All Forum Posts by: John Arendsen

What locations?

@Kathy Henley, Wow! what a bunch of great info. Thank you so much. We've actually backed away from this character. We figure if he's jacking us around before we even sign a lease that he won't be a whole lot better as a landlord. I don't really like landlords or being a tenant anyway. 

I told my son and daughter-in-law to start looking for a location to purchase. But I do thank you for your very astute and informative overview and should we decide to reconsider a lease I will certainly heed your advice.

April Is Earthquake Preparedness

Month In California. Are You Ready?

April Is the official month dedicated to "EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS"

There are things you and I can and should do to help ourselves, our families and our neighbors. There are also things you need to know about that may not only help you minimize loss of life but also devastating losses to your home and property.

“Displacement”

Could You Be At Risk of Being

Forced Out of Your Home After An

“Earthquake”?

Unlike wind, fire and flooding events that can and have wiped out entire communities “Earthquakes” can and usually do give you a second chance if proper and preventative measures are implemented.

Next to loss of life and personal injury the biggest tragedy and challenge in the aftermath of any disaster is total loss of the use of your home aka "Displacement"

There are three levels of classifications your home may be subjected to if it is damaged in an“Earthquake” as well as many other types of disasters.

GREEN TAG: Ah! You will be in heaven compared to your less fortunate YELLOW AND RED TAGGED neighbors. Your life will not change much. After you pick up the broken glass, clean up the debris, negotiate (argue) with your tight fist-Ed insurance adjuster, make some minor repairs and tidy up a bit your life will go on pretty much as usual.

You won’t be challenged by the same inconveniences as many of you’re YELLOW and RED tagged neighbors will be. But most importantly you won’t be having to look for temporary housing which in times like these can be a gigantic if not impossible task unto itself.

YELLOW TAG: If this happens your home is deemed somewhat structurally damaged but HABITABLE. This is HUGE! Here the homeowner is given a punch list with a certain window of time in which to make necessary repairs but may at least still be allowed to occupy the home. Naturally this is better than being out on the street.

RED TAG: Here the homeowner is DEAD in the water when they are given the news that their home is condemned by the health and safety and building departments and they are not allowed to re-occupy it and often not even allowed back in to gather personal belongings and keepsakes.

Oh and by the way, these unfortunately displaced folks will be lookingfor a relative or friend to bunk up with or a motel to check into, if they can find one, for an indefinite period of time while they figure out if, how and when they’ll be able to repair and/or replace and finally move back into their home.

Those so unfortunate to have become "Displaced" will probably even have to get used to driving a distance to get to their favorite store, doctor, dentist, etc.

Getting their children to and from school could be a challenge unto itself. That’s if the school was not too damaged and deemed unsafe in which case children will have to attend another school/s which, as parents know, can be quite traumatic for all.

Add to that the agonizing experience of dealing with not to friendly or sympathetic insurance adjusters and claims, contractors, permits, inspectors, utility companies, etc.

Photo: After the 2001 magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake, this school in the Puget Sound area of Washington was closed for repair (Earthquake Engineering Research Institute photo).

The "Displaced" will be in for a very disruptive if not horrific experience that could go on for months and regrettably in some cases for years.

Now for some more positive news. You Don't Have To Become A Statistic. There are things you can and should do to protect you and your family from the inconvenience of becoming a "Displaced" VICTIM".

If you live in a circa 1940's or older home you need to have your crawl space inspected by a licensed, bonded and insured "FOUNDATION SPECIALIST" to make sure your HOME is securely bolted to its foundation.

The number of foundation bolts, square feet of shear panel, and floor-to-wall connections (brackets) that are required to seismically retrofit your home varies depending on its size, weight and construction methodology. Remember, earthquakes will find the weak spots in your home. So, if you add bolts but not plywood when and where neede, you will still have a problem when the ground shakes!

If you live in a "MOBILE" or "MANUFACTURED HOME" make sure your home has a California Housing & Community Development Department (HCD) approved " Resistant Bracing System" (ERBS) under it. If it doesn't you need to have them installed before then next event and believe me there will be a next event.

The Tuf-1 Permanant Foundation is designed to be a retro-fit foundation. This product is an engineered foundation, and can be stamped for any state. The systems also has FHA, HCD & HUD approvals. The Tuf-1 can also be modified into a Earthquake Resistant Bracing System or (ERBS). This simple product can turn your Manufactured Home into "REAL PROPERTY" and ready for bank lending.

April Is Earthquake Preparedness

Month In California. Are You Ready?

I take this very seriously inasmuch as I've been an active disaster response contractor for over 3 decades and have worked in the aftermath of myriad disasters ranging from 6 major earthquakes since 1986 as well as fires, floods and the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie and the fearsome foursome that ravaged the entire state of Florida in 2004.

