CAA vs CAR vs CalRHA

[Cary Hawkins]

Hi all!

I am a San Diego, CA investor with a fourplex and looking to add more. I would like to find a good landlord/property owner association that can help with legal advice and leasing forms. CA Association of Realtors seems to have the most widely endorsed lease form but they are quite expensive, and for all the other associated forms I would like a lower-cost option. The general legal advice that comes with these organizations is also appealing. However, there are quite a few, from local to state-wide, so I am having trouble deciding who to go with. Any advice or recommendations?
Thanks!

[Kyle J.]

Hi @Cary Hawkins.  I'll assume you're not a Realtor, so joining CAR is out.  (If you were a Realtor their forms would be free and you mentioned they're "quite expensive" so that's why I made that assumption.)  If you still wanted their residential lease form, you can find that for free online or ask a Realtor for a copy.  You just can't get it on the CAR website for free unless you're a Realtor/member.

So that leaves the other two organizations you asked about CalRHA or CAA.  Coincidentally, I also recently looked into joining one of these two organizations.  Not so much for their forms or even the legal advice that is offered (though those can be nice perks, just not sure how much I'd use those things).  For me, it was mainly due to all the new laws that have been coming out in California (and continue to be proposed).  I wanted to not only stay informed of them, but also support an organization that advocated for landlords because so many (almost all) of these new laws seem to be anti-landlord.  

In any event, I first looked at CalRHA.  I liked what I saw.  They have forms, education/training, do advocacy on behalf of landlords, etc.  I learned that they're divided up into 10 separate affiliates located throughout the state.  So if I joined in Northern California, and you joined in Southern California, we'd actually be joining separate affiliates of CalRHA.  Didn't seem like a big deal, but I guess that leaves a lot of variation in how each is run.  Because I reached out to my local affiliate and they never even got back to me.  

So then I started looking at CAA.  Seemed similar to CalRHA in that they have forms, education/training, do advocacy on behalf of landlords, etc.  However, I did notice that they had a couple extra services you can add on to your membership (if you want, not required):

I noticed the CAA forms, according to their website, are "recognized and recommended by the California State Bar and many regional courts".   So ultimately, if you're looking for an association that provides forms and legal advice, I think CAA is the way to go.

Just my two cents.