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Free edition
The Rent Hacker
SF North Bay, CA · July 20, 2026
4,408 listings scanned · 677 passed screen
· 77
beat the S&P 500 on paper
We scan ~4500 listings weekly so you don’t have to.
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This week, our screen ran across 9 ZIPs
in SF North Bay. The funnel:
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Active listings, SF North Bay metro
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4,408
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Passed market-research screen
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677
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Cleared S&P 500 on paper
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77
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This week's top 5
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5
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Assumptions: 3% down, 2-year owner-occupy, then full rental. 10-year
hold vs S&P 500 total return.
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This week the call that mattered was pick #5. It came through
my pipeline tagged as a fourplex, because the model inferred
four units from the bathroom count. One Zillow check said
duplex. That correction cut its edge from 13% to under 12%,
and it still beats the market. I would rather hand you an
honest 11.8% than a fabricated 13%. Every number in this
issue survived that same kind of check.
— Danny Brown, founder · danny@therenthacker.com
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What changed this week
Nothing moved on the board this week: all three of last
week's picks held into their second week with no price cuts
and no exits. This week's closer look: the Downtown Fairfield
fourplex near the Fairfield Transportation Center still
stacks three rented units at $5,250 a month while you live in
the fourth, on a listing that has now sat unsold long enough
to negotiate.
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★ Pick #5 · Unlocked for free readers
1313 Sacramento St
Downtown Vallejo (Historic Core) · 94590
$699,000 · 6 bd / 4
ba · 2,180 sqft · built 1925
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Wealth advantage · 10 years
+$164,588
vs S&P 500 · S&P would need 11.8%/yr
for 10 years to match
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Strategy
Live in one unit, rent the other
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Financing
Owner-occupied at 3% down
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Live-in rent
$2,450/mo
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Full rental
$4,900/mo
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Renter pool
SF-priced-out workforce / Ferry commuters
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Catalyst
Vallejo Ferry Terminal (0.38 mi)
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The case, and the catch
A Vallejo duplex where one rented 3-bed unit covers
$2,450/mo while you live in the other, 0.38 miles from
the Vallejo Ferry Terminal — Solano County’s only one-seat
ride to downtown San Francisco. At cautious rents the S&P has to
clear 11.8% a year to win, and you’d still be ahead by
$164,588.
1313 Sacramento is a 1925 Vallejo duplex, and its age is the risk.
The cautious case assumes one 3-bed unit rents at $2,450 while you
carry the property at 1.55%, the rate this exact parcel already pays
rather than a county average. If that unit needs a full turn before
it leases, or the old systems force an early repair, the $165K
cushion compresses fast. Drop the rent by $300 a month and the S&P
breakeven slides from 11.8% toward 10%. It still wins on our math,
but it is the thinnest cushion we published this week. That is
exactly why it is the pick we show you in full. The model's at
therenthacker.com/methodology
if you want to challenge any of the inputs.
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Why pick #5 is the free unlock
Pick #5 is your free look: 1313 Sacramento, a Vallejo duplex
near the ferry at an 11.8% breakeven. The other four stay
behind the paywall, including a Fairfield fourplex whose
identical twin sits on the same block, and the Rohnert Park
quadruplex leading the issue at a 13.9% breakeven. The paid
edition names them all, addresses and full underwriting.
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Deals #1 – #4 this week · paid only
The top 4 ranked deals are behind the paywall
You unlocked #5 above. Each of the 4
below clears a wider S&P delta than your
free pick. Addresses and breakeven math locked.
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Every pick this week sits within 0.8 miles of a funded transit or
civic catalyst, from the SMART rail platform to the Vallejo ferry to
the Fairfield Transportation Center.
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Get this week's full report
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Here's the shape of the full pool that cleared the
S&P 500 on paper this week:
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Median price
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$499,000
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Median S&P breakeven
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10.6%
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Median margin vs S&P
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$55,021
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By units
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25 × 1 unit (33%) · 37 × 2 units (48%) · 4 × 3
units (5%) · 11 × 4+ units (14%)
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5 ranked deals: every correction we made, and every number we
couldn't verify.
Get the full report on all 5 deals that cleared
the cautious-case S&P benchmark this week:
address, price, and stats verified against the live listing,
the cautious rent math behind every number,
downside-to-best-case sensitivity on the top three
, and one-click calculator imports to re-run every
assumption yourself. Refund the first two issues if they
don’t pay back the $29. Reply with the word ‘refund’ and a
human reads it the same day.
Subscribe
· $29/mo, first two refundable →
$29/mo · cancel anytime
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This week's 4 ZIPs
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94590
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Vallejo · one-seat SF ferry, funded Downtown Specific Plan
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94928
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Rohnert Park · operating SMART station, funded Station Avenue
TOD
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94533
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Fairfield · $10M Complete Streets underway, Travis AFB jobs
floor
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95407
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Santa Rosa · Roseland, ~$40M Tierra de Rosas + $50.7M Hearn Hub
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Every figure uses cautious rent estimates backed by documented comps
and computed distances to named growth catalysts. Property taxes are
modeled at each ZIP's median effective rate unless a parcel-verified
figure is stated; confirm the actual tax basis with the county before
you underwrite. No invented numbers. No hype. This is not
investment advice.
Know someone hunting for SF North Bay deals?
Forward
this — they can pick their region at
therenthacker.com.
The Rent Hacker · SF North Bay, CA · July 20,
2026
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