All Forum Posts by: Jenifer Levini

Talk to a lawyer in your area. I hope you have both insurance and hold the property in an LLC.

@Tom Makinen I was wondering about this. I looked at SS investing a while back. The prices were so high that I didn’t think it would break even, even assuming that demand never decreased. Do you have to be the original builder to make $$$?

@Cj McDougal It does seem at first sight that landlords are getting screwed. Here are a few things to do:

Many banks are offering mortgage forbearance to postpone payments for 3 months,

Make tenants sign repayment agreements when agreeing to reduced rent,

Enforce the “no waiver” and “payment” clauses in your rental agreement,

Take tenants who don’t pay to court after this is over,

Report unagreed upon nonpayment to credit agencies... basically, landlords still have the upper hand. If tenants leave without paying, be thankful because then you can raise the rent. All those tenants will have to land somewhere where the rent will also be higher because of the same situation. In the end, most tenants will decide to stay & payback landlords if they can afford it. People are always moving to CA. We are the golden state.

@Joe Aamidor interesting perspective. Now that high tech no longer has to provide desks & the real estate upon which they sit, there seems to be a hiring boom in tech. And employees are getting raises & incentives to stay with their employers. How will this effect Oakland? If people were mostly living there because it’s cheaper than SF, why stay when you can now live anywhere?

@Frederick Kuo I’m a real estate lawyer & investor based in Santa Cruz. Here’s what’s happening in this residential market. Google, Facebook, Tesla & other local high tech companies have announced that their employees no longer have to come into their offices. So thousands if not tens of thousands of people are moving from places like Mountain View & San Jose to more beautiful, peaceful & lower density locations within driving distance like Santa Cruz. Last week a house went on the market & received 13 offers the first day. Based on this exodus out of the valley into surrounding areas, I expect that areas like beach towns & wine country will be seeing a boom in residential housing. On the other end, the market for commercial is very soft. Tenants are contacting me trying to get out of leases. Anyone who can come up with creative ways to repurpose office space & retail will have a lot to choose from. I’m really sad to see the death of many great restaurants. I hope something great grows from their ashes.

I recently published a book about tiny home laws called “Building, Occupying and Selling Tiny Homes Legally.” It went to #1 Best Seller – New Release on Amazon within 2 weeks of publication. It’s being called the “new tiny home bible.” The good news is that it explains the 6 categories of tiny homes and the laws you have to follow to build, live in and sell them. Some of these laws are nation-wide (building codes) and some are state-specific (zoning laws). In the cases where they are state-specific, the laws explained are California laws. So I am looking for lawyers or others who have expertise on the tiny homes and housing laws in other states. States where tiny homes are really popular include Florida, Texas, Washington and Oregon, among others. So I am turning to you BPers to help me find the experts so we can create editions of this book for every state. I really want to help people own their homes, end the housing crisis, and build tiny home villages and businesses. More info on buildingtinyhomeslegally-dot-com. If you have any suggestions I’d appreciate your thoughts.

@Mary St.Clair Housing laws are specific to each state and to each county or city. You will probably need to get advice from a local attorney and your local building and planning department regarding what is allowed on a specific parcel. I just wrote a book called "Building, Occupying and Selling Tiny Homes Legally" that is coming out December 2019 that answers a lot of these sort of questions about where you can put a tiny house and how to determine if its legal on a specific parcel.

Hi all, I'd like to give a shout out to @Mike Bargetto who kindly phoned me with information about his out-of-state CPA. If you need a detail-oriented realtor in Santa Cruz, call Mike.
Unfortunately, in the conversation we realized that the out-of-state CPA did not know some basic California laws for real estate investing. For example, they did not know that most investors need to form California LLCs or file their foreign entity with the state if they do any management of the out-of-state properties from within California. I am always suspicious when I hear that any CPA is forming any entity because they simply do not understand the laws around what they are doing. Please do not let your CPA form your entity. As a real estate and business lawyer, I work with CPAs who have done it wrong in order to correct their mistakes. I am still looking for a  good local CPA near Santa Cruz. I have interviewed a few who just dont cut it. Anyone who cannot tell me what they charge or how they charge or who is really conservative doesnt really fit my style. Thanks for you help.

Yay @Veronica Haniger. Looks cute.

I'll echo @Greg R. and @Jonathan Pflueger. There are several local real estate meetup groups. During the group meetings we frequently discuss local and out-of-state investment opportunities. Sometimes the meetings are more informational than others. And sometimes the information is wrong. But it's a great way to learn and network and share the frustrations of trying to be an investor in this pricey market.