All Forum Posts by: Bryan Zuetel

@Justin DeSantis, if you already have a specific property, forget the 2% rule (or any other general rules) and run your actual/estimated numbers for this specific property through a calculator.  What is your monthly cashflow on this specific property?  What are you estimates for appreciation on this specific property?  Are there any other ways to increase income or decrease expenses on this specific property?

@Rich Bergstrom

With all due respect to those outside of California, there is a big difference between how California does things and how other states do things, and you cannot necessarily apply the laws of your state to California.

@Rich Bergstrom, You have a few issues to consider here.  Are you in a rent controlled city?  You only wrote that you have a home in the SF Bay Area, which could be in a rent controlled city.  That may determine the answer to your question.

@Kyle J. posted some helpful information above about the potential mailing of the back rent.  You should also review Code of Civil Procedure section 1161(2) regarding the notice to pay rent or quit.

@Nic DeAngelo, I agree with @Katie L. above.  There are a lot of specialties within real estate law.  You should be more specific as to what you're looking for.

@Norman Lai, you need to hire a real estate attorney immediately, since you have been served with the lawsuit and the clock is ticking against you.  Do not do anything at this point, such as giving a 3 day notice, as such could be viewed as retaliatory eviction.

I am a real estate attorney in Southern California and am happy to have a complimentary consultation with you.  I might recommend that you tender this matter to your insurance carrier for defense and indemnity but won't know whether to recommend that until we speak further.

@Mindy Jensen, estoppel certificates are always advisable in that they bind the seller and tenant, and courts can afford great weight to estoppel certificates (if you got to that point).  Estoppel certificates bind the seller and tenant to confirming the terms of the lease, lease agreement, remaining lease term, amount of rent, security deposit, no modification of lease agreement, improvements, defaults, disputes, possession, encumbrances, alterations, etc.  So, negotiate in your purchase agreement for the seller to provide you estoppel certificates signed by the seller and each tenant, and see how the seller responds.  If the seller will only provide estoppel certificates signed by the seller, then you still have a written representation by the seller as to the above important terms.

To add some further color to this discussion, the exercise of a cancellation provision in a contract requires good faith, in that every contract contains an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.  So, to cancel a contract because you wake up and decide you don't like the paint color would not be a cancellation in good faith under the physical condition contingency of a contract.

@Robert Kirkley, to answer your original question, there are usually at least 6 contingencies/escape clauses: approval of seller disclosures/reports, title, loan, appraisal, physical condition, and common interest development (HOA).

@Monique Pope, you have many, many issues here that will require an analysis of the various documents and agreements that you've referenced, as well as a proper defense to the lawsuit in which you have apparently been sued.  If the appointment with the attorney next week does not work out or if you want a second opinion, please feel free to contact me.

@Aasim T Bickiya, consider out of area places like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

@Cody F., If they're nice cameras, tell the tenants that you're going to deem the cameras attached to your building to be fixtures and that you will expect the tenants to leave the cameras at the end of the tenancy or to reimburse you for the cost of new cameras.  That should get them to take down the cameras really quickly.

@Pramod Yash, alternatively to the DST or other entities, you can form a California LLC, have that LLC qualified to do business in Texas or Missouri or anywhere else, obtain sufficient insurance, hold title in the LLC, obtain financing with the LLC, and not worry about these issues for a while. As you mentioned, yes, there will be conflicting thoughts on these forums because individuals approach the risk-reward and the cost-benefit (LLC vs. DST vs. land trust vs. insurance) dichotomy from different angles and with different tolerance levels.