Start with who's living in the house. Only 42.3 percent of Oakland homes are owner-occupied, so a lot of our Oakland calls are with landlords, and the tenant usually stays with the sale. Oakland's just cause ordinance, the Uniform Relocation Ordinance and Measure Y mean an owner can't clear a duplex or triplex just to sell it vacant. Berkeley is similar: a single-family house rented after 1996 is still under good cause eviction. Ask how many units, who lives there, and what each tenant pays. If you plan to buy it occupied, price it that way.

Then ask about the city mail. Oakland's soft-story program covers buildings designed or built before 1991 with five or more units and a vulnerable lower story, and the city keeps a list of subject properties. Berkeley's covers wood-frame buildings with five or more units permitted before 1978. An owner can pass up to 70 percent of the cost through to Oakland tenants over 25 years, but only by petitioning the Rent Adjustment Program. Some owners would rather sell than take that on. If there's a retrofit notice, we put it in the note.

Probate runs through the Superior Court. As of the August 2026 assignments, probate calendars are heard in Departments 201 and 202 at the Berkeley Courthouse on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and probate trials in Department 103 at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland. Full probate in California usually takes 8 to 18 months, and creditors get four months from letters. With full IAEA authority the administrator can sell after a 15-day Notice of Proposed Action. Without it, the sale goes to a confirmation hearing where someone can overbid you.

Prop 19 is what pushes Alameda County heirs to sell. A child keeps the parent's tax base only if the house becomes their principal residence, and only up to the old value plus $1,044,586 for transfers through February 15, 2027. In a county with a median value near $1,090,100, siblings who don't plan to move in face a reset. If the house sits empty in Oakland, add the Vacant Property Tax: $6,000 a year for a residential parcel used under 50 days. Foreclosures are non-judicial. The Notice of Default is filed of record, the owner has 90 days, and the trustee sale notice comes at least 20 days ahead. Sheriff's judgment sales are held at the bottom of the Fallon Street steps of the René C. Davidson Courthouse.

Here's a call that fits this county. Our caller reaches a man whose mother owned a 1920s house in Fruitvale for decades. She passed last year, his sister filed the probate petition, and the house has been empty since. The City's vacancy notice showed up this spring. The back porch is soft and nobody has tested the paint. He lives in Sacramento, his sister lives in Hayward, and neither wants to move in and keep their mother's tax base. You get who has letters, the condition, the vacancy notice and a price they've both agreed on.

Alameda County sellers lean retail, and we won't pretend they don't. With values this high, plenty of owners have talked to an agent, and in Fremont, Pleasanton and Berkeley the equity gives them choices. So our callers ask on every call whether there's a realtor or another buyer involved and write the answer into the note. A seller who has heard the retail pitch and still wants an as-is sale with tenants in place is a real lead. One who wants full market value isn't, and we don't send that one to you.