There are many things you as active and community conscience citizens, stakeholders and RE or other professionals can and should do to reach out to your family, friends, neighbors and clients. I will be re posting a series of earthquake related posts and misc information that I have been sharing within my sphere of influence. Please feel free to repost them however and whenever you see fit.

Is There A "Code of Ethics Protocol" For Commercial Property Management Broker Landlords?

I'm representing my daughter-in-law on the negotiation on a commercial lease for her second beauty salon. The leasing agent has and continues to be anything but ethical.

When I first discussed a lease with him he very happily gave me a cost per square foot of $3.75 with a 50 cent NNN and a 2.5% commission for me as the lessees broker.

He then offered us up to 120 days free rent as my son, a general contractor and tenant improvement specialist, will be doing about a 100k worth of improvements. Because they are planning to spend that amount of money I also asked the PM for at least a 5 year lease or more which he happily agreed to.

I asked him to email me those terms and conditions so I could review them with my daughter-in-law and son and have yet to receive them. I made several attempts to communicate with him and he never answered any of my calls or emails.

Finally last Thursday he called me and said that he'd been in touch with my daughter-in-law directly, which I thought somewhat of a breach and rather odd, and that because I was her father-in-law, which has absolutely nothing to do with this RE transaction, and I was representing a family member he was changing the terms.

He then told me that the commission would be reduced to 2% first and foremost and that the lease would now be $3.85/sf with a 52 cent NNN and only a 90 day rental allowance for the improvements.

He wouldn't give me a commitment on the length of the lease and instead told me that those were the new terms and conditions and if we didn't like it he had someone else who was waiting to lease the property. So I once again asked him to email me his revised T & C's and thus far have heard nothing whatsoever from him.

First and foremost I am willing to forgo any commission if it helps my kids get into this building. I'm also well aware that he may have some other players in the deal. But I can't help but think he's just gaming us.

I'm not an experienced commercial RE person and have no idea what's going on. But somethings just not right here so if anyone in AR land can cast some light on this dilemma I'd be eternally grateful.

SHAME ON HIM!

WHY DO FOLKS HAVE TO ACT LIKE THIS?

Does anyone have any

hands on experience with Row Houses?

This is a photo of the row houses in question. The subject property is the one in the middle. If you look closely you can see that unlike most traditional "ROW HOUSES" there is a 6 foot space between each home allowing for a walk way from front to back, trash container storage, outside shower, flower beds and landscape on each side.

I'm currently in an escrow transaction and close to closing on this property. I wasn't aware of any "DECLARATION OF EASEMENT"protocol and discovered that there were no CC&R's nor is there an HOA.

I just found out that in this situation the neighbors on both sides and the home in escrow have the right stipulated in the DE to landscape up against each others homes.

Albeit each homeowner has the right to periodically inspect and maintain their home on both sides with a 24 hour notification for damage, repairs and/or maintenance by this DE that's the only document that we have to go on and I have no idea how to enforce it without it possibly becoming a legal issue.

The issue is the legal access that each homeowner has to inspect, repair and maintain both sides of their home albeit only the side to the left of each home is allowed for each homeowner's ingress and egress. There is also a garage door leading out to the left side of each walk way.

The issue I'm having with the homeowner on the right of subject property is the foliage and flower beds that are up against the subject home.

The home inspector noticed that bedding soil had been added to the point where it is actually covering up the weep screed and he saw signs of rust and deterioration to the weep screed caused as a result of this.

Albeit the Declaration of Easement does explicitly allow each homeowner the right to inspect, repair and maintain both sides of their home the homeowner will not allow us access as is delineated by the DE to exercise this right.

I have a very good RE attorney and I'm not asking for legal advice. I'm just curious to know if anyone has had any first hand experience with this type of situation and how they were able to handle it.

Great start! 

@JD MartinBravo my friend. Truer words were never spoken. In fact I just posted a request on BP thread looking for local San Diego investors to match funds with on RE deals that meet a collective buying/investment criteria. There's lots of really great stuff going on here and I can't do it all alone. 

So far we own everything outright and have zero debt service on anything we own. We'd like to keep it that way instead of having to leverage capital or equity. So I'm attempting to organize a group of investors that have the ability to MATCH FUNDS on good sound RE investments in residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and possible development deals. 

There's always safety in numbers.

Not totally buying into these. No one I deal with or would want to deal with would I deal with if they didn't have some skin in the game. Most of these are advertising gimmicks to seduce you into buying their books, seminars, etc. I have yet to see anyone willing to deal with someone who has no cash of their own or at least access to it.

@Parker Cox, just keep me in the loop regarding any possible F&F's or B&H's that my son and I could possibly make a move on. Big thanks for the reach.

BTW, FYI Lenska Bracknell [[email protected]], another very aggressive and successful investor and RE broker with a great investor contingent in the San Diego area referred me to this platform.