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Underwrite an address →Underwrite — $79

Pricing

One address, underwritten by a person. Or every week of them.

Most buyers want one building checked properly, this week. That is the report. Buyers who are going to look at ten more take the pass.

The report

$79

one address

A person checks the listing, the parcel’s own tax bill and the rents, then gives you the answer at your rent and your down payment, plus a plain list of what could not be checked.

  • Delivered within one business day.
  • One San Francisco address. Paid up front, delivered by email.
  • The finished page is yours to keep, and it says what we could not check.

See a finished underwrite →

Underwrite an address — $79

The pass

$49/mo

or $490/yr

Every Bay Area 2–4 unit that beats renting and index funds, the week it lists, open in full at your own rent, tax bracket, horizon and down payment.

  • Every region, not one.
  • The locked buildings open the week they land: address, asking price, rent by unit.
  • Cancel any time. Annual takes two months off.

Rather pay once a year? $490/yr, two months free.

Take the pass — $49/mo

A report is a one-off purchase; the pass is a subscription you cancel whenever you are done searching. Reports are not included in the pass: they are hand work on one building, and they are priced like it.

What you get

Everyone gets the whole board. The pass opens the top picks while they're ranked.

Everyone

The pass · $49/mo or $490/yr

The whole board: every listing we ran, every verdict and margin, every rejection and why
The whole board with nothing locked in your regions
Full records on everything outside the top 4: address, asking price, the complete underwrite
The top 4 picks in full while they're ranked: address, asking price, rent-by-unit underwriting
Locked picks open when the next board replaces them
Open the picks the week they land, before the good ones go pending
One address, done by hand Every parcel in San Francisco, free on /lookup: legal units, the Prop-13 tax reset at your price, rent-control era, cautious rents
One address, done by hand The full underwrite of any address you pick, $79 each, delivered within one business day. Not included in a subscription, and never has been
Your numbers Rent, on the page you're reading
Your numbers Rent, tax bracket, horizon and down payment, set once, on every record you open
Each record names what we could not verify
A request-verification button on every fact we could not verify. One click queues it for our next pass

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, but 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. We scan 14,000+ active listings a week. When none beat renting and index funds on cautious numbers, the board says so, and that week is a list of rejections.

— Danny Brown, founder · danny@therenthacker.com

Reply within 14 days of any charge and it goes back on your card.

That covers the pass, monthly or annual. A report is judged on whether we did the work: if we cannot underwrite the address after you have paid, the money goes back the same day and we say why. What you never get is a refund for an answer you did not like: the whole point is that we tell you when a building loses.

Pricing questions

Before you click subscribe.

The report or the pass: which one do I want?
The report ($79) is one San Francisco address, underwritten by a person and delivered within one business day. Buy it when you are looking at one building. The pass ($49/mo, or $490/yr) is for the months you are searching: every Bay Area 2–4 unit that beats renting and index funds, the week it lists. Every region, every week: the buildings that win, open in full, at your own rent, tax bracket, horizon and down payment. Cancel any time. Most buyers start with one report and take the pass when they realise they are going to look at ten more.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes, the pass cancels any time. Every email 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. A single report is a one-off purchase with nothing to cancel.
What cities do you cover?
SF Bay Area only. Every 2–4 unit listing in the ZIPs where a duplex still pencils, underwritten for owner-occupancy. We expand only when the methodology proves itself in the next region. No "national coverage" promises.
Do I get the earlier boards?
The board is the record now: every property we underwrite stays on the site, and locked picks open to everyone once they leave the weekly board. Past editions are archived at therenthacker.com/issues. The paid back catalog from before our June platform change is gone (honest answer: still not rebuilt); if it gets rebuilt, subscribers get it at no extra charge. Membership is about this week: the top picks, open while they’re ranked.
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 tool. Take the refund. We'd rather lose a customer 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 email from us and we'll confirm before you ever need to dispute it.
What's the refund process?
Reply within 14 days of any charge and it goes back on your card. To claim it, reply to any email from us with the word "refund." No form, no survey, no "let me transfer you to retention." A human reads the reply and processes it the same day. A report that has already been researched and delivered is work you have received, so that one is judged on whether we did the work, not on whether you liked the answer.
What are "your numbers"?
The four inputs that are about you rather than the property: what you pay in rent, your tax bracket, how long you would hold, and your down payment. Anyone can type a rent on a property page and see that verdict re-run at it; nothing is saved. Members set all four once, and every record they open runs at those numbers next to the published verdict, which never moves.
What does "request verification" do?
Every property record names the facts we could not verify. Members on a paid plan get a one-click button on those facts; each click queues the fact for our next verification pass. It's a real queue we work through, with no promised turnaround. When you need one address done properly and on a clock, that's the report: $79, delivered within one business day.

New boards land Mon–Fri

One building on your mind? Underwrite an address for $79. Looking at ten? $49/mo.

Underwrite an address — $79 Take the pass — $49/mo

Cancel the pass any time, billed monthly or annually. Reply within 14 days of any charge and it goes back on your card.