The quality of rental properties (San Diego, San Jose: real estate, foreclosure, rentals)

[kilohertz]

i've lived here a little over a year....and i'm currently looking for a new place/neighborhood to move into nearby, as the one where i reside isn't working out. so i am curious why landlords charge ridiculous rent for really crappy, dumpy, smelly, worn-out properties...

do the immigrants currently living here and moving here have lower standards of living? basically giving landlords carte blanche to rent hellholes to these people who think they're moving into the presidential suite at the Plaza? or is it the problem of large families that insist on cramming themselves into a place that houses 2-3 comfortably, yet there are 10 of them living there? if the rental housing market is that competitive, why don't i see nicer places? or are most landlords around here real slimy slumlords, doing the absolute bare minimum while living off their real estate equity while these morons who think $1500-1800 for a dump is a good deal?

when i lived in san diego, there were plenty of cheaper, nicer, cleaner rentals. yes, i know the average salaries in san diego are a little lower, but rent down there isn't much less than up here - and i traditionally got much more bang for less bucks while living there. yeah, so i guess i should just move back....

[socketz]

I went through the same thing for a month. Not sure how many run down Cambrian and Campbell homes I ended up looking at....most were just gross.

Honestly, it's really tough to find nice rental properties in San Jose. Then, if you throw in one other variable like "good schools", you're toast. Add a third variable like 'limited commute' and you are paying over 3k per month and involved in a bidding war with 4-5 other couples with kids.

You simply can't be that picky in San Jose because of the mass influx of people moving back closer into the city to avoid commuting. Many of the people I found either lost their home to foreclosure, lived in a home lost to foreclosure, or just became fed up with the commute and the high cost of gas.

If you are from San Diego (like me), you have to at least check out the east bay: Pleasanton, Dublin San Ramon. Bad commute during typ commute times, yes. But it's another world and much more like what you were used to in San Diego.

Lots of selection for excellent rentals as well. Lots of shopping, excellent schools, ultra safe......but there is the commute. So you need to decide. It was a tough one for me, but standing inside a $2400 per month 1000 sq/ft cambrian home with the original linoleum tile from 1953 and walls that were sagging from water damage and reeked of mold/cat dander.....I decided to make the sacrifice and tweak my work hours a little to accomodate.

[socketz]

Another thing.....this may sound odd. But when you find a home for rent that's nice, you need to treat your interaction with the landlord like an interview.

I know, I know. Odd.

But the few nice places that exist in good school districts have a mass influx of families trying to rent them (typ 5 or so at a time in a caravan format), so you need to stand out.

Show up dressed nice, talking about how much you love your job, show pictures of your kids, etc. If you leave a message, show enthusiasm in your voice. Also, let them know that you do not plan on moving another family in with you - that happens alot in San Jose and landlords fear having 12 people living in their rental.

People love renting to other people that they feel will love their home, so project that image and you will be ok.

I think many of them discriminate as well, so watch for this. Several told me they screen calls and if the person was of a certain ethnicity, they didn't call back.

I beat out lots of other families this way and most of the time it was my option to turn them down vs them turning me down. But it took this kind of strategy to win because renting here is tough. Some owners told me they would receive 30-40 calls per day!!!! - and many simply shut down and became overwhelmed because they could not decide what to do. Make it easy for them by selling yourself the way I described above.

Sounds really odd I know....I almost find myself laughing as I type this because it seems insane, but you have to remember that San Jose is the United Nations of the USA, the rules that apply to Real Estate transactions in the US don't really apply here.

A friend told me that Realtors here even run ads in Singapore and Malaysia for homes selling in Cupertino/Satatoga (now world known for their schools) in an attempt to attract attention from immigrants coming to the bay from Asia. Many homes in these areas still go for hundreds of thousands over their asking price, and there are lotteries to get into the impacted schools.

Interesting huh...