All Forum Posts by: James Hamling

So, are you the guy that when teacher ask's what 1+1 equals, you ask for a calculator????

It couldn't have been clearer, or simpler, what I stated yet you some how twisted the hell out of it. Go back, re-read it, google the "hard" words you don't understand like what is "local government". 

Now as for what happens if a person who just lost a million+ dollar home just bizarrely says "nah, forget it, being a bum in a tent on the beach seems so much better".... well if ya knew the basics of Real Estate you'd know there is policy in place literally everywhere in the US for exactly that. Soooooo they'd do that. 

But as your apparently clueless on Real Estate 102, I will just inform you. Local government get's it done, and an assessment is levied on the property for the expense of such. At a certain point of levied amounts being non-collected, it is sold to recoup the funds. 

This happens all over the country, probably every week. It's really not all that rare. It's actually so common that there is entire Real Estate Investment strategies built around it. There is even so much of it, that there are books sold for how-to, guru courses on it, and even this neat place on the internet called Bigger Pockets has info on it if look it up. 

And a little update on your grand-plan that CA needs to go hardline communist, take all the property and dictate what if any compensation for such will come, some day..... The new released estimated total of the effected areas is now in excess of $250 Billion. Or roughly 3X the entire income tax collected by CA last year. That is more than 50% of the ENTIRE annual budget of CA for 2024. 

So, as I said so many times; the math doesn't math, among a whole slew of other reasons IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN. 

Seeing as you brought ideology into things I will point out your Marxist/ Communist ideology is a non-starter. 

Also a non-starter is your hyperbolae; "toxic waste lot's"...... Really John, really. 

The local governments and utility companies will address all public space clean up's. 

And some level of clean-up will most likely be done for all private property via local government, as is SOP for disaster cleanup. 

Also SOP for such is individual property owners will, individually, address total site cleanup in concert with there insurance providers. 

So the whole leaving toxic waste sites BS is just that, BS hyperbole. 

Next, fun-fact is "Big Government" is what facilitated this whole disaster in the first place. As bit by bit more and more comes out in media of the myriad of gross mismanagement actions done via, your buddies Comrade John, Big Government. 

Government command and control is literally the laughing stock. They are masters at the art of botchery. How well did they handle the recent floods? Oh yeah, that's right, all but ZERO help or assistance. Red-Necks on UTV's were a disaster relief force to the effect of about 100,000x what the "command & Control" capacity of Big Government was. 

And the list could go on and on and on. 

Even now there already starting to call out for private and non-profit sector to, yet again, clean up and solve everything Big Gov botched, yet again. 

But never fear John, Mother Russia is happy to have you and there it is your nirvana as Big Gov rules everything with an iron fist. You won't have to worry about pesky things like private property rights. And all it will cost is your freedom. 

Bon voyage Comrade John.

You do realize this is "Big Government" your talking about here. 

And "big Government" doing extensive PREVENTATIVE proactive actions. 

Yeah, betting on "Big Gov" becoming proactive, that's a bet I sure won't take. Kind of like betting on Vegas having a snowy Christmas. 

First off, no, I am not an attorney. Not legal advice. Although YES, I have been on legal council as consultant to some sizable case law setting suites. What I share comes from my experiences in court room and mind numbing hours of study and research in a law library on contract law and interstate compact. 

Eminent domain does not work that easily or simply. 

A government can not swoop in, say hours or days after a tornado tears through an area, say "wow, look at this mess, well it sure ain't worth a dang" and tell people it's "taking" there stuff and giving it just the price of the then current mess. 

That's not how it works. 

Eminent Domain has to be "for the public good". That's a fundamental requirement. Even I the non-attorney would have a rather easy time getting the people of, say Pacific Palisades together to state in mass that E.D. here not only does NOT do "public good" but inversely does HARM. 

That to exercise E.D. in this manner causes HARM to the people, the makeup of area, fundamentally alters the area etc.. 

I could go on to argue it's a form of "Blockbusting" and with that illegal and discriminatory. 

I could argue it impedes there legal right to being made whole by there insurance carriers. 

On and on and on. 

So, only chance in hell it has is via the BIGGEST action of it's kind EVER in US history, with coordination between the insurance carriers, and home owners. An action that gives enough financial incentive and relief that it DOES adhere "for public good", and makes the entire thing a net positive for the thousands upon thousands of dislocated persons AND don't forget, business's. 

That means "$$$$making-it-rain$$$", so the 30/40 billion with a B, now turns into 40/50 Billion in payouts. 

Raise the $ with some bonds you say...... Really, $50 Billion. Who's gonna buy them? How does the already deep in debt CA afford to tack on $50 BILLION in debt service? So now your causing "harm" to the entire state of CA with such added debt load. 

And don't forget, states don't have 4-profit business to create wealth, no money-tree out in a yard to shake, states $ is from THE PEOPLE, so that $50 Billion is all Californians paying for it.  

