When Armando and I lived in our studio apartment in Berkeley, we would spend our weekends driving around the East Bay either to visit a specific store or go to a fun festival. Every now and then we would spot an Open House sign and we would pop in to take a peek at the inside of these beautiful homes out in Kensington, El Cerrito, and Berkeley and envision what it would be like to have all this space before being a little shaken up by the sticker price on these homes.
It’s not a secret that the Bay Area is expensive to live in, and that there is a lack of affordable housing. We were paying less than $1000 a month combined, so despite living in a smaller space, it felt worth it to stick around for as long as possible in our studio to save money and avoid the temptation of finding a slightly larger apartment for a lot more rent. We had a short commute to work and were making our space work for us by utilizing furniture with storage solutions (thanks IKEA).
The ability to purchase a home seemed so far down the road for us, in large part due to their rising costs, but that all changed one weekend after driving around El Cerrito, a city north of Berkeley. Sometimes we would take some plastic film and large styrofoam blocks to be recycled at their amazing recycling center, and we happened to stop by 3 open houses on our way home. We were a lot more interested in looking at homes in large part because my sister had moved into our studio to figure out her career path in the Bay Area, and it made us realize having 2 bedrooms would help us live A LOT more comfortably and give us the added opportunity to have guests over.
We came across a recently renovated 2 story home in the northern part of El Cerrito, and its price made us think that for the first time, we could totally make the payments on it if we moved quickly. Armando got us approved for a first-time home buyer loan (FHA) on Rocket Mortgage and we realized we should probably work with a local real estate agent to help us navigate the process of submitting an offer for the first time. We saw this space on a Sunday, connected with an agent referred to me by a friend/co-worker and met up with said agent at the home we were interested in on a rainy Monday in March 2018. There was no electricity in the house, but we toured it with our agent with the natural light that was left and sat around the staged dining room table to get to know each other and discuss our options.
We didn’t walk away putting in an offer in that home, but we did walk away knowing we had made a great choice in contacting this real estate agent, who goes by the name of Michael Studebaker. Prior to meeting him, Armando had a dream of buying a multi-unit property in order to earn rental income and have that cash flow in the future. Without prompting him, Michael brought up duplexes and their earning potential, and Armando and I looked at each other and knew we had made a good decision adding him to our house hunting team. He helped us meet a mortgage advisor just to see if we qualified for more in our loan, and our mortgage advisor was also someone who had purchased a duplex as their first home and became a great resource for us in the long run.
And so, with our loans approved and our team assembled, the serious house-hunting adventure began!
There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs in this process. In the beginning, we looked at every multi-unit property, just to get a sense of what we really needed, what we could do without, and to learn more about the neighborhoods. We also looked at a few single-family homes, and came close to putting an offer on one, but held back when we reevaluated our goals. We narrowed our search area within Oakland and quickly realized we didn’t know as much about our neighboring city as we thought. There are a lot of different areas in Oakland, and we had never heard of some of the places because we had been living in a bubble in Berkeley and only occasionally made trips to Oakland for specific restaurants recommended to us.
We toured duplexes that needed a lot of work, one with a legit hoarder as an existing tenant with a pet possum, among her menagerie of other animals. Another spot we looked at had a 30 min window for viewing and when we spotted to “agent” he asked if we read about the note of an arrest/shooting that occurred in the space. We hadn’t, but the house didn’t have separate living areas and was not actually a duplex so that new fact was mute to us.
Amid the disaster zones, we saw some good homes, and we put in offers for three of those homes. The two homes both countered well over what we were comfortable with, and we were feeling a little defeated and unsure whether we would find a spot within a year. However, by late June of 2018, I had started a new job, so we could also offer a little more on future properties we saw and the rental income was also considered by the mortgage broker for the loan.
And then in July 2018, we went to visit a duplex that inspired a fast offer and an updated letter from us to the owners. It also included a new “About Us” infographic sheet I designed to highlight who we were and what we liked about the home, such as the bay windows, the original molding around the doors, and chandeliers in the living and dining room. We also added another team member from the same real estate company while Michael had an increased number of houses to show. Armando and I were down in Long Beach, CA where he was attending a conference and I was enjoying the amenities of the hotel. We got the call that our offer was accepted, and by August 2018, we got our keys to our new home. I learned from our agents that we were not the highest offer, but the owners liked our letter and wanted to sell their home to a family.
It was an amazing feeling leading up to signing paperwork, getting our keys and moving all our belongings. It was bittersweet to leave our little studio and increase our commute time to work, but it was so exciting to have all these doors with separate rooms, dedicated parking, and overall, a space we could call our own.
Buying a home was a journey, and if you are on the fence about starting the process, it doesn’t hurt to ask a real estate agent or mortgage advisor you trust. You might be surprised how much more you qualify for in a loan, especially if you explore the duplex/triplex route as a first home since the rental income is factored in.
We definitely have appreciated the extra rooms and outdoor space we can call our own, but most importantly, one of the best things about moving was being able to welcome Iris into the mix!
What are some things you are looking forward to in a home you own? What is something your dream home needs to have? I’d love to know!
Until next time,
Brandy