I hadn’t checked rents in that area lately so I had a peek – from the July 1st, 2007 Union Tribune rental section

Normal Hts
> 3/1 house $1800
> 2/2 townhouse $1450

North Park
> 2/2 house + studio, W/D hkup, fplc $1700
> 3/1 house $1700
> 3/1 Craftsman house, W/D, landscaped, gardener $1700

Talmadge
> 3/2 house $1675

University Hts
> 3/2, 1200 SQFT, gar, cat ok $1550

~

As a conservative investor, I stick by my original back-of-the-envelope number – the property will rent for $1500/month – maybe we could get $1700/month but our turnover might be high at $1700 – better to base a ‘buy or don’t buy’ decision on conservative numbers and have a pleasant surprise than to use pie-in-the-sky numbers and lose our asses