All Forum Posts by: Jo Zhou

@Mike Abramowitz, city zoned for R1, it is the county assessor records say it is a duplex. Which one has the final opinion on this property?

Also, the addition was permitted. The kitchen was not. Did it make a difference? I think, tearing down a kitchen and rebuild is much cheaper than tearing down the whole unit and rebuild. Today, if build a 1bed/1bath unit, it will cost $180k around. 

@Justin R.

Hi, Justin, I am very appreciated that you spent time to answer my questions. Since we are in the same city and you are so experienced with this kind of odd property. Could you help me a little more? I could tell you the property is in the del cerro/allied garden area, where are usually single family home, no duplex zone at all. 

I got what you said: as long as I keep quiet, neither city or county will come to bother me to tear it down. The risk is fine to take, right?

Could you explain what is LT BnH for $730? What does LT BnH mean? Do you think a duplex at this price is too expensive to invest? You could see the multi family houses now, nearly none of them will be cashflow in San Diego. And the most multi family home are not in the good area, if they are in the good area such as ocean beach, north park, they will be over $900k at least. Could you give me some more advice in investing in multi family home in San Deigo? Lots of people in here say San Diego are so hard to find cashflow, so they invest for appreciation. This property at this price could be break even, this is almost what I see the best. (At least not negative.) 

Should I hold on to wait another down turn? 

What kinds of properties are you looking for? I am looking for granny flat because my mother in law will come to live with us. I am looking for something that could solve our current issue and could be an investment in the future. 

However, almost 90% of those granny flat were not properly permitted. Kitchen was always added on after inspection. Its value was not reflected in the tax roll, so the income will not be counted. This is one that could be included for some odd reason. 

@Mike Abramowitz, city zoned for R1, it is the county assessor records say it is a duplex. Which one has the final opinion on this property?

Also, the addition was permitted. The kitchen was not. Did it make a difference? I think, tearing down a kitchen and rebuild is much cheaper than tearing down the whole unit and rebuild. Today, if build a 1bed/1bath unit, it will cost $180k around. 

@George Taylor: thank you for your explaintion. Now I got how it would work. In San Diego, nothing is at $150k, a 440 sqft studio would cost $162k. It has been crazy in here. The house I am offering is listed at $730k. Using this method, the seller does get much higher commissions. Learned a trick from you, thank you. 

I opened another discussion to detail this house transaction. If you are interested, it is about the zoning and land use type. I feel the building record is a mess for older house. My own house didn't have any original building permit, I think the city just lost it. 

Hi, I am buying a house in California as an investment property. This house is located in a single family house zoned area, but with a separate 1 bed/1bath unit in the back attached to the front house. The front house is a 4 bed/2 bath house. I am looking for buying a duplex, but in our city, the multi family housing area are really not good area though. Some decent multi family duplex is easily well above $900k. This one is listed for $730k, I think this might be a good option. 

So I did some research, then I got this weird results:

1. city building records has a bedroom, a bath addition, permitted work. It didn't say it was a 2nd story addition. The addition was done on 1977. Would the city ask me to tear it down if they saw it.  But the work was inspected by the city, how come the city didn't see it was a 2nd story addition?

2. The 2nd unit kitchen was unpermitted for sure. Would the city ask me to tear it down if they know it?

3. The most odd thing is that the county tax roll says it is a duplex with the correct numbers of rooms and baths. (Not sure about kitchen, the county didn't release the info to non-owner). It means the property tax is paid correctly over the years.

4. The house changes hands several times. The appraisal always included the 2nd units in the value. So my lender says I will be fine with my loan just because the tax roll says it is a duplex, so the lender can count 2nd unit's income. If the tax roll didn't say it is a duplex, even if the 2nd unit is rentable, the lender will not count its income. It seems the lender didn't care it is permitted or not, it just follows the tax roll. Is my guess correct?

So right now, I got so confused: am I buying a duplex or not? Whose authority will be higher: county tax roll or city building department? Should I buy it as an investment? What is my risk? Would the county assessor change it back to single family house? Could I legally rent it to 2 different family? (The worst case, I plan to move in, then rent it out to get a roommate in the 2nd unit since the house is located in a very nice area.

Please help me with your experience and knowledge. Very appreciated.

Also, I encounter a weired thing in the process of buying this house. I will open another discussion. Hope you could give me some advice. Thank you. 

Hi, thank you for every' s response. After I got your opinions, I called my agent to find out why the seller cannot sign the counter offer, which country the seller went, where will no internet access. How come they can make phone calls but not internet.? In this age, phone and Internet are the same thing, right? 

It turns out that the sellers were not out of country, but in the rural area in CA without the signal. They don't want to wait until they can come back to a city. Also the seller-father is too old to use any digital technology, but the son is ok to sign electronically. Finally, the seller agrees to sign themselves. 

I feel, in this case, seller's agent wants to risk his license to sign it, to me ,it is weried. And my agent just tells me it is common practice in real estate field, which I feel is not prudent, too. 

@George 

@George Taylor: could you explain a little bit, in this way, how the seller agent gets higher commission? I didn't get it. Just I am not experienced in real estate transaction, didn't know those tricks. Thank you!

Thank you for your response. I have an agent, I am a regular buyer (interested in real estate). My agent said that it was very common in real estate transaction. Is it true? My agent said that the escrow will make sure it has seller's signature on file before we go into the escrow. However, I am afraid that the seller comes back to us saying he didn't say the term and didn't let the seller's agent sign the counter offer. Then, maybe we could complaint about the seller's agent, but we will loose the deal. 

The seller is out of country, he didn't sign power attorney, maybe he didn't trust anybody. And my agent didn't know when the seller will come back. 

Hi, I am in the process of negotiating a contract to buy a house. I live in California. Today, the counter offer was back with signature said "per phone conversation with seller", signed by seller's agent. I wonder if this counter offer is valid. If I signed the counter offer, is it a legal, enforceable contract?

I worried if seller comes back and said he/she didn't say that, what will happen?

Thank you.