All Forum Posts by: Louis W.

Thanks for responding to my question.

-The first being, what part of Oakland are you in? 

8th Ave and Foothill. My zoning is RM-3. It seems that duplex is permitted. 

"The RM-3 Mixed Housing Type Residential Zone intent is to create, maintain, and enhance residential areas characterized by a mix of single family home, duplexes, townhouses, and small multi-unit buildings at somewhat higher densities than in RM-2."

-Second, what are your goals with the property? 

I want to increase Rent. Right now, the city said that first-floor unit is not legal because the ceiling is too low.

-Flip, live in and enjoy, refi/equity line to access the equity? 

Rental income.

-Lastly, What is the existing configuration of the house and what is the existing footprint and lot size?  

2 floors. Almost 2000 sq ft

The first floor is 2 room 1 bath

The second floor is 3 room 1 bath

 That means it is working as intended to keep outsiders out and insiders with low rent. 

No way, this creates unnecessary legal headaches in the future. If you really want to be nice or feeling green, you can build the solar panel on your own dime. 

Big No! Don't even talk to them! Every word that you said can be used against you in the court of law. Consult a local expert and real estate professional about the eviction process.

Do the late rent notice or eviction standard process by the book. Next, have a professional real estate management company to manage your property. It will cost you, but you will save a lot of headaches and potential threats of lawsuits.

I learn a personal lesson dealing with these tenants in a nice personal way. End up with the tenant try to bully me with potential lawsuits. I was fortunate that tenants decide to leave themselves.

I listen to it and completely agree with them, though I am a bit bias as a landlord. Rent Control is pretty much laws created by the local incumbent tenants to keep out the competition. Of course, it hurt the overall rent economy and less value for everyone overall. Rent Control is everywhere because new people that plan to move those cities can't vote against these rent control laws that hurt them. and us landlord are hated micro minority.

The only way to deal with these uneconomic laws is on the State and National level because it is in the best interest of the State and Federal government to extract much Tax as possible from rent. If we want to fight rent control, we need to push and lobby at that level. 

Act like the tenant is still there. If the tenant stops paying rent, go through the standard procedure for not paying rent, and eventually evicting this ghost tenant. It should be easy because this ghost tenant won't defend itself or show up at court. If you rent out this unit before the eviction process is finish and this ghost tenant returns, you can get yourself into some legal troubles. 

If you have an actual ghost in the unit, then you will a priest to evict this ghost or get creative renting this unit out. In Hong Kong, they have app that specializes for renting out haunted units. For lower rent, some tenants don't mind living with ghost. 

Always do a credit check no matter. Make the applicant pay for it. 700+ or no deal. 

If it is family or a good friend, then don't even rent to them because you can't evict them without ruining your relationship. Run it like a business. 

 Lol That is like a used car salesman telling you to not check the car history. I will double down and do an even deeper inspection.

My family got a property in Oakland CA. The first floor of the home is too low to qualify as a separate unit. It is around 12 inches too short. Also, the first floor is already 20 inches below ground level. So, which option is better? Lift the house or dig deeper? 

Another question is when should we upgrade? Currently, there is a construction boom in Oakland, making labor and material more expensive. Should we wait for a down period to do this upgrade?

Thanks.

I will gladly pay someone above average if their work is above average. If you always want to get an average or lower price, you will get average or lower quality. Of course, if you calculated that his work is below average then you got something to discuss with him.