San Diego Real Estate Guides

Eight guides on the questions San Diego buyers, sellers, and investors actually ask me: what rentals return here, what an ADU costs, how a 1031 exchange really works, what selling costs, and which neighborhood fits your budget. I wrote every one myself, with real numbers stamped to the period I pulled them. No fluff, no funnel. Read what applies and call me with the rest.

A note on how these are written. I'd rather tell you the downside on page one than have you discover it in escrow. So each guide names the traps first: the pro forma rents, the deadlines that kill exchanges, the pricing mistake that costs sellers real money. Then it shows you what I'd do instead. Everything is current as of mid-2026, and when a number moves, I update the page.

For investors

• San Diego Investment Property Guide. Start here. Why this is a low-yield, high-certainty market, how to read GRM and cap rates, where the numbers still work, and the four traps I check before any client offers.
• San Diego ADU Guide. Granny flats went from side project to serious strategy. Build costs, real Pacific Beach rents, and the 2025 and 2026 rule changes (AB 976, AB 1033, and the city's rollback of the bonus program) in plain English.
• 1031 Exchange in San Diego. The 45-day and 180-day clocks, California's clawback on out-of-state moves, and how local investors actually use exchanges to move up. With the standard warning: confirm everything with a California CPA.
• BRRRR and Fix-and-Flip in San Diego. The honest version. Textbook BRRRR rarely pencils here, flips are tighter in a softening market, and there's still a version of both that works. I show the math.
• Buying a Duplex or 2-4 Units in San Diego. House hacking, owner-occupied loans, rent control rules, and where small multifamily still makes sense. The best first move most buyers never consider.

For sellers

• Selling Your San Diego Home. What it really costs (typically 6 to 10 percent of the price), how long each stage takes, what to fix and what to skip, and the week-one pricing rule that decides most outcomes.
• What's My San Diego Home Worth?. Why the Zestimate misses your block, how a real comparative market analysis works, and how to get one from me for free. No listing agreement required, no follow-up campaign.

For people moving here

• Moving to San Diego. The six communities I work, compared honestly by price and lifestyle. Where $900K goes, where it doesn't, what the marine layer actually means, and the questions to answer before you commit to a zip code.

How to use these

If you're brand new to investing here, read the investment guide first and the ADU guide second. Sellers should read the valuation guide before the selling guide, because pricing drives everything else. And if you're relocating, start with the moving guide, then go deep on the one or two community pages that fit your budget.

The guides and the community pages are built to work together. The guides cover the how: financing, costs, deadlines, strategy. The community pages cover the where, down to the neighborhood and the school boundary. Most decisions need both.

These guides get you 80 percent of the way. The last 20 percent is your block, your building, your numbers, and that part is a conversation. Call or text (619) 568-2649 or send me a message and tell me what you're working on. I'll give you a straight answer, even when the straight answer is "wait."