The tenants on Folsom Street first got an offer for $10,000. When they refused, the owner upped it to $20,000. For now, however, the brother, sister and her two daughters plan to remain in the six-bedroom house.
A Bernal Heights tenant who is disabled — a protected group — decided that even though she might be able to beat her landlord’s attempts to evict her, she would accept his buyout offer of $10,000. The legal costs down the road if she continued to fight just weren’t worth it.
As the real estate market picks up, buyouts — the practice of owners getting rid of tenants by offering them cash to move voluntarily — are making a comeback.
Buyouts reached a high of 30 to 50 a month in the Mission before the crash in late 2008, a number that suggests as many as three times that citywide, according to the San Francisco Tenants Union.
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