All Forum Posts by: Wesley Yu

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience with fence disputes with neighbors?

Situation: Purchased a house in 2023. Fence is entirely within my property per a survey that I did.

In 2023, I did some landscaping work and replaced the front part of the side fence (and paid 100% for the replacement). I gave my neighbor notice prior to the work and he was cool with it. 

In 2024, my neighbor replaced the back part of the side fence (He paid for it 100% and didn't give me proper notice per CA Good Neighbor Law). The fence is still entirely inside my property by about 5 inches. 

Last week, I hung a wire trellis and attached it to the back of the side fence. Neighbor complained to me about the trellis. He claims that "it's not fair" since I didn't pay for the back part of the side fence. 

What should I do? In my view, the entire side fence is still entirely inside my property, so all improvements belong to me (even though he paid for the back part of the side fence). Therefore, I do not need to ask for his permission to hang a rose trellis on my side of MY fence. 

Hi everyone,

Wanted to ask for your feedback about a problematic tenant we're currently dealing with in an A neighborhood in the South Bay. Here's the gist:

0) House is professionally cleaned and painted prior to tenant move in.

1) Tenant moves in April 1, 2023

2) 2 weeks later, tenant complains that the front porch needs to be powerwashed, deck needs to be refinished because he might get splinters when is barefoot doing yoga, ants in the kitchen after he left pizza out the first night. Additional complaints include old kitchen tiles not being perfectly white anymore, requests us to bring mop, buckets and scrub it in his presence with extra effort. 

3) Upon visiting the property to take note of his complaints, we notice he has brought in an unauthorized pet cat, a violation of lease terms (lease states NO ANIMALS and a violation would result in a $25 penalty per day per animal)

Owners want him out and are upset about the cat, specifically because wife is deathly allergic. Would the first step be to email him telling him he is in violation of the lease terms with the cat and to immediately start charging him $25/day for the cat? Or to serve him a 3 day notice to quit or cure? Or just to talk to him in person (mind you, contractor is arriving this weekend to address some, but not all, of his requests) and see if he wants to leave, with a recap email? 

Owners want to be careful of CA law and do things properly. At the same time, having the notice served to him before talking to him first would immediately get him on the defensive, which isn't desired either. Owners did nothing to upset him; in fact they did the best to clean the house and paint it before his arrival.

This is a topic I've been wondering about recently:

Suppose I buy a house in California with conventional financing and subdivide it via SB9. If I sell the newly created APN, would the lender call the original note due? 

For example, suppose I buy a house for $1.5M, put down 20%, loan amount is $1.2M. I subdivide and sell the back lot for $700K. Would the bank that lent me the $1.2M say the note is due? 

Also, for taxes, what happens with capital gains in this situation: what is the cost basis I would need to record for the $700K sale and how would anyone go about proving that that is the correct cost basis? Because if it were owner occupied as primary residence  (and required due to SB9 wouldn't the second lot also be considered part of my primary residence thus I would be exempt from $500K capital gains if I'm married?) Thank you everyone. 

Hello everyone,

Recently rented out a San Jose SFH to a high maintenance tenant. Need some advice as to how to deal with this tenant, enforce fees for service requests, etc? Mind that this tenant has only moved in for 10 days and has sent us numerous emails, texts, about problems in the property.

0) Day 3: Unit was professionally cleaned by a cleaning crew 2 weeks prior to move in. Tenant complains about the "gross" cleaning supplies left behind by the cleaners (windex, a scrub) and that there is dust on the cleaning supplies. PM informs tenant that the cleaning supplies are left as a courtesy for the tenant to use in case he/she wants to clean the house.

1) Day 3: Tenant complains about minor outdoor dripping at the base of drip system unit. Worried she might be overcharged for water. PM informs tenant that we will keep an eye out. Anybody solutions to a slightly leaky, new drip system out there? 

2) Day 4: Half of the home's electric sockets don't work, likely because tenant tripped circuits. PM informed tenant that tenant might have tripped electric circuits. Gave instructions how to access and reset the electric box (just turn off and on the switches). Tenant said that instructions were confusing. Refuses to read instructions and take a photo of the box and cooperate. Tells us that the electric issue is the "least of her concerns" because she is now putting down her support dog. Next day she changes her mind and continues with this request. Requests electrician. PM told tenant that we will send someone there but might not be immediate as it's Christmas.

3) Day 5: Tenant informs owner that her support dog has passed away and would like to remove "necessary stuff" in her lease relating to her dog. We don't believe there is anything that needs to be done with her lease, so we reply "Noted, sorry about your loss"

4) Day 6: dishwasher leaks so much soap duds in the kitchen that it looks like it snowed there. PM asks tenant if he/she used the correct type of dishwashing detergent.

Anyway, we believe this pattern of constant / daily requests will continue. What would all you investors do in this situation? We used the standard BP 2021 California lease agreement. 

