Oakland charges $6,000 a year on a vacant residential parcel that gets used fewer than fifty days. That is on top of the mortgage, the taxes, the insurance and the risk. We buy vacant Oakland houses for cash, exactly as they sit.
Two fields. We will come back within 24 hours with a cash number and the questions we still need answered. No obligation, no fee, and we never list your property.
Most cities let a vacant house quietly drain you through carrying costs. Oakland sends a bill. Measure W, the Vacant Property Tax, charges $6,000 a year per vacant residential parcel, and $3,000 per vacant unit for condominiums, duplexes and townhomes held in separate ownership. A property counts as vacant if it is in use fewer than fifty days in a calendar year.
That sits on top of everything else an empty house costs you. Mortgage, property tax, vacant-property insurance at a higher rate than an occupied policy, utilities to keep pipes from freezing and mould from spreading, and somebody to cut the grass so code enforcement stays away. Add the $6,000 and an empty Oakland house becomes one of the most expensive things a person can own.
There are ten exemptions, covering low-income owners, seniors, non-profits, demonstrated hardship, and owners actively improving the property. The City Council added a further exemption for new property owners at the end of 2025. If you qualify for one, claim it. If you do not, the tax is real and it recurs every year the property sits.
We buy vacant Oakland houses for cash in whatever condition they are in. Inherited and never occupied, abandoned part way through a renovation, a rental nobody re-let, a house that has been closed up for a decade. We do not need it cleaned, cleared or repaired.
Get My Free Cash OfferLeave everything inside. Furniture, belongings, a relative's possessions, decades of accumulated storage. The clean-out is one of the main reasons inherited Oakland houses sit empty for years, because nobody can face it. Take what matters to you and we handle the rest after closing.
A first audit of the programme gave it reasonable marks, and it raises roughly $6 million a year.
Measure W passed in 2018 and has been collecting since. It raises in the region of $6 million annually, a figure that keeps rising as the city gets better at identifying which parcels are genuinely vacant. Being overlooked in previous years is not a reason to assume you will keep being overlooked.
The fifty-day threshold catches more owners than people expect. A house you visit a few weekends a year to check on is vacant under this definition. A property mid-renovation with nobody living in it is vacant. An inherited home that the family has not decided about is vacant, and it has probably been vacant for several tax years already.
Vacant houses in Oakland also attract exactly what you would expect. Copper theft, broken windows, squatters who then acquire their own legal protections, and code enforcement citations that become liens against the property. Insurers commonly cancel coverage once a defined vacancy period passes, and once coverage lapses the exposure sits entirely with you.
None of this stops a cash sale. Code citations, abatement liens, unpaid property taxes and accrued Measure W assessments are all resolved at closing out of the proceeds, the same way any other lien is handled through title.
If a squatter is already in the property, say so. It changes the approach but not the answer. Once someone has established occupancy in Oakland they acquire protections of their own, which is one more reason that an empty house gets harder and more expensive to deal with every month it sits.
Faster than any listing, and you do not lift a finger to prepare the property.
Address, roughly how long it has been empty, and anything you know about condition, citations or liens. You do not need to visit the property.
You do not have to be there, meet anyone, or arrange access if the property is secured. Out-of-state owners are routine for us.
Priced on what the property actually is today, not on what it would be worth if it had been maintained.
Liens, citations and accrued vacancy tax are cleared at closing. We secure the property the same day.
The most common vacant-house story there is, and the one where Measure W quietly accumulates for years.
Money ran out, the contractor left, permits expired. We buy part-finished work as it stands.
After a difficult tenancy a lot of Oakland landlords simply stop. The tax does not stop with them.
A listing that went nowhere and a house you are now carrying from another state.
Vacant-property coverage lapses routinely. It does not affect our ability to close.
Resolved at closing through title, out of the proceeds.
Tell us the address and roughly how long it has been empty. We will come back within 24 hours with a cash offer. No clean-out, no repairs, and no further years of Measure W.
Oakland Vacant Property — No Obligation
Measure W charges $6,000 per year on a vacant residential parcel. Condominiums, duplexes and townhome units held in separate ownership are charged $3,000 per vacant unit. A property is treated as vacant when it is in use fewer than fifty days in a calendar year, and the tax recurs annually for as long as that remains true.
Yes, ten of them. They cover low-income owners, seniors, non-profits, owners who can demonstrate hardship, and owners who are actively in the process of improving the property. At the end of 2025 the City Council added a further exemption for new property owners. If you believe you qualify, claim it with the City, because the exemption is not applied automatically.
Almost certainly. We have bought Oakland homes that sat empty for a decade or more. Long vacancy usually means degraded condition, failed systems, water damage and code issues, and sometimes several years of accrued vacancy tax. None of that makes a property unsellable. It affects the number, and we give you an honest one for the property as it actually is.
No. Leave everything exactly where it is. The clean-out is one of the main reasons inherited Oakland houses sit vacant for years, particularly when it involves a late relative's possessions. Take whatever is meaningful to you and we deal with disposal, donation and full clearance after closing.