All Forum Posts by: Ray R.

@Christine Kankowski - In Riverside for an apartment complex I help out with, there seems to be somebody scamming potential renters. Pictures of our unit are being used for advertising unit below market, Money is sent to scammer, potential renter is then told to show up at location to get a key.

A little while ago somebody showed up with a moving van they had rented, very young couple. Very sad. My wife told them call the police. Question is what can I do to prevent this for the properties I manage.

You may be able to negotiate a discount to redo the tile.

I had one A+ tile person, that was great, and then he expanded, hired people and started doing multiple projects besides ours, and the two workers started tiling from different sides of the house. If you chalk everything out, measure left and right, do lots of calculations, and make the meet line at natural break point, such as a room entrance, it can work out. The two tiles were off center, and met in the middle of the Living Room.

Contractor redid it, but was UNHAPPY, where we supplied new tiles.

Finding good people that are available in a tight market is hard.

And I have seen this where the contractor expands their business, and the business falls apart since they are not supervising everything.

The thing to keep in mind, or focus on, is what is your top priority. Is it fighting over $2K, or finishing the place ASAP so you can either put it on the market or rent it. Everyday it's in construction is a day of lost potential income.

@Ben I.

Interesting their attorney already contacted you directly.

As mentioned earlier, don't talk to their attorney. Great advice / explanation from @Joe Splitrock on why. Basically, anything you say can be and will be used against you. And you are not a lawyer. As an EIT, would you feel safe having a lawyer doing your job? Then why would you do a lawyer's job?

There are a bunch of different parties that have legal liability. Your agent / broker are also parties to this.

As mentioned earlier, it would cost $20K to get into court.

You claim you don't have money to afford a lawyer, therefore you probably don't have the money easily for a settlement. 

Sounds like the lawyer is just trying for a settlement out of you. They have not spent any hours on this case, besides a quick call. Lawyers are not cheap (in So. CA Real Estate Lawyers I have spoken with are around $350 to $500 an hour, and not all lawyers are created equal). There may also be some type of insurance covering the broker / agent, plus there is a potential threat to their licenses if you complain I would guess.

I would do a risk analysis, list out various scenarios, possible risk, potential cost, and make an informed decision on what you want to do based on that. There is a lot of good information in this thread.

Not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

Pet Screening has a blog post that analyzes the new HUD Notice, pretty much what was said above.

Nice to know about their service.

https://blog.petscreening.com/...

@Brian LarsonDoing a 12 month leases, and then doing another lease with the same tenant, won't get you out of AB1482, unfortunately.

The NOLO book comes out every year in April, so I would wait for the new edition. They also provide updates, that are so so.

Rent Control does not apply to housing that is under 15 years old - rolling date. AOA has been doing webinars on it, the attorney usually has a link on his twitter feed.

AB 1482 was badly written per a lawyer I heard speak on it, and there is a huge amount of controversy on which CPI rate to use. The law's author states one thing, and the bill actually says something else. A lawyer I heard speak said something about this being the lawyer full employment act, as the details are figured out through court cases. And that you really don't want to be a test case. He made a really good joke about you don't want a new nickname, "defendant". I have heard 3 presentations by lawyers on this so far.

If you do substantial remodel (whatever that means), you can give notice to the tenants, but then you need to pay them a months rent if they have been there over 12 months, unless your city is stricter.

You also need to add stuff to your leases this year, to be in compliance. AOA should have a sample lease up soon.

Another law that was passed in CA basically says you need to take Section 8 tenants, as long as they meet your requirements. You can't discriminate based on source of income. You can legally deny them if they don't meet your credit requirements.

Plus the CA Law on Independent Contractors was passed! This one is getting a huge amount of push back, but is still the law. Mark Twain quote of "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel." describes the situation, since lots of independent writers got affected.

Congrats on getting the tenant to pay for the parts!

The term is store room lock, for Auto Locking.

Locksmith Supply places will definitely carry for Commercial grade (I am a big fan of the house brand LSDA sold by IDN that has a version with a Clutch, just in case somebody tries to break it by standing on the handle of the lever), or you can buy Schlage from Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

Wow - Thanks @Nathan Gesner - I'm surprised that HUD Issued this.

It's an improvement, but there are still issues. I wish they had used the word "shall". It seems the Internet racket of issuing Emotional Support Animal Certifications will still be allowed, but HUD is basically stating it's questionable.

I hope I am wrong, but for those of us that manage properties in California, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing probably won't lower their standards. They did side against the Irvine Company on a lawsuit in 2015 on Emotional Support Animals that got settled for $175,000 in 2015, that used certification gotten over the Internet.

https://www.ocweekly.com/irvin...

List of 50  Tenant Management Software Products rated, hosting by Finances Online - my guess they make money by affiliates:

https://financesonline.com/property-management/

Be nice if they had a table that shows the cost listing all the software. $30 per unit for one of them per year, Appfolio would be minimum $250 per month. The software do different things.

Thanks @aaron K for your answer. Prices are within the range from the market survey I have done for rentals in the area. Due to what is charged other tenants, the owners are not comfortable lowering the price.

On a scale of 1-10, I would give the current marketing a 7. Most Apartment Marketing I have seen I would give a 4. There are two different demographics that rent a lot from us, and one of them is hard to reach online I believe.

I'm still figuring out how to improve the free marketing that works, for those of us with fewer units. And what works keeps on changing.

Three things that should improve my marketing are:
1. Virtual Staging for the pictures
2. Reviews
3. 2D Floor Plan

Disclaimer - Yes, I am a bit of a marketing geek.

I have a couple of empty units in So CA (Inland Empire - Riverside and Moreno Valley), and the usual methods of marketing are not working right now for me. 

What used to work was:

1. Apartments.com - seems to be making free listings less and less visible. But they start at $250 a month, 3 month minimum, but you get 20X visibility. Unfortunately this is per property! So if you have 4 properties, that are not near each other, you need to pay for each to advertise.

2. Zillow - not getting as much leads. They syndicate to Trulia and Hot Pads.

3. Craigslist - There are so many ads out there, we get very little calls back.

4. Sign in front of property

Questions / Thoughts / Ramblings...

FaceBook market place may be something to try. I'm not to crazy about the idea of posting from my personal account, but this time, FB does not seem to allow you to list from your FB business page. There are some third party apps that you can use to list from.

Any feedback on rooof does to make advertising easier? Seems to work through Chrome, and my guess fills in some fields for you.

There seems to be tricks with Craigslist so you stay at the top of the listings. I think having multiple listings. But then rumor is they can shadow ban you. I am looking at other complexes, and seems like they are doing multiple listings.

Appfolio has a way it seems to list apartments, but then your stuck with the cost of the software per month. It's a management software, that starts at $250. Something like Yardi and Onesite.

Rentlinx is another way to list via syndication to a bunch of sites, but costs $69 for one month.

Turbotenant charges the applicant. Seems like a limited reach.

Reviews is an area I have not done yet. Any thoughts?

Postlets was bought by Zillow.

Avail seems to list to the major sites I do.

I tried rent.com paid, and not many leads.