All Forum Posts by: Yaohua Li

First off, single-family homes (including townhome/condo) owned by individuals (not corporations) are NOT subject to rent control in CA (state or local rent control). There's an old law that states such (forgot the name). If your rental is multi-family (duplex, triplex, fourplex, etc.), it could be subject to rent control.

Second, the AB 1482 establishes rent control in CA (but not including the ones mentioned above). You need to have disclosed to tenants that your rental unit is not subject to AB 1482, in writing.

If your situation meets both, you are not subject to CA or Sac rent control. You don't break the law if you raise the rent directly to market rate (it's another question if you should tho).

If you haven't disclosed about AB 1482, you should. I am not a lawyer and I don't know what to do if you haven't disclosed but want to raise rent.

When you start a loan for your primary residence, by new purchase or refinance, you promise to use that as primary residence for the next 12 months. This is in the documents you signed during refinance.

If there's a way to legally buy another home as primary residence within 12 months, after refinancing current primary home and not selling it, I also want to know.

Some mentioned low money velocity --> less inflation. It's true but doesn't conflict with rising house prices. Inflation is NOT a single thing. Different sectors may see a huge difference in inflation.

For hotel industry, we see a huge deflation. For food, we see a big inflation.

The printed money flows to places where they have a hope to retain their value, i.e. assets like stocks and houses. We certainly see a big inflation in asset prices. However the stimulus works best if that money goes to consumption instead (buying goods and services). 

Your $300k is based on your Bay Area income. When you move to other cheaper places, your income in that place may not qualify $300k. So better use an income number that is lower than your current one.

Even if you can allow the shed to be unpermitted, you will need to connect utilities to it from main house (electricity, water, sewer), which will be unpermitted.

How about parking an RV there, and connect utilities to it (will need permit but simpler than ADU permit I guess)? If you don't mind the chore, you can even park the RV without connecting utilities (solar + battery; filling clean water tank; emptying dirty water tank; etc.).

I am not sure which option is more economical. To "build" a shed you have to use local expensive labor. The RV isn't built by local labor and you can even buy used to save $$.

Does your lease have any clause for landlord entry? If so, maybe you can say this is a (light) breach of contract? I am not sure if that can be used to not renew the lease (at a later time when COVID is over).

Long-term, I guess you may want to replace this tenant with a better one if possible? Doesn't seem like the most desirable tenant. Oakland only allows 2.7% rent increase for 2020 so I guess raising rent can't drive this person away. But "breach of contract" might be enough for not renewing lease.

If they are determined to not let you in, I guess you don't have any immediate recourse. But you can see if there's any longer-term recourse.

Also consider laying new LVP floor directly on top of the old floor? It's not expensive but might require less labor work. And it's definitely less messy (no dust).

One theory says that CPI calculation method was changed in order to make it look low. House price, food, gas were excluded.

When you see a low CPI, that doesn't necessarily mean "low inflation" across the board. For investors, investments have inflated a lot over the past years, like stocks, houses.

@Daniel Ordonez Consider using software to manage the "paper trials". Otherwise it will get messy eventually.

From a conversation with a banker, my impression is that their bank will either look at 75% of gross rent (when you don't have a 1 or 2 year rental history), or 100% of what you reported on schedule E (which is rent deducted all repairs and things).

How much of your income do you save? If you want more of your own money to invest, consider increasing your savings rate.

Working in construction is your advantage. You probably know better how much work a property needs. You probably have better connection in construction industry, for any rehab need, so you can pick the best choice of contractors/workers. Some investors may want a partner like you, and they may have money. And some construction workers do side gigs to earn extra money.

You just got started. You had your own work income alone in the past. Now you have a property that works for you. And you will only have more leverage as time goes, and they grow faster and faster. Be patient.