All Forum Posts by: Justine M.

Would love to hear y'all's experience and preference in joining one of these organizations over another, or other organizations that may be better equipped for California and particularly LA county or LA City. My experience has been hit or miss across the board with these, and my particular gripe is recently realizing how CAR zipforms is actually wrong or inadequate more than a handful of times on proper forms Legal language or required disclosures compared to these other associations.

Hey all, was wondering what everyone's thoughts and/or experience has been with these free property and landlord management softwares.  I'm a little hesitant and feel like there is a catch given that they are free, such as selling our data or using it for other purposes that much of us would not like. I don't have too many properties, 10 units, and they barely break even so very price sensitive due to local rent control and covet moratorium issues. Would love to hear any thoughts or experience with these platforms. To note, I do not care for any tenants being able to make auto payments or anything of that nature really. Given that I do not want to deal with those creative tenants that may not pay eventually and have to go through an eviction, so they're free lawyers or tenant advocates will advice them to use and make a digital payment, which would make things a lot worse in trying to reimburse them since if you receive or accept payment it automatically usually voids your active notice or eviction case and you have to start over.

Thanks for all the input guys. Definitely understand structuring the phases and work to be done at each juncture.  Just disenchanted with the design capabilities of architects these days.  I've looked at their portfolio and all was very nice, problem is I now think those designs on facade were never the architects ideas and rather a separate designer. 

Hi all,

A bit of a noob developer question here as I'm in a bind and would like to hear how others deal with/handle the actual design development of their SFR projects. Also, really want to better understand how to constructively communicate with architect on design.

A bit of background, I have subdivided a parcel to construct four 3-story townhomes.  I thought I had the right architect on board for the entire project, but now I'm running into issues and don't think I went about this correctly.  Fast forward a year now and he started to work on construction documents and the overall design of the buildings.  I gave the architect direction with pictures of other projects and building designs that I like so he would use it as a baseline for design elements to incorporate on the facade and outside finishes of the homes.  

Overall, I don't like what he has come up with in exterior design.  It seems like he just copy pasted the layout and architecture exactly from another similar project he did years ago.  When I ask him to change things on the facade with pictures and examples from other projects, he doesn't really change much other than colors of the building and different trims and lips.  After going back and forth a few times, seems like we are speaking 2 different languages, he says he doesn't work on the design and our contract is to get me to the point of building permits and not the aesthetics.  Further, he says this is something you can adjust with your contractor/builder or hire a designer for.

I have a feeling I'm just not communicating with him the right way in explaining what I want or he is really restricted in thinking outside the box.  Not sure, but right now my project looks like a contemporary solid plain box with generic white color.  When I asked for changes the first couple times, all he did is added staggered windows on the facade and change up colors here and there and we are almost at plan check.  The last thing that grinds my gears is I find out from one of my contractors that the placement of 2 floor to ceiling glass door balconies right on top of each other per unit is not a wise thing to do as it is nearly impossible to construct since there is no room for any header space and if it were plausible, it would be very expensive.  I feel like these are things the architect should be aware of, especially a seasoned group with over 20+ year experience.

What are some tips and thoughts from others here on their experience and what I may be doing wrong.  I come from the commercial side of the business where my architects were able to handle architectural design and everything so maybe my expectations weren't set properly from the beginning.  

yes, exactly

Definitely understand and thanks for the input.  Any LA reference for a good RE attorney?  My attorney works for a big firm and still sucks.  

Hey All,

I'm working on a new development project where we are subdividing and entitling a lot that currently has a single family home on it in order to eventually build 4 fee simple town-homes.  The lot is located in Los Angeles and I have been hearing mixed comments on the ownership/partnership buying WRAP insurance for the construction.  Some are saying that undoubtedly I should buy this insurance while others are saying it doesn't make sense for us given that we are only building 4 homes with total hard costs of $1.5 MM.  To make things even more murky, when I'm reading and talking to insurance agents about these policies they are mentioning that there are owner policies, contractor policies, or hybrids and they do not really give me much guidance on which works best. 

As you can tell, I am fairly new to ground-up development so I do want to mitigate as much risk as possible, especially given the 10 year liability tail on SFR construction in California. Any advice or comments from the group would be much appreciated. Additionally, I'm open to any recommendations on WRAP insurance providers you believe I should talk to.

@Allan Glass

Thank you for all of your input. I'm no noob when it comes to SFR as I flipped a few houses over the last 2 years, but I am noob when it comes to development of these. I have tied up an 8,100 SF lot in Hancock Park zoned RD1.5. I have also received confirmation from 2 separate architects that I can build 4 units easily, with a potential of a 5th. Luckily there is no historical preservation ordinance on this lot.

I guess my first question is, how do you know you should go forward and purchase a lot that you can SLS?  Do you first contact your architect to see what is feasible?  I know with time you will be able to roughly estimate on your own, but for someone like me at the beginning, where do you begin?

With this said, I have 2 potential contractors lined up for this project, but I really don't know where to start when it comes to the entire process and costs of professionals.  I have not spoken to Modative yet, but the other architectural groups have quoted about $90,000 for taking me through Entitlement Docs (will attend only one meeting with City Planning, Community, and Neighborhood Council), Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Docs, and Plan Check.  Bidding and Construction Observation and Admin is billed at an hourly rate.  To me this seems very pricey, almost $15/sf on build-able area.  Having some commercial development experience, I recall my firm was paying somewhere between $5-$8/sf.   What are your thoughts on this?  Is this in line with what you pay for these services?  Not to forget, this isn't even covering the fees and costs with the city (which I can only guess and have no guidance) or any professional services such as structural engineers, MEP engineers, Geotechnical engineers, surveyor, waterproofing and kitchen consultants.

Any guidance from anyone would be greatly appreciated.  I have  nothing to benchmark the process, costs and pricing of things against so if anyone is willing to share a model breaking out soft and hard costs associated with a project like this, I would be forever grateful and in debt to you.

- Justin

Trying to buy residential homes in the $100k-$300k range out here in the west coast. Ideal, we are looking on holding, but if a flip opportunity presents itself we definitely wouldn't look past it.

I've been reading all the input from people on a few different threads about foreign investors and still am kinda murky on the issue. Obviously I need to consult a CPA and Lawyer, but currently I am trying to minimize all costs until that time comes given my financial situation. I was hoping someone here has some direct experience/input on my situation.

I live out here in CA and want to buy an investment property, but don't have the cash myself. I just got married to my wife, who is a diplomat and not a citizen of the US. The citizenship process takes 5 years so bare in mind that I am the only citizen. My wife's dad who lives in Israel wants to invest here, but I am stuck at step one in how to make this work. Is the LLC idea people have thrown out where he lends money to the entity make the most sense? I'm guessing he can't just give my wife the money and she buys something here since she is not a citizen. Would it be better if he gave me the money and I bought it under my own name? Trust is not an issue here at all. I just want to minimize the tax burden that would be paid by us (me and my wife) and him. I.E. in the US I think the maximum gift allowed tax-free per year is roughly $12k and anything over that I would be taxed on, which is why I'm thinking that gifting me the money isn't the best way to do this.

Thanks in advance for any input.