have a choice.

I think the bay area is a strange place. There are a select few so called safe pockets where people pay huge amounts of money to live in dumpy houses to send their kids to supposedly high rated public schools, which really doesn't make sense if California ranks 49th out of 50 for primary and secondary education, and in order to shield themselves from the majority of the bay area, which has pretty much become a crime infested ghetto or exurb. Not a lot of options to choose from up here.

After reading through this thread, I simply cannot believe how crazy people in San Francisco are. According to wikipedia, the median household income in the San Francisco area is $65,000. That works out to a little over $5400/month, and using the rule of three, the average income family should pay $1800 per month in rent. The descriptions of what you can rent in SF for $3700+ is mind boggling to me. They seem like the type of slum (or duplex, triplex, etc) that households making way below the median would live in. Low to middle low income families are really the only type of people that would generally live in multi-family housing where I'm from.
The sad part about this is, as someone stated, rents are market driven. What this is telling me is there are way too many people in SF that are to thick to know what is "too much" when it comes to rent. For probably a generation now, the vast majority of people living in the bay area must have stretched themselves to the limit on what they were renting, trying to keep up with the Joneses or whatever. This is the only explanation that I can think of as to why the demand curve has shifted so much to the left driving the market price to ridiculous levels of afforability. I mean, you can talk about scarcity all you want, but even if you were only dealing with the top quarter of household income in the bay area (which would be unlikely because you would think most of that population would not renters) it would likely be less than 100K(even if st. dev of incomes is 45K, which is unlikely given mean is close to 65K), translating to a rent of about $2800 which would still be ~25% less than what we are talking about here. The top quarter is 1/4 of the total population. There is no scarcity there.

Even better.
I don't know what the deductions are for California income taxes, but the median (65K) is in the 9.3% bracket. For a family of two, taking the standard dedection, (11,400) and exemptions(3750x2) magi is 46100. SS and medicare is 7.65% of 65K, so that is $4972 and state income taxes (assuming they let you take the same exemptions) is 9.3% of 46100, or 4287. Federal income taxes would be 6076. That leaves a take home pay of $49665, or 4139 per month. $3500 rent is only ~85% of the median household income in the area. And that doesn't even include health care which is a shared expense with most employers.
In most areas, a household with a median income would be a wealthier than average renter, using the assumption that on the average, wealthier households do not rent, therefore the population of renters has been "trimmed" of many of the higher income households.

I think it's a little unfair to use the standard numbers for rent vs wages. The bay area is expensive due to the high costs of land, and pay is high to compensate for that. Really, for an average household, rent should be much higher % wise than most other areas in the country.

Years ago, before craigslist, I remember looking at some of these apartments listed in apartment rental magazines and what not. The prices were often $600-800 more than a place that didn't list. They knew enough people would accept their rates, that they could do it. Now it's much easier to find apartments for "realistic" values. Finding home owners renting out is much easier too.

Often home owners are nervous. The question of play dates, other children, etc are from a nervous land lord. If you make them comfortable, they'll take whatever you offer them. Having a bad tenant is the last thing these people want.

Try putting together an offer and show them you're respectable people. Bring up your concerns, bring up what you think is fair for the house and why and discuss it with them. If they're nervous about renting to you, find out why and what you can do to alleviate that.

If you do that, they'll take your concessions.

samsmom, are you moving here from out of the area? There are indeed nicer parts of Concord, but it's still Concord. If schools are a concern, yes, they all suck, but some are better than others, and people pay accordingly.

One of the local agencies that has better listings is Premium Properties, check their website but most of the ads are on craigslist.

I'm probably looking at something a little smaller than you (4BR, around 2000 sq ft) so if you see anything nice but too small for you, let me know :)