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Free edition
The Rent Hacker
SF South Bay, CA · July 5, 2026
2,473 listings scanned · 330 passed screen
· 1
beat the S&P 500
We scan ~2500 listings weekly so you don’t have to.
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This week, our screen ran across 8 ZIPs
in the South Bay. The funnel:
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Active listings, the South Bay metro
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2,473
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Passed market-research screen
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330
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Beat S&P 500 (cautious assumptions)
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1
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This week's top 2
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2
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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 nearly broke my own screen. Of 330 South Bay
listings, the pipeline first flagged 16 "winners" — until I
modeled the HOA dues and verified the real unit counts.
Fifteen fell: most were condos that quietly lose to an index
fund once you subtract $600/mo of HOA, the rest to unit
counts the listing data got wrong. What's left is honest: one
turnkey fourplex that genuinely beats the S&P, and one
value-add triplex I'm showing you because it doesn't — yet.
In a $1.5M-median county, that's the real inventory.
— Danny Brown, founder · danny@therenthacker.com
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★ Pick #2 · Unlocked for free readers
William Ct (MLS ML82044629)
Little Portugal / East San José · 95116
$1,500,000 · 7 bd / 4.5
ba · 3,420 sqft · built 1965
· 72d on market
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Wealth advantage · 10 years
-$170,449
vs S&P 500 · S&P would need 7.8%/yr
for 10 years to match
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Strategy
Live in one unit, rent the other two (3-unit triplex)
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Financing
FHA eligible · 3.5% down (3 units, owner-occupied)
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Live-in rent
$5,000/mo
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Full rental
$7,300/mo
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Renter pool
East San José workforce renters
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Catalyst
28th St/Little Portugal BART Phase II + Opportunity Zone
(0.82 mi)
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Why this is a steal
Read this one honestly: at today's under-market rents this triplex
trails the S&P — cautiously it's about $170K behind. It's
the week's value-add play. It's a legal 3-unit (one
3-bed + two 2-beds) in an Opportunity Zone 0.8 mi from the
future 28th St BART, listed at $1.5M and flagged 'needs some
TLC' after 72 days on market. The math only clears the S&P
(base 13.3%/yr, +$311K) if you renovate and lift the
below-market rents toward market. That upside is the entire thesis.
Live in one unit, rent the other two.
Why show you a deal that loses to the S&P? Because this is what
second place honestly looks like in a county where 329 of 330
listings lose. This triplex sits in an Opportunity Zone a short walk
from the tunneling 28th St BART, listed at $1.5M with "needs some
TLC" and under-market rents — and at those rents it trails an index
fund by about $170K over the decade. The entire thesis is value-add:
renovate, lift the below-market rents toward market, and it flips to
roughly +$311K ahead (a 13.3%/yr S&P hurdle). The risk that breaks it
is simple — if the rents don't lift, or the renovation runs over,
you've bought $170K of downside. That's the honest trade. The model's
at therenthacker.com/methodology
if you want to challenge any of the inputs.
Sensitivity (rent assumptions)
Cautious
$7,300/mo
-$170K
Expected
$8,000/mo
+$311K
Best case
$8,800/mo
+$862K
5.5%/yr home appreciation modeled.
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Why pick #2 is the free unlock
You've already seen the free unlock in full — the value-add
triplex that doesn't pencil yet. What the paid issue carries
this week is the only property in all 330 that beat the S&P
outright with zero heroics — a turnkey fourplex with
$9,469/mo already in place. One deal. That's the week.
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Deal #1 this week · paid only
The one ranked deal is behind the paywall
You unlocked #2 above. The one below
clears a wider S&P delta than your free
pick — addresses and breakeven math locked.
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★ #1 · Top deal
4-unit fourplex · East San José near BART
🔒 price · address · per-unit rents · S&P delta ·
breakeven
+$100K – $200K
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Both of this week's picks sit in East San José's 95116 — the last
corner of Santa Clara County where legal small multiplexes still
trade cheap enough per unit to house-hack, right where BART Phase II
is being tunneled in.
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Get this week's full report
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1 deal cleared this week. Here’s the shape of
the pool you’re getting:
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Median price
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$1,595,000
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Median S&P breakeven
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11.8%
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Median margin vs S&P
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$161,275
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By units
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1 × 4+ units (100%)
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One deal cleared. The reasoning behind every kill.
Get every Gate 2 kill, every rent-by-unit model, every named
risk that almost broke the deal, and the one listing
that cleared the cautious-case S&P benchmark this
week. 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 · first issue free if you forward
this
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This week's ZIP
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95116
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East San José · 28th St BART Phase II in-ZIP, Five Wounds UV
upzone, cheapest county multiplex stock
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Every figure uses cautious rent estimates backed by documented comps
and computed distances to named growth catalysts. No invented
numbers. No hype.
Know someone hunting for a the South Bay deal?
Forward
this — they get a free first issue.
The Rent Hacker · SF South Bay, CA · July 5,
2026
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