All Forum Posts by: Josh L.

What's the permit process like for converting a 2 bedroom into a 3 bedroom? How long does it take and how expensive is the process?

I've got this 2 bedroom town home with 2.5 baths with this loft space that's kind of useless. From a real estate perspective, it seems like it'd be better to convert that into a 3 bedroom 2.5 baths as that would be more valuable than a 2 bedroom and a loft with 2.5 baths.

But, then I notice that no other town homes in the same complex have done such a conversion so I'm wondering if the permit process is impossible or something. Is the city, county, or the HOA that would not allow this conversion?

Otherwise, it would seem like a no-brainer for some of the 2 bedroom models I see here that have a large separate den room downstairs  so that all they'd need to do is build a wall  and a closet for that den to make it a 3 bedroom. 

Those same 2 bedrooms already advertise themselves as a 3 bedroom on Craigslist so why wouldn't they make it official and make it a real 3 bedroom?

 The biggest reason I was reluctant to bring in a pro to take the pictures was that the city's been threatening to build a new park for several years and how that would change what the pictures of what the view would look like. 

All that dirt is the construction work the city's doing for the park.

I wanted to know how much a view is worth

1) to help get a better idea what the value of my rent was

2) to have this information so I could approach the city about this park and how that might diminish the value of my unit.  Yet, it sounds like I should be looking at units for sale, and not units for rent. 

But, that probably should be the subject of another thread. 

 I know my picture and the comp view aren't good pictures; the view looks much better in person. 

My pictures are more than ten years old taken with a basic point and click digital camera. Back then, just having pictures was a step up on craigslist.  I know I need a better camera and I've been thinking about buying a used DLSR camera. 

 My place is located half a mile from the beach, albeit on the other side of PCH. But, from what people are saying here, it looks to them  like its several miles away from the beach in the pictures. 

Here's some better pics from a unit that's for sale with the spectacular ocean views and that's actually not as close to the ocean as my unit. Again, they would look better in person:

I've always thought about bringing in a professional to take the photos, but my issue is that the pictures wouldn't show any updates/improvements such as wood floors that would be done after those pictures were taken and thus I couldn't keep re-using the same pics.

 $2800 for the comp with no view.

And, another comp that's same model but with much better, full on ocean views for $3300:

So, there seems like there's a premium when there's a spectacular ocean view. 

But, how do you price it when your view isn't as nice as that but you still have a view when other units don't have any view at all?

 But, isn't a bad idea to let the tenant try to restore it to its original condition before they move out because you won't know how good of a job they'll do and they might even make it worse when they try to fix it?

Like I said, it looks fairly complicated to remove all that stuff. To attach some of the curtain rods, they also made to make all these insertions and holes and attachments through the ceiling because there was no wall to hand that rod onto. If they remove the curtains and curtain rods, there's going to be a significant number of holes all over the room to deal with.

My thinking was it would be less of a headache to write it in the lease now to clarify this situation rather than let the tenant do a poor job of fixing it or dealing with security deposit issue if the tenant removed all those curtains and curtain rods when they moved out.

In my rental, there's this open loft /room that used to look like this:

Tenants in the past used that space as another bedroom even though its small and didn't have any closets. But, the biggest hurdle to using it as another bedroom was the lack of privacy.

I didn't give the tenant permission to do this, but the tenant went ahead anyways and permanently attached some curtain rods all over that space to hang some curtains:

And, the tenant took down the functional blinds in this space and attached curtain rods and curtains to replace those blinds. 

Since those curtain rods are permanently attached to the walls, does means it has been converted to real property and thus part of the property now? From what I can tell, it would be more trouble than its worth to take down those curtain rods because it would leave all these holes in the walls.

And, if I can keep the curtain rods, are there any cases where I can then also keep the curtains too? If I leave those curtain rods in, then it seems like I'd need to have curtains for them but I don't know how easy it'd be to replace those or if the tenant's curtains are standard size or anything.

The tenant's lease is about to expire. If he re-signs, what could I put in the lease to clarify that the rods he installed and the window coverings in this space are now part of the property?

The tenant put in his own window coverings in all the other rooms too, but those rooms already had curtain rods that he piggybacked on so I don't care about the window coverings in any other room. 

I have a rental townhome that I'm trying to determine the rent for.

There's a comp in the same complex that's the exact same model so everything is more or less the same except I have views from my rental and that rental doesn't.

With these views, how much more should I be asking for in rent compared to that comp?

Or, does the view really not add anything in rent but just makes it easier to rent sooner?

Those are the best views of the ocean on the upper deck and lower deck. The view from the kitchen looks better in person, although the layout of the kitchen doesn't really optimize that view.

And, in the rest of the rooms, there are ocean views but they are peek-a-boo views where you have to be in the right spot to see it:

If you make the tenant sign the new lease, what does it say about the security deposit? Does it specifically say anything about transferring the security lease from the previous lease onto the new lease?

I'm looking at the lease form I use, and its bit unclear. It says that the tenant will pay X amount as a security deposit. But, since this tenant is renewing the lease, he already put down a security deposit for the previous lease.

I'm confused. Is it rent controlled or not?

If its not and you want the tenants to leave to the extent that you're going to give a lump sum of a couple thousand to move, then why not hike the rent on them?

This way, the rent's too high for them to stay so that they have to voluntarily leave without you having to bribe them with any money to move out.

I strongly disagree. I wouldn't accept those terms if it was place.

If you extend the lease till December and then they decide to move, then you'll have to write off at least a month in rent. You're not going to just have problems finding qualified tenants; you're going to have problems just getting people to come out and look at your place in December.