Concepts in the Paradox

It looks like my parents are coming up this weekend to check out my new place. I have everything pretty much clean, or at a point where I could quickly clean up any little messes. I’m totally digging having a bed to lay on and a sofa to slack on. It makes coming home much nicer.

Tomorrow is ZG night, er… well, L13 night this time around. My southbay friend Nathan says he likes L13 more (I think his gf likes it more, actually), so we’ll give L13 a shot. It takes me about 2 minutes to get there if Muni Metro is working properly, so it is actually easier for me to get there. Booze anyone? Remember that they don’t serve food there, so no yummy burgers. 8pm.

I’m feeling a much better, thanks for all the positive comments. Sometimes I feel like the world is just doomed, and it doesn’t matter if it is actually doomed or not, but rather it matters that I move forward in some direction. Sometimes at work I sit idle and lost, and that’s when the doom settles back in.

The Nevada Appeal wrote an excellent obituary on my grandpa.

From the obituary, the writer mentioned something my grandpa tended to talk about often, and as you will read, for good reason:

He acquired an amateur radio license before graduation from Carson High School in 1940 and during World War II, served in the European Front with the T-5 Signal Corp. where he used his radio skills during the D-Day invasion in what has been called “the greatest secret hoax in military history” to trick the Germans into thinking the invasion would be at Calais, not Normandy. Dolan’s unit was awarded a Certificate of Merit by Gen. Omar Bradley for helping save 100,000 lives.

This morning my grandfather, William ‘Bill’ Dolan, passed away at 83 due to complications from hip surgery. He is survived by his wife, two children, 4 grand children, and 5 great grandchildren. He was also the author of the Nevada Appeal’s column, “Pages from the past” as well as numerous other articles, a World War II veteran, a Nevada native, and a rancher.

Right now I’m looking into how feasible and what risk factors are involved in buying and improving rental buildings in the city. What got me rolling in this direction is actually two things: when I was living in Reno, I considered more than once buying and renting out houses and apartments, including my former condo, and second I’ve found myself obsessing over San Francisco real estate. I read all the blogs, I browse the MLS, and I watch loan rates like a hawk. So why not take the first step, and see if I can make any money at it?

So far my research concludes that yes, I could make some money at this. There are many catches though, all of them San Francisco specific. There are crazy laws on tenant rights, which is useful to know as a renter myself. Things like OMI, Ellis Act, Rent Control, and the 14 eviction rules.

The starting price for a 4 unit apartment building? $750,000.

Gotta dollah to spare?

Some notes so far:
Here are a couple good examples:

1549 Jones $1.4m for 7 one bedrooms, built in 1913
376 Union $1.5m for 2 buildings with 5 units, looks pre-1920.

Beware of Rent Control tenants, of course. They give you a sheet of all rents paid so you can be sure you don’t end up with someone paying $350/mo for a $1500/mo market rate unit.