I'm thinking of building an ADU on my single family house in Sunnyvale. I was wondering if there are any agents or sellers out there who have experience selling houses with permitted ADUs?

The main issue with my 540 square foot house is that it is legal nonconforming use (in a business park). The city won't allow me to expand the main house, but has allowed me to build an 800 square feet ADU.

My plan is to refi after completion of the ADU and house hack. My concern is that because ADUs are such a new thing in California and there are only few houses that have been sold with permitted ADUs in my area, no precedent has been set for the value add of ADUs. The appraiser might just see my ADU as just a "feature" or a "bonus" of the property, rather than as additional square foot of the dwelling, even if my ADU is permitted and 50% larger than my main house. So in essence, I would have 1340 square feet of permitted living space, but only 540 sqft would count towards appraisal purposes.

Any thoughts on this? Lenders out there who have experience appraising permitted ADUs?

Took the plunge yesterday and now in contract for my first SFH in Sunnyvale:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/290-N-Pastoria-Ave_Sunnyvale_CA_94086_M15989-71250

Purchase price is $810,000-- my plan is to expand it an additional 1000 sqft to 3BDR, 2BA and flip.

Any thoughts on this deal? Does anyone have experience dealing with Sunnyvale planning and building dept? What else could I possibly do to maximize value on this property? 

@David Martin maybe I'm misunderstanding the vocabulary. 

I want a factory built house on a foundation. So from the outside, it looks just like a site built house. From further research, it seems that "manufactured house" is synonymous with "mobile home"? In that case, no I don't want a mobile home...

What do you think? 

Hello!

I'm new to the BP Community-- interested in buying my first deal in an expensive market (SF Bay Area).

The general strategy I'm thinking of is this:

1) Buy an empty lot (they go for around $75 a sq foot in my area)

2) Hire a manufactured house builder / draw plans and get city approval

3) Get the property built (by assumption, it should be somewhat quick). Construction is around $120 /sq foot

4) Rent out, collect rents, and refinance with a traditional mortgage.

My reasoning is that 1) Renters don't care whether a house is manufactured or not, so would pay the same rent had the property been site built. 2) Manufactured houses are much cheaper to build than site built, so cash flow would be better 3) I'm not too experienced in construction, so manufactured could simplify the process.

I've talked to city planning and they seem to be quite open to building (there is a shortage of housing in my market). However, they told me that it would take at least 6 months to get the design review complete and break ground. The permits and approvals cost at least $35K...

Basically my idea hinges on the fact that the average house costs ~ $400 / sq foot in my area, but I could save 30% of the cost just by building a manufactured house from scratch on a lot.

Any thoughts on this strategy? What are the pitfalls / errors in my reasoning?

Hello!

I'm new to the BP Community-- interested in buying my first deal in an expensive market (SF Bay Area).

The general strategy I'm thinking of is this:

1) Buy an empty lot (they go for around $75 a sq foot in my area)

2) Hire a manufactured house builder / draw plans and get city approval

3) Get the property built (by assumption, it should be somewhat quick). Construction is around $120 /sq foot

4) Rent out, collect rents, and refinance with a traditional mortgage.

My reasoning is that 1) Renters don't care whether a house is manufactured or not, so would pay the same rent had the property been site built. 2) Manufactured houses are much cheaper to build than site built, so cash flow would be better 3) I'm not too experienced in construction, so manufactured could simplify the process.

I've talked to city planning and they seem to be quite open to building (there is a shortage of housing in my market). However, they told me that it would take at least 6 months to get the design review complete and break ground. The permits and approvals cost at least $35K...

Basically my idea hinges on the fact that the average house costs ~ $400 / sq foot in my area, but I could save 30% of the cost just by building a manufactured house from scratch on a lot.

Any thoughts on this strategy? What are the pitfalls / errors in my reasoning?

Hello!

I'm new to the BP Community-- interested in buying my first deal in an expensive market (SF Bay Area). 

The general strategy I'm thinking of is this:

1) Buy an empty lot (they go for around $75 a sq foot in my area)

2) Hire a manufactured house builder / draw plans and get city approval

3) Get the property built (by assumption, it should be somewhat quick). Construction is around $120 /sq foot 

4) Rent out, collect rents, and refinance with a traditional mortgage.

My reasoning is that 1) Renters don't care whether a house is manufactured or not, so would pay the same rent had the property been site built. 2) Manufactured houses are much cheaper to build than site built, so cash flow would be better 3) I'm not too experienced in construction, so manufactured could simplify the process. 

I've talked to city planning and they seem to be quite open to building (there is a shortage of housing in my market). However, they told me that it would take at least 6 months to get the design review complete and break ground. The permits and approvals cost at least $35K...

Basically my idea hinges on the fact that the average house costs ~ $400 / sq foot in my area, but I could save 30% of the cost just by building a manufactured house from scratch on a lot. 

Any thoughts on this strategy? What are the pitfalls / errors in my reasoning?