All Forum Posts by: Seth Borman

There are basically three different types of fee here, Exactions, hook up fees and impact fees.

Exactions are improvements required as a condition of permitting. The city will ask for things like road halves, land for a school or a park.

Hook up fees are a cost that you pay the utility to connect to utilities.

Impact fees are basically fees charged on the increase in utilization for any number of things. Theoretically they have to be connected to the services that a new resident uses, but that's often not how it works. In this category you'll find school fees, park fees, transportation fees, and more.

You need to dig in with the city, county, all the utility providers, and basically anyone else involved to find out how much you'll be expected to pay and add them to your pro forma.

We made the paper when one of our tenants burned down our apartment building...

Not intentionally, but still.

Funny enough, Wolgang Puck sells a line of induction cooktops and cookware to go on them.

Is there a question here somewhere?

Yes, it looks like a workable deal. Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw is an up and coming neighborhood, for sure.

You need to build a pro forma based on how many tenants you can move out and what you think you can get in new rents after renovations.

Have you ever worked with rent controlled property before?

People are doing it, but the appraisals and finance is hit or miss. This is covered in all the other threads on ADUs.

What would be the point?

No deep insights, but we use local architectural salvage places and recycle as much as we can.

 Where are you finding those deals in Los Angeles?

We don't like gas because of the indoor air quality issue. On the house we live in we ran a 240V line to the kitchen and installed an electric range. We probably should have gone straight for induction. We didn't install a heat pump because it was a little over our budget, but we'd like to use them wherever possible. 

It is true that gas wall heaters are popular in CA. They are cheap and inefficient, but they are reliable.

Heat pumps work really well as long as you have a good way to distribute the heat. Insulation helps, of course.

The other issue with electrification is water heating. You'll want to look at a heat pump water heater, and they are not cheap.

How is the townhouse heated?