All Forum Posts by: David Friedman

$35,000 is enough for a down payment on a starter home. Try to find something in San Bernardino near CSUSB or near Loma Linda or Redlands University so you can house hack. Find a 4 bedroom and live in the master bedroom yourself. Rent out the other rooms at a slight premium. Or you could try to find a duplex as your primary home and rent out the duplex if you can't house hack. I currently live in Redlands and have a duplex in my backyard. Rent to some amazing tenants and I'm profiting off of my personal home. Great situation as long as you screen your tenants properly.

 I second this. Loma Linda is an economic powerhouse of the Inland Empire. The city is basically run by the hospital, not the other way around.

There are websites that will update you every day on new grants. I recommend you sign up for a few. Here is one that I use: https://grantsforus.io/?__cf_c...

I manage a lot of commercial property in the Inland Empire so I try to be a part of the community by sending my tenants relevant grants.

I have a duplex with one unit above the other and I am thinking of doing the same. It’s stressful walking on eggshells to try and not disturb your neighbor so I’m sure your future tenant will appreciate it. Good luck.

Apartments.com as a property management software program. It's free. Buildium has way too many unnecessary features at a cost until you have at least 25-50 units.

I like Zillow for background, credit, income verification because applicants can pay for it all up front and before you even show the property to someone and waste time you already know if they are qualified or not.

Make sure to follow all LA rent control laws. Start here: https://housing.lacity.org/ren...

By law you are allowed to get tenants that are month to month on a new lease as long as it is materially the same as their previous lease. If you don't have a copy of an old lease then you may need to try to work with them or ask LAHD what to do from there.

Really there are only a few ways it's possible in LA to vacate a leased unit. You could move into one of the units and then move in your parent or child into the other unit, which will still require you to give cash for keys to the tenant you are moving out. Then, there is a law stating that you have to offer the unit back to the previous tenant at the rate they were paying if your relative moves out within a certain amount of time. You could take it off the rental market and combine both units or demolish both units. That's about it. Good luck negotiating with them to leave.

California Rent Control law requires a clause in all of your leases if a property isn't rent controlled. Basically you need to inform the tenant that their situation isn't rent controlled as soon as possible. If that clause isn't already included in the original lease then you need to give them notice of the new clause before moving forward with anything else. If you get a savvy tenant who knows what they are doing or has a lawyer friend you will waste a lot of time and money. Here is the clause that we use: "(Property Address) is not subject to the rent limits imposed by Section 1947.12 of the Civil Code and is not subject to the just cause requirements of Section 1946.2 of the Civil Code. This property meets the requirements of Sections 1947.12 (c)(5) and 1946.2 (e)(7) of the Civil Code and the owner is not any of the following: (1) a real estate investment trust, as defined by Section 856 of the Internal Revenue Code; (2) a corporation; or (3) a limited liability company in which at least one member is a corporation."

I recommend you do your own research before using my advice above.

You may still want to get an eviction attorney if this is your first time. If you don't give notices the proper way a professional squatter will get the notice kicked back in court and you'll have to start all over. The eviction attorney will pay for itself especially with all of the new rent control laws.

Pros and cons to either, but if you can split the lot, I imagine you will eventually be able to sell each house individually for more than you would have been able to sell one house with an ADU.

Pros to ADU is that you can connect into the same utilities as the front house.

Con with splitting the lot is you will need to spend a ton of money bringing in new utilities to the separate address.

Typically, you can sell two separate smaller houses for a higher dollar per sq. ft. than a single house of the same size or a house with an ADU of the same size. For example, you may be able to sell off the back house for $500,000 and the front house for $600,000 if the lot is split, but maybe you can only sell a house with an ADU for $900,000. Do your research and see what comps in the area are telling you.