Free edition The Rent Hacker SF Proper, CA · July 28, 2026 634 listings scanned · 281 passed screen · 47 beat the S&P 500 We scan a few hundred listings weekly so you don’t have to. |
This week, our screen ran across 11 ZIPs in San Francisco. The funnel: | Active listings, San Francisco metro | 634 | | Passed market-research screen | 281 | | Cleared S&P 500 on paper | 47 | | This week's top 5 | 5 |
Assumptions: 3% down, 2-year owner-occupy, then full rental. 10-year hold vs S&P 500 total return. |
What changed this week Exits Last week's #4, 633 Central Ave, went pending this week. We flagged it at its $1.5M list price before it left the active board. Debuts Of 162 new listings across the metro this week, an Eight-bed fourplex in Central SoMa SUD debuts straight at #1: a $1.9M eight-bed fourplex in Central SoMa, and the first SF Proper issue to surface it. An Eight-bed Mission flats in 24th St Mission BART debuts at #2, a $1.6M eight-bed, four-flat Mission building 0.19 mi from 24th St Mission BART. |
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★ Pick #5 · Unlocked for free readers 1400 Mission St, Apt 701 Western SoMa · 94103 $497,730 · 3 bd / 2 ba · 1,415 sqft · built 2015 |
Wealth advantage · 10 years +$651,438 vs S&P 500 · S&P would need 19.0%/yr for 10 years to match |
Strategy Rent out spare bedrooms while you live there, then lease the whole condo after you move out | Financing Owner-occupied at 3% down | Live-in rent $3,500/mo | Full rental $6,800/mo | Renter pool AI-cohort engineers / Moscone and Yerba Buena workforce | Catalyst The Hub (Market & Octavia) (0.23 mi) |
The case, and the catch A three-bed condominium at $497,730 in Western SoMa, 0.23 mi from The Hub towers, assessed at $387,777 and priced roughly 59% under the SoMa condo median per square foot. This is a deeded condo, not a TIC, and the discount is not a defect: SF high-rise condos have repriced sharply across the whole segment since 2020. Two spare bedrooms bring $3,500/mo while you live there, then the whole unit leases for $6,800/mo once you move out, with the $926/mo HOA already in the math. Verify the HOA reserve health and any special assessment, and confirm the parcel carries no CFD or Mello-Roos, before you underwrite it. Even against a 19.0% S&P return it still wins. Our top pick this week is a $1.9M eight-bed, four-flat building in Central SoMa where the three rented units throw off about $15,600 a month while you live in the fourth. The honest catch: it has sat on the market 153 days, which usually signals pricing resistance, and one of the four units is currently tenant-occupied, so the live-in-the-fourth plan waits for that tenant to move on. Even on our cautious rent bands it beats the index; the S&P 500 would have to return 26.9% every year for a decade to match it. That margin holds only if you verify the occupied unit and the building condition before you sign. The model's at therenthacker.com/methodology if you want to challenge any of the inputs. Why pick #5 is the free unlock You can probably guess the neighborhoods we keep circling from the catalysts we name; SoMa and the Inner Mission surface again this week. What the free issue cannot hand you is the exact building, the per-unit rent math, and the financing path that decides whether each deal actually clears the S&P. That is the paid issue. |
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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. |
★ #1 · Top deal Eight-bed fourplex · Central SoMa SUD 🔒 +$1,759,118 vs the S&P over 10 yrs, cautious case · address + underwriting inside +$1700K – $1800K | #2 Eight-bed Mission flats · 24th St Mission BART 🔒 +$1,419,623 vs the S&P over 10 yrs, cautious case · address + underwriting inside +$1400K – $1500K | #3 Six-bed flats · Mid-Market / Hub 🔒 +$1,047,808 vs the S&P over 10 yrs, cautious case · address + underwriting inside +$1000K – $1100K | #4 · Week 4 on the board Triplex · 16th St Mission BART 🔒 +$854,539 vs the S&P over 10 yrs, cautious case · address + underwriting inside +$800K – $900K |
Two of this week's five picks sit in the Inner Mission, each within about a quarter-mile of a BART portal. |
Get this week's full report 5 deals cleared this week. Here's the shape of the pool you're getting: | | Median price | $788,000 | | Median S&P breakeven | 14.8% | | Median margin vs S&P | $367,829 | | By units | 23 × 1 unit (49%) · 11 × 2 units (23%) · 4 × 3 units (9%) · 9 × 4+ units (19%) |
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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 11 ZIPs | 94103 | SoMa · Central SoMa upzoning, Hub towers, cheapest inner-SF condos | | 94110 | Mission · ZSFG in-ZIP, dual BART, 5.5% appreciation lane | | 94112 | Ingleside · Balboa Reservoir 1,100 homes, CCSF, Balboa Park BART | | 94115 | Pac Heights edge · Kaiser + UCSF Mount Zion, credit-strong renters | | 94124 | Bayview · T-Third spine, Hunters Point Shipyard, 5.5% appreciation | | 94107 | Potrero / Dogpatch · UCSF Mission Bay, $4.5-5.5K 2BR flats | | 94122 | Sunset · N-Judah corridor, UCSF walk-shed, $5-6.5K SFH | | 94118 | Inner Richmond · $3-3.4K 2BR flats, Clement St, UCSF Parnassus | | 94109 | Russian Hill · Van Ness BRT, $5-7.2K flats | | 94114 | Noe / Castro · $7-8K SFH, CPMC Davies, garden in-law hacks | | 94117 | NoPa / Cole Valley · Haight-Divisadero upzoning, UCSF Parnassus |
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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 San Francisco deals? Forward this — they can pick their region at therenthacker.com. The Rent Hacker · SF Proper, CA · July 28, 2026 Manage regions · Unsubscribe |
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