Hey Californians, how do ya feel about kicking out $50 billion to turn L.A. area neighborhoods into parks and high-rise condo's???? 

Sorry John, Californians said to get Fu#!ed. 

Ok, well Uncle Sammy what do you sa..... oh, ok, oh I see, not your problem, ah, oh, Fed Funds are not for redeveloping neighborhoods, ok got it. Yeah Uncle Sammy said it's now T-town and that a dog-scat deal so to kick-rocks. 

Maybe Blackrock wants to drop the $ to do..... Oh, nope, they said they won't touch that with a 10' poll. 

Any way you spin it, there is no VIABLE way to get it done. 

Would be helpful @Adriana Siu if you'd just post how much $ you want for it. 

To be brutally honest i don't care if it's at cost, below or above, I only care what it is exactly and how much. 

I won't pay more than what it's worth to me, regardless of what someone else paid for it. Know tons of people dropping $250k on a suv, i won't, I don't care how shiatsu on my bum it is, ok maybe I care a little lol, but point is it's only worth what it's worth, right. 

And if still in Spain, how long until it's in US and is shipping additional or is price landed? 

Your referencing effective age vs chronological age. 

Best way to understand this is research appraisal standards and means. 

In that they will detail the scales they use, including at which level of renovation it's possible to get things "reset" so it is appraised as if it is a new built property. Because in essence it is. 

This is a common 'trick" we use in flipping. To flip right is about a lot more than just renovating and *pow* $-rains down on a person. There is tactics and strategy about how to open up maximum appraisal potential. 

Because it doesn't matter how much you get on a PA if it can't appraise. 

Decent legit ones, yes. 

I say that because every decent legit place I know of in market, yes offers the option of doing just tenant placement, for self-managing. 

The issues really happen when it's just R.E. agents begging for some $, pitching "I can do that too" and in reality there in breach of NAR codes because they don't have proficiency and expertise in it what so ever. That's a big issue as of recent. So have to make sure you interview beyond just asking the simple "can you do this for me".

Be sure to ask how, and how many of these a year do they do, how often, what listings do they have right now that you can look at, etc etc.. 

Oh yeah, there is soooo many trailing effects not mentioned that I think isn't in minds yet, understandably so, fires are still ongoing. 

How about the local business's. For example say a Starbucks, one of those little drive thru ones, can rapidly rebuild. Well, for what? For who? 

Who's coming in to work and with area in ashes and homes taking 10X longer to slowly rebuild and persons come back, how many of the community business's are non-viable until a certain density is reached. 

How about the jobs lost of persons who worked at those places. 

Or city being under staffed for certain added works now, and possibly over-staffed during down cycle portions of it all. 

And don't get me started on clean-up, what hazmat landfill has the space for all that????? Will it be declared a super-sight? It has to, because it is. And than we have all those requirements to meet to get clean designation. people forget the age of many of these homes; lead, mercury and asbestos. 

This things is a spaghetti road map of issues. 

If a person has to ask, at all, I STRONGLY advise to use a PM service for tenant placement. 

*Full disclosure I am with Renters Warehouse and yes we do these services. This is not meant as solicitation or advertisement of services. 

Last year January MN enacted the biggest # of changes all were added details and raised the bar of requirement for Landlords, including some specifically detailing how a listing must be detailed. Now this Jan 1st another slew that pressed the bar of standards and requirements even higher. 

If your not well versed in all of that, get a PM to help list. 

For example, if you don't specify if a certain item is reoccurring or 1 time, you can't collect it. If you don't specify a charge in your listing, you can't collect it. 

If you accidentally use some wrong words, it could be a significant fine. 

And yes, they ARE actively policing it. That means YES, they are actually with people sitting down and scrolling through new listings every day looking for people to tag. One inspector in Ramsey bragged up on media how he is actively hunting for violators. 

Now IF you have all those bases covered, my tips are: Take GREAT pictures and for the love of all that is holly please no close ups, wide angel pics. Video is very important, shoot walk through video and have that. And lastly, don't mono-list it, SYNDICATE.    

PS: posting on FB or craigslist nowadays is just begging to be pirated, it's dang near a certainty it will be pirated. 

To do that, to completely re-zone and re-plat the entire area would require, if my history is correct, the largest exercise of eminent domain in US history. 

Given the # of people effected, it would probably only take about 50 years to clear court..... And that's if CA want's to flip the $300m/ $400m in legal fee's to keep fighting for it, for decades.    

Keep in mind we are talking ten's of billions in real estate. CA doesn't have an extra $30b/$40b laying around to do that, not to mention the additional billion to actually do the project to be build ready. 

And how about the loss of tax revenues during that entire time...... I don't know the #'s off hand but I feel safe in saying L.A. would go bankrupt yr2 if not yr1.

It's not remotely feasible.