All Forum Posts by: Jason Hsiao

What city is this in @Gin Zhuang?

Piggybacking off of @Jon Schwartz's comment, disclaimer I'm not a lawyer but I did recently speak with our counsel re: owner move-in eviction during pandemic and the answer was that eviction moratorium does not apply to owner move in. I'd double check w/ your own counsel as well. And yeah, you don't need to sign a new lease but your right to terminate the lease will be different depending on what city this is in.

@Nabil Suleiman has some great responses so I won't repeat them here. I'd say a couple other factors to consider @Michael Avillion are:

Privacy - having neighbors in a MFH setting isn't everybody's cup of tea

VA loan - anticipate some headwind with using VA loan right now. A lot of sellers don't want to bother with the red tape and longer timeline. You might have less issues w/ that with MFH properties.

Reading btwn the lines a bit, it's probably more of a qualitative decision then quantitative. Happy wife, happy life I'll just leave with that ;-)

Los Angeles has tons of weird properties with inconsistent title report, unpermitted units etc. If you're the one that's staying there you have much less to worry about. Honestly, I might just leave things as it is @John Narmontas. It's a unique case, usually you permit the garage on its own and for MFH's, technically you need to convert non-livable space like boiler room or laundry room that kind and a rec room would be a livable space.

For the garage, it depends on what the lease w/ the tenants say. If it say they're allowed to use that or they're paying extra for it then you'd need to revise the lease. If it's a handshake thing, I'd go with the asking nicely approach first.

If by closing costs you mean title and escrow those are usually pretty much set or don't vary too much in CA @Faozat Ogunremi. You can negotiate for it of course, but customarily escrow fee is split 50/50 and seller pays for title fee and county transfer tax (and city if it's applicable). If you mean for your loan, that's between your lender and you. The seller doesn't really have anything to do with it.

Not sure how you structured your contract, but home inspection should happen AFTER they do their upgrades. If nothing else, have a verification of property before you close so you know the job is done right. As for the date and looking at the place, sounds like the listing agent is not responsive, I suppose the best response I have on that is keep trying but work with them to set the appropriate time table.

Lmk if there's anything else you need help with!

You should get pre-qualified first @Ruben Marquez and figure out your budget. The market will go up, and it will go down, and it will go up again.

Culver City triplex, $880k or let's say $900k with the rehab cost for 3 units at $300k/unit sounds like a steal to me! I don't have all the details but if you can fix it up a bit it should be easily $1.2m. I don't know what that ROE comes out to at 10% right off the top of my head but I'd do it @Kenneth Ryan!

Cost varies @Anna Delos Santos depending on finishes, site condition, and the big one is if you need a separate sewer line. I usually budget btwn $50-75k.

Pro is that is' a lot cheaper than doing detached new ground up. Con is if you're a more SFH or suburb area, eliminating the garage might hurt the attractiveness in the renter's eyes for the main house.

Don't want to get hung up on the technicalities, when you convert a garage it's technically not a JADU, it's just a regular ADU.

What part of LA is this?

$650k is tough for Oakland and Pasadena. Homes are selling higher than asking price because the listing agents intentionally listed under fair market value to start with to generate interest and induce bidding wars. I think outside of core LA market or outside of California is the way to go here.

FYI you can't 1031 exchange a primary residence or a flip @Alon Helman. You can however stay in it for 2 years and use the section 121 exclusion.

I'm willing to venture a guess it's the loan - any state or federal loan product will come with lots of red tape that sellers don't have patience for. BP keeps preaching about using FHA put 3.5% down that's sadly unrealistic in coast markets like Los Angeles. Sellers often don't even look at those offers. If possible, even putting 5% down on traditional loan and pay PMI (you have to anyway with FHA) will put you in a much MUCH stronger position

I wouldn't do it. The time and cost involved. Some areas are better than others but in Pleasanton, I have a hard time seeing it selling at the same $/sqft as the main house. It might attract some multi-generational buyers but Pleasanton buyers prob would prefer to have the yard space. Too much gamble to me.