All Forum Posts by: Ryan White

The tax records show the owner as a trust.  Is there a best way to go about finding the contact information of the owner?

Ah, okay thank you!  I wanted to ask just in case.  I didn't know if there was a format to use that tends to work well.

I grew up on a 5 acre nursery in Southern California, before moving away.  Some recent family issues have brought me back home.  My neighbor, who I have never met before, has about 5 acres as well, but it is broken up into two APN numbers.  One has a house which I believe was just rented on about 1.5 acres, and then there is about a 3.5 piece of bare land, with a well, and two completely worn and broken down greenhouses, as well as a few small storage structures.

I'm interested in soliciting my neighbor to buy his/her property.  I'm actually more interested in the bare land as it directly borders my current property and the house does not.  Additionally, I can renew the greenhouses and use them.

How do I write an appropriate letter to ask my neighbor if they would be willing to sell me their property?  Do I make an offer in the letter?  I have some cash and would be interested in them carrying the property for short term while I use the greenhouses, and then do a balloon payment.  I'm also interested in any other suggestions you may have.

Thank youl.

There is a small incorporated town in California that I have a rapport with many of the City Council members, including City Planner, City Manager, and Mayor. Another business venture brought me to the City, but I was presented with a development opportunity, and I'd like to ask your advice.

The city is in need of elderly rental housing; there is an apartment complex near the intended parcel, and it has a long waiting list, according to the City Manager. He informed me that there is government funding available for these types of projects, and combined with my rapport with the City, it would be a development would be fast-tracked.

This would be multifamily. I would almost assuredly do a modular development to keep costs down.

Has anyone ever used a HUD grant before? I'm trying to determine the viability of the project now, and looking at competitive rental costs and building costs. I believe I read that for-profit corporations, which would be my situation, the money would be treated as a loan. I can't find any information on the terms of the loan. Any advice you could give to me?

@Mike Hanneman Thanks Mike, this is what I was looking for.  I assumed it was an installation cost concern, but just wanted to double check.

I've read in some forum discussions the downfall of multifamily real estate that lacks utility submeters.  Obviously it eats away at profits if the landlord is paying for certain utilities.  I don't understand why a first order of business wouldn't be to place submeters on the units so that utility bills can be passed through to the tenants.  Is there something I'm missing?

@Jamal Okon and @Brent Coombs thanks for your inputs. I'm aware of the requirements for FHA, including 75% of the rent of units occupied by parties other than myself. I'm more interested in the process of removing a tenant from one of the units so that I can occupy it. As a side question, I was curious if this process would be the same for vacating the entire building.

Hypothetical question: If I purchased a fourplex, that currently had 100% occupancy rate, with an FHA loan which requires me to occupy one unit as my primary residence, then how do I go about removing the tenants from one of the units? Do I specify this in terms of the sale so the previous owner notifies the tenants that they'll need to move? What if their lease isn't up? I've heard in the podcasts that they usually have problems with tenants they inherit; if I wanted to remove all existing tenants from a purchased fourplex, do I have the previous owner notify/remove tenants as terms of the sale? How does this work?

Thanks!

 @John Arendsen After the recession Silvercrest removed their "Superfloor" department from their Corona factory, which was literally the foundation of the Lido Units; also, changes in codes in HCD make the units illegal to final.  That, combined with their expired AC letter makes it a pretty safe bet that you won't be able to get the Lido anymore.  

The park just installed two units in Lido that were manufactured by Fleetwood, however, I heard from the installer that the units had issues; so much so that they refuse to install any more units for the park.  I did a project in Bellflower using Fleetwood and I can say that my experience with their product wasn't the best, but they may have changed.

I actually just got an AC letter approval for a 2 storey unit, similar in design to the Lido units, which I'll be using on another project of mine.  It may work on your projects.  I'll PM you to discuss further.

To @Fred Sams and @Justin R.: I happened to be glancing over this thread when I read your conversation with @John Arendsen concerning development costs.  Funny enough, my company did most of the homes in the Curci owned Lido Peninsula that John was talking about, as well as many other projects in California.  I'm currently in the process of wrapping up a 40 home two-storey development in Santa Barbara.  One of my projects actually involved a development of 2plex modular town homes (Silvercrest) in Escondido.  If you have any questions about your project I'd be happy to discuss.