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Every address. Every rent-by-unit. Every deal we publish.

Five Bay Area house-hack picks per region, every week. Full addresses, photos, rent-by-unit math, plus the rest of the ranked pool that beat the S&P. Nothing held back.

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What you get

Free shows you one. Premium shows you all five, with addresses.

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Premium · from $29/mo

1 of 5 deals revealed (no address)
All 5 deals. Addresses, photos, full underwriting
Aggregate funnel stats
Full ranked pool of every deal that beat the S&P
ZIP-level signal
Rent-by-unit underwriting, three cash-flow scenarios, plus what breaks if rents drop 15%
Sensitivity bands
Sensitivity inputs you can replay in our calculator
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Morning-of, before the good ones go pending

From the July 6, 2026 paid issue

What you actually get each week

July 6, 2026 · Rank #1

#1 this week · highest wealth margin

Inner Mission · 24th St Mission BART

Address · subscribers only

ZIP 94110 · $850,000 · Duplex · 1900 build · 1,960 sqft

10-year wealth margin · cautious

S&P would need 18.5%/yr for 10 yrs to match

+$780K

Rent-by-unit · while owner-occupying (cautious)

  • Unit 1 · live-in
  • Unit 2 $4,700/mo
  • Total rent income $4,700/mo

Sensitivity (rent assumptions)

Cautious

$9,400/mo

+$780K

Expected

$10,800/mo

+$1.27M

Best case

$12,200/mo

+$1.66M

Why it ranked #1

The cheapest walkable-BART duplex in the Inner Mission at $850K, 0.38 mi from 24th St Mission BART. The lower flat's market rent is $4,700/mo — a rent-controlled tenant sits there at $4,413 today — while you live in the upper 3BR. Mission flats are soft-story/liquefaction territory: budget earthquake coverage (~$1.5–3.5K/yr) the model skips. All of it already in the $780K margin.

Cautious model · 8% S&P 500 · 5.0% appreciation · documented comps · real CapEx · rental-side deductions modeled

Addresses are blurred here, not in the issue. Subscribers got the street, the photos, and the listing link on July 6. Read the latest free edition →

From the founder

Why this exists

I did everything right. Got pre-approved, got referred to a buyer's agent in Maryland, told her specifically: I want a property that beats the index over 10 years.

She had one in Halethorpe she wanted to sell me. Promised the numbers. Never sent them. I was emotionally close enough that I almost signed anyway.

So I built the calculator and ran the property myself. The S&P 500 won. Not by an obvious mile — by enough that, combined with the agent never sending the numbers, signing was the wrong call.

The Rent Hacker is that calculator, applied every week to the Bay Area, region by region. The housing market everyone says is impossible. I read the same listings a relocating engineer would read, with none of the agent relationships that bias local coverage. Premium scans 14,000+ active listings a week. If none clear the cautious S&P benchmark, the issue runs short.

— Danny Brown, founder · danny@therenthacker.com

Read the first two issues. If they don't pay back the $29, reply to either one and I'll refund it. One email, no form.

I don't want reluctant subscribers. Reply, I read it, money's back on your card the same day.

Pricing questions

Before you click subscribe.

Single region vs. all-access — what's the difference?
Single region ($29/mo) fully unlocks one regional edition — you pick which, and you can switch regions any time at no charge. All-access ($49/mo) covers every region you want, add or drop whenever. Upgrading mid-month is prorated automatically; downgrades apply at the end of the period you already paid for.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Every issue links to therenthacker.com/preferences — we email you a sign-in link, and “Manage billing” has the cancel button. No retention call, no friction. Cancel mid-month and you keep access through the end of the period you already paid for.
What cities do you cover?
SF Bay Area only. Every owner-occupied multi-unit and room-rental-viable listing in the ZIPs where a duplex still pencils. We expand only when the methodology proves itself in the next region. No "national coverage" promises.
Do I get back issues when I subscribe?
Honest answer: not yet. We changed platforms in June and the old issues didn't make the move. Subscribing unlocks this week's Full Report immediately, then every week from there. If the archive gets rebuilt, subscribers get it at no extra charge.
What if SF isn't my market?
Be honest with yourself: if you can't owner-occupy in the Bay Area within the next 12 months, this is the wrong newsletter. Take the refund. We'd rather lose a subscriber than charge someone who can't use the work.
How do you pick the deals?
Every listing runs through the same model. Cautious rents from comps you can click through to. We charge ourselves for vacancy, CapEx, taxes. Then we benchmark head-to-head against the S&P 500. The model credits rental-side depreciation and mortgage interest at your marginal rate; what's not modeled is named in the disclosure block on the calculator page. Full breakdown on the methodology page.
Who's the merchant on my card statement?
Your statement reads "The Rent Hacker," billed through Stripe. If you see a line item you don't recognize, reply to any issue and we'll confirm before you ever need to dispute it.
What's the refund process?
Reply to any of the first two issues with the word "refund." That's it. No form, no survey, no "let me transfer you to retention." A human reads the reply and processes the full refund the same day.

Next editions ship Mon–Fri

Five ranked deals per region, every week. Refund the first two if they don't earn back the $29.

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