All Forum Posts by: Zach L.

Hey Allen, we often use Morales Exterminating Co for termite-related issues and Pro-Pest for everything else. Both have been great about coordinating access directly with tenants when needed. Happy to answer any questions if you have any!

Hi David,

Like others have said, it's going to be very unlikely that you'll be able to bring an RSO tenant up to market rent if they're currently way below. There's a moratorium on no-fault evictions and rent increases, so it's likely best to run your numbers based on keeping that tenant in place, or paying a large relocation (which the existing tenant may not even agree to). When the moratorium on rent increases is lifted, the allowable increase on an RSO unit will be very small, likely around 3%. You mentioned you're planning on talking to a lawyer about this, I'd be very interested to hear if they give you any suggestions!

@Paul Hernandez

If you are in the city of LA, you cannot evict for nonpayment of rent until February. If you're in the county of LA (but not the city!) then my understanding is you can start an eviction based on nonpayment of rent.

Evict123.com is a really great resource for staying up to date on the LA-area's eviction laws. If you have an interest in learning about this, I highly recommend subscribing to the newsletter and visiting the "ask Dennis" section of the website to read the lawyer's responses to specific scenarios local landlords are going through.

 Going off of Joe's suggestion, if the condo is in LA City you can look up any code enforcement violations and permit history here: https://www.ladbsservices2.lac...

This might give you an idea of if the condo owners are selling due to a code/permit-related headache.

Like Billy said, I personally wouldn't spend an extra $12k to remove and replace the drywall unless I had to, especially with your goal of turning it into a rental. If you were planning on selling it instead, I'd be more willing to do it since buyers tend to be pickier than renters, especially in the current market. (I'm assuming this property isn't in a neighborhood that is higher-end/luxury. If it is, then I'd do a deeper dive into what competing rentals look like).

Worst case scenario, if you don't do it and see that all prospective tenants are complaining about the textured walls, you can revisit it at that point.

Have you tried using the BiggerPockets agent finder? I used it once when a client needed to sell land in Florida (I'm also in LA so I had no clue who to reach out to) and it worked out great! I know it's not as good as a direct referral from an investor, but if they're on BiggerPockets then they're likely to be more investor friendly than average.

@Pedro Magallanes

Seems like you have a good amount of capital to get started with, congrats! Like John mentioned, it's not always best to go for the cheapest areas, since those areas are likely cheaper for a reason. Have you considered using the capital you have to purchase a house hack in a nice area of Los Angeles? While you might not cashflow on it right away, it can be a better way to grow wealth given the opportunity to leverage a higher amount of the purchase price since you'd be an owner occupant, and Los Angeles is (in my extremely humble opinion) more likely to experience appreciation in the long run than a cheaper market, therefore generating more wealth to continue investing with. I realize it isn't a strategy for everyone, but something to consider!

It's going to be tough to bring an RSO building up to market rents, especially in the current legal environment. Unless the tenants decide to leave on their own (which is unlikely given that they'd need to pay market rents somewhere else), to my knowledge you won't have a way to increase rents for at least another year following the end of the emergency declaration, and even at that point the allowable rent increase likely won't be very substantial. Happy to share my experiences managing RSO buildings if you have any questions, just let me know!

Thank you both! I should mention it's hundreds of addresses that I'd like to set up alerts for, so ideally I'm looking for a way to bulk upload them since I have them all in a spreadsheet. Worst case scenario, I can spend an afternoon or two setting alerts one at a time, but was hoping someone knew a faster way.

I'm interested in buying a STR in a city where all STRs need to be registered, and they aren't issuing new registrations. It's easy to get a spreadsheet of all of the addresses that are permitted for short-term rentals in this area, is there an easy way to upload the addresses and get notified when one is listed for sale?

Thank you!