All Forum Posts by: Stephen Masek

Credit score is a measure of willingness to make lenders rich.  It may be helpful, and the management companies we hire use it, but it is just one piece of information.  What we really care about is their ability to pay and willingness to properly use and maintain our property.

If you read The Big Short, a wonderful book (and the movie was excellent), you will know that it is possible for people with a "thin file" or some such term to have a high score, but little ability to pay.      

You do excellent work and congratulations on the multiple offers!  Please let us know what it sold for when it closes.   

Since three months have passed, has anything changed?  How is it going? 

AAGLA was apparently the source of a significant part of the money HJTPA used to get Prop. 13 passed, but their influence has been decreasing.   Why not invest elsewhere?  Tenants are crammed into apartment units, so it is quite difficult to imagine that rents can go much higher, and certainly not on the rent controlled buildings.    

Amazing!  Please post some examples of what kinds of opportunities you see there.   

What about asbestos and lead?  Home inspectors can not address those materials.  Strict licensing / certification requirements have been in place since 1992 for asbestos consultants and 1993 for lead consultants.   Given the super-high prices of units, you and/or your lender, if you use one, may also need and want a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment.  

There is a tax payer funded (!) tenant rights group in LA which is demanding jury trials for evictions, so it can take a year or more to get them out.  Why buy in LA instead of a landlord friendly area?   

The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles - AAGLA.

Appreciation potential is also an important factor in purchase decisions.  Of course, the good foreclosed single family house deals seem to gone.  The last one I found was 14 months ago. 

made some excellent points.  One of the problems with government jobs which pay "prevailing wages" which are multiples of the true going rate is that the workers move like their feet are in honey.  Paying buy the hour and being responsible for materials is a bad idea.  Specifying certain material attributes and having liquidated damages provisions to keep contractors on schedule are good ideas. 

As for estimating software, watch out, as it can be a tool to nickel and dime people to death.  For example, we have reviewed restoration bids where they tried to charge more for usage of equipment such as air scrubbers or dehumidifiers than those units cost new.  Presenting the cost as a long list of line items makes it much harder for the buyer to evaluate and  contest any one item.  Instead, use a good specification which tells bidders they need to anticipate things such as the need to raise or lower and electrical box to install a cabinet and a good schedule for the work to obtain firm-fixed price bids.