It often comes down to the laziness of the owners. Both offices I've rented in the Bay Area were owned by family trusts, where the children of the original owne

It often comes down to the laziness of the owners. Both offices I've rented in the Bay Area were owned by family trusts, where the children of the original owner were getting a check every month but nobody was interested in doing the work to fix the place up and find higher value tenants. There's a huge amount of that real estate dark matter around here. It takes some legwork to find such buildings and rent them. And if you fix them up, the landlord might notice and raise the rent. It's an inefficient market, waiting for disruption. Some startups are trying.