Yes, some of you frown on this (for good reason, about rent control implications) but the reality is that we need additional housing and this is the easiest way to it. I knew it for myself 14 years ago when I bought in the Sunset. I knew my house was too big for me only at that time and while I could have paid the mortgage easily from being way cash flow positive from the 4plex, it is all about maxing your profit right? Truth be told, I may have on paper a lovely 2.5% mortgage but I don’t pay that mortgage…(hint hint). Sweetie and I live for free here while we work our arses off to build that nest egg for early retirement (at least for Sweetie). Sure, when I sell one day, should anyone be around still in those units (semi market rate anyway) I will just “buy” them out if need be. I’ll make them a “offer that they can’t refuse.” You live for today, not worry about too much about what is going on down the road. @manch is probably right (that rent control will probably cover the land), so mind as well start making money now, right? Present value, people, present value…
Don’t do it young man!
It’s done and I am loving it. The sad part is, I can pay off that beautiful 2.5% loan now and once that is gone it will never ever come back again. Clear well over 1M even after taxes if I decide to F it and move to Fremont or Chinatown is a nice problem to have.
See, Mr. Torres essentially agrees with me. Succeeding in life requires sacrifice. That sacrifice might mean sharing part of the roof…
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/first-time-homeowners-should-use-this-trick-and-live-for-free.html
Well, why not building another “master bedroom” on the back? Probably $30K-$50K cost.
YIMBY and Sunset elected Mayor London Breed
Earlier this year, they scored their biggest political victory yet: Democrat London Breed was elected the new mayor of San Francisco. In a race between several liberal candidates with progressive pedigrees, Breed distinguished herself with an unapologetically pro-development platform.
“We have made mistakes in the past by not moving housing production forward all over this city,” Breed told San Franciscans in her inauguration speech. “And I plan to change the politics of no to the politics of yes, yes we will build more housing.”
The YIMBYs campaigned heavily for Breed. They’re also running their own candidate for San Francisco supervisor — the equivalent of a city council member — this fall. They hope flexing political muscle will translate to a quicker and more streamlined process for approving new housing.
This is going to be revolutionary: rezoning single family land to multi family.
But the YIMBYs have their eyes on a bigger prize, and know they need elected officials to do it. They want to dismantle what they consider the “Voldemort of housing regulations” — single-family zoning.
Large swaths of many American cities are reserved exclusively for single-family homes. About 50 percent of residential properties in San Francisco are single-family. In Oakland, Seattle and Austin — all cities with growing YIMBY movements — it’s nearly 70 percent.
The YIMBYs want to build denser housing right next door.
“We end up fighting in places where it’s currently legal to build apartments, and the arguments we have are absurd and terrible,” Clark says. “What we don’t talk about is where it’s just illegal to build apartment buildings, period.”
They’ve run afoul of many anti-gentrification and displacement groups who say new development threatens their communities. When a statewide YIMBY group tried to pass a controversial bill in the California legislature that went after single-family zoning, they ran into fierce resistance from organizations representing low-income communities of color, some of which accused the YIMBYs of having a white privilege problem.