By Jack Humphreville, L.A. Watchdog for CityWatch

Yet despite these record revenues, the City and other insiders are considering ballot measures and fee increases that cost us over $1 billion a year. 

In May, United to House LA announced that it delivered about 100,000 signatures to the City Clerk to qualify a measure for the November ballot that will create the Los Angeles Program to Prevent Homelessness and Fund Affordable Housing.   The proponents expect this Flip Tax to raise over $800 million a year by levying a 4% tax on sales of commercial and residential properties over $5 million, and 5.5% on sales north of $10 million. These funds would be used to “provide immediate support to people experiencing homelessness, and those at risk of homelessness, in the form of rental assistance, emergency income support, and access to permanent housing.” 

As part of San Francisco’s data mining campaign, landlords will be required to share reams of information about their residential properties with the Rent Board. Only owners of buildings with 10 or more residential units need to report information at this juncture.

Time flies at warp speed. While it seems like it was ages ago, San Francisco lawmakers passed Ordinance No. 265, which became effective on January 18, 2021, and requires landlords to report certain information about their units to the Rent Board. Only now do we have to deal with it.

By Christopher Miller, MBA

Specialized Wealth Management

June 1, 2022

I have been helping my clients make real estate investments for 20 years now.  I think that a big part of our success comes from buying in the right areas.  I prefer to invest in growing metropolitan areas because I think that a growing population – and therefore growing pool of renters for our apartments and shoppers at our tenants’ stores, gives us as investors the best chance at success.

How Do We Find Growing Areas?

I spend a lot of time reviewing the government’s US Census results.  This data tells me that the US population grew by 7.5%, or at a 0.7% annual rate, between 2010 and 2021.  As of the 2020 Census; the US population was 331,449,281, so our country – through immigration and births – is gaining an additional 2,320,144 residents on an annual basis.  That’s roughly the population of the Orlando, Florida metro area.  So: this data tells us that we will need to build the equivalent of the Orlando, Florida metro area every year in the United States to give all these new residents somewhere to live, work and shop.

By Kari Negri, Chief Executive Officer, SKY Property Management

Dear Kari,  How can I rent my vacant units faster?  Alyssa C., Sherman Oaks

I think with all the options out there, it is sometimes easy to forget some very basic things that are vital to renting your vacant units.  One of the most important things you can do to rent your vacancies faster is to answer the phone.  If you love your building, answering phone calls always comes across positively, and is one of the biggest reasons a person will rent from you – sometimes it’s just about how you handle incoming calls. 

By Jack Humphreville, L.A. Watchdog for CityWatch

Multiple levels of government, including the City and County of Los Angeles, enacted eviction moratoriums because of the adverse financial impact the pandemic had on the health and incomes of families and their ability to pay their rents on a timely basis.  This was an appropriate response as we did not want to see fellow Angelenos tossed out of their homes and onto the streets. 

While many renters continued to meet their monthly obligations, others did not have the resources to pay their rents in full.  This put the owners of rental properties, including “mom and pop” landlords who own many rental units in the City and County, in a precarious financial position because of this unfunded mandate.  As owners, both large and small, were being shortchanged on their rental income, they still had to pay their mortgages, real estate taxes, utilities, and other fixed operating expenses.  This has caused considerable hardship, as some owners lost their properties to foreclosure while others were forced to sell at a low-ball price. 

By Steve Haskell, Vice President, Kay Properties and Investments, LLC

The recent fluctuations in the United States stock market have many investors looking for more conservative and less volatile investments. On top of that, traditional investment instruments like stocks and bonds are similarly not looking very attractive because of their lackluster yield performances. Therefore, more and more investors are attracted to Real Estate Income Funds. 

While Kay Properties & Investments is best known for its expert-level knowledge of Delaware Statutory Trust 1031 exchange investment strategies and opportunities, the company also has a great reputation for working with nationally recognized real estate sponsors to source and structure All-Cash/Debt-Free Real Estate Income Funds for accredited investors.

By Ari Chazanas, Lotus West Properties

Vacancies are never a good thing because it means you are not generating income on your property. If a tenant has decided to vacate the premises, and hopefully given you adequate advance notice, your top priority is finding a new renter as quickly as possible. That means taking a proactive approach to preparing the unit, marketing your property, and identifying the next tenant in a short period of time.

The longer your property remains vacant, the more it can impact your bottom line over the long-term. These are the steps you should take as soon as you are informed that one of your current tenants intends to end the lease.

By Nicole Seidner

The so called “Pandemic Exhaustion” or “Pandemic Fatigue” is real enough that doctors are examining it, but there is good news. In 2022, we’re finally around the bend and getting back to the real world. That means normal renting, normal moving, and getting back to Work as it Was. What does the end of the pandemic mean for you?

Renting on Your Side

Sheltering in place has been over for quite some time, but now we’re in the swing of it. Restaurants are back open to full capacity as mask mandates are coming to an end. Indeed, Hawai’i is the only state that has a requirement for indoor mask usage. That means renters who worked in restaurants or other similar positions and subsequently lost their jobs in the pandemic are likely to have returned to work. With work means the better chance that they can pay their rents on-time. The return to normal, in addition, includes the end of some laws that impede your ability to ask for rent.

Billions in California Taxpayer Dollars Needlessly Wasted Documented in Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation Report

This Article Was Contributed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax.

Introduction

The consequences of California’s failure to provide meaningful accountability manifest in declines in venture capital investment, tourism, and Congressional representation.  Once again, around this year’s “Tax Day” (e.g., the IRS tax filing deadline), the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation has once again issued its annual edition of the Follow the Money Report detailing examples of government waste, fraud, and abuse in the past year that total in the billions. 

So, here’s the scenario…let’s assume the unthinkable has happened – there’s been a fire and your building has sustained heavy damage!  At least no one was injured.  It’s going to be okay – you’d purchased insurance with a reputable company and made sure that you insured the building at its full replacement value.