All Forum Posts by: Bruce Olsen

Reach out to the families of the victims and the rest of your crew. Help them through this very difficult time. Maybe give them some time off, or a week of pay as as show of good faith.

Get out in front of it immediately. It's the right thing to do, and it might also prevent a suit.

Hire a PR person for advice on how to handle it without hiding. If s/he thinks you can go on TV, go on TV.

Figure out what (if anything) could be dome to mitigate it in the future. Fighting robbers is not smart, and you should probably formulate a written policy for the future.

Your attorney will have your back, and will make sure you don't say anything egregious, but you definitely don't want to hide. 

And yes, you pretty much have to wait to see what develops.

Nice  job @Jason Mak. It's very inspiring.

Can you share how you located it, and how long did it take to locate/negotiate the price?

Welcome!

I can recommend the Real Estate Club In Action, in Burbank. The founder is a developer so if you're getting into that it might be a good resource for you. We attend it regularly, and we'll be happy to get you a guest pass. We also regularly attend the Pasadena Meetup of FIBI, and the entire FIBI group has a good reputation. I don't know the others mentioned above, but the others I've attended are all about the Benjamins.

What are you looking to do?

And... fight on!

We're looking at kind of an oddball property and would appreciate any suggestions for evaluating it.

It's basically a small family compound... 2 SFRs on a single .9 ac lot with a swimming pool located between them. The larger, front unit is 2 stories, about 2700sf. The rear unit is 1 story, about 1500sf. Most of the yard between the 2 houses is paved. It's about 10 years old. The owner built it to house his son's family but the last grandchild is about to move out. 

The area (located in Corona CA ) is zoned to permit a "secondary residential unit". The owner must occupy the front unit, and city code seems to allow it to be rented (many cities in the area permit a 2nd unit but require it to be occupied by a related person).

There are some comps nearby that have roughly similar dwelling space but in a single structure. 

The closest we've come is to find a range of price/sf values, but the property value is north of $700k so that doesn't work all that well.

Help!

Thanks for the info about University. The property is a few blocks west of Chicago, but close enough, I suppose.

Anyone have any input on the direction of the city?

In our quick look around downtown it seemed as if all the right things were happening, but it's hard to tell whether it's solid. 

We also found a place on a quiet street in Arlington... in an area that has a special tax to support habitat for Stephens' kangaroo rat ;-) I still love California, though.

Prices seem to be mid-200s for a 1400 sf SFR in pretty nice shape. Does that seem about right?

We also found a place in Loma Linda... Crime looks lower there but I can't getany kind of reading on the direction of that city either.

We drove the hour to Riverside this weekend and found a couple of interesting value adds. 

One was about halfway between UCR and Downtown Riverside. We drove through the downtown, and it looks like an interesting area that's on the way up.

Anyone have any opinions on which way Riverside is going?

Thanks!

We're looking at picking up a place that's occupied by a tenant who is kind of a pain. It seems to have motivated the landlord into selling, and it lets us absorb the risk in exchange for a lower price. But rehabbers are our target market and they need it vacant anyway--so we solve problems.

If I were living in half a duplex I'd be happy to have the extra cash flow from an existing tenant. And the cost of turnover is much higher than most beginners realize. If you end up not liking them, don't renew their lease, refurbish/rehab that side, and move in (or raise the rent). 

Having a new development across the street will heavily influence the prices of the older development, so include that in your thinking. But it seems pretty unlikely to be the cause, though there may have been significant appreciation in the old area and people are looking to cash in (and move across the street to upgrade). Or perhaps there was some kind of incentive to buy that's now expiring (say, teaser rates for new buyers). 

The question still remains why there's a large number--you need to validate that it's actually larger than normal.

And if these were all parents of school-age children, why are so many moving out at once? Is there an issue with the school district? 

The competition from other sellers will keep prices soft, so you may be able to strike some deals, but know why they're leaving first or you may not have any buyers.

Rezoning is definitely a long shot. 

I agree about reverting to SFRs. You have a great opportunity to make all the bedrooms master BRs. This is very popular in CA because it allows the HO to accommodate elderly parents, grown children, even roommates. Some even have secondary en suite "morning kitchens." 

Is the 8-unit a large SFR that was illegally converted? Or a structure expressly for multi use?

It would probably affect you right away--the local authorities may require you to correct the situation as soon as you take possession (so you can't even continue renting). You're not very likely to be grandfathered. Some jurisdictions allow a owner-occupier to rent part of their own home, but it doesn't sound like that's your situation.

You might inquire whether the property could be rezoned (if it's, say, adjacent to other MFRs). That would be a long-term speculative move.

I do find it hard to believe that an 8-unit property isn't zoned properly. That's a pretty big project to complete under the radar.