All Forum Posts by: Ryan Huggins

Sorry to read about that.  Sounds like it's quite rough in LA City... one of the main reasons I stick with Ventura County.  I'd advise to consult with a real estate attorney as to your options, if any.

I had something similar happen at a rental I manage.  Appliance guy said it was an electricity issue, the electrician said that's bogus.

If you want to be extra careful, have a second electrician take a look at it.  Don't guarantee something that's beyond your control.

Like others have said, have them get one someplace that has an extended warranty.  

Congrats for being at this stage in your 20s! As to the cousin, my first thought is "His first mistake was renting to college kids by a school." I have a few SFR rentals and a duplex and I love them. I'm looking for a nice 4 plex and saving up for one when the market drops. I pick the right tenants though and do a load of research on them first (credit, driving history, criminal cases, civil cases, verify employment, etc.). I also only look for people who will be there 1+ years and who show they are responsible. Knock on wood, but I have never had an issue in the 8 years since I started. My parents have had several SFR rentals for 30+ years and have only had had one issue the entire time. Their mentor had over 40 of them in Southern California and a friend of my mom has 50 in Nevada. Screen your tenants right and life will be great.

Your family's reaction is based upon the choice of rental that your cousin chose.  If he had rentals in the city and rented to non-college kids, he'd probably have a much different view.

In California if you take the profit from the rental sale and paid down your primary mortgage, you would owe taxes on the profit.  What I would personally do, is to do a 1031 exchange and defer the tax consequences by buying multiple new properties.  You need to do this within a 1031, if you just buy the homes outright you'll still owe the tax man.

California tried to do something like that statewide too.  It failed the ballot because enough people got behind the "No" position.  Now there is an amended version that is up for vote by the state legislators.  The Realtor association opposed it and got it loosened up, but not enough in my view.  Now they (sadly) support it as it only impacts people with 4 or more properties.  Very unfortunate that they caved in the name of a "housing crisis" that.

Rent controls will NOT alleviate the housing shortage, they may actually make it worse.  As has been said before, landlords will have to increase rents each year by the maximum (otherwise they'll fall too far behind), or take the house off the market entirely by selling it as a single family home.

If you want to move the house fast, drop the price.  That's what I would do.  The vast majority of the time (in my experience), it's the price more than the issues.  Price it accordingly.

My pleasure.

@Philip C. yes the MLS does have homes listed that are not in the portals, however unless you have access to that particular MLS (either directly or via datashare) you won't be able to see them. The best bet is to find an agent out here who specializes in finding the types of properties you're looking for then asking them for references to other states. Chances are, they will have a network that will have other agents who specialize in rentals and property management in those states.

@Philip C., thanks for reaching out. Our MLS access (at least in California) is limited to the association we are members of. There are "datasharing agreements" that allow our listings to be shared automatically with other regional MLSs and vice-versa. For example, we share with Ventura, San Fernando, Pasadena, the Antellope Valley and all the way down into Orange County. It's called the CRMLS or California Regional MLS. More information can be found here:

https://go.crmls.org/coverage-area-map/

Now, we can look at the rest of the country through the same sites as you, realtor.com or any of the other portals out there.  The only downside is if we want to write an offer on one of those homes, we would need to find an agent out there to do the paperwork and handle the transaction.  You have to be licensed in each state you do business in.

Long story short, if I wanted a house in Dallas, I'd have to call my friend Richard out there to walk me through the process and write me up a contract, even if I found the house online and even though I'm a licensed sales agent in California. 

I had no idea Oregon was this way.  Please don't let them tell this to California!