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Enchanting the Tract Home for Sale Using Design Psychology
Are you selling your tract home? Home sellers marketing their property in development neighborhoods face tough competition. All the houses look alike. All the houses sell for similar prices. Market conditions -- whether it's a cool buyers' market...
Florida Real Estate Exploding For 15+ More Years?
YEEHAW!!!!!! The south will rise again!! Can't you just imagine the Dukes of Hazard boys sitting on the hood of their car (the General Lee) grinning in front of a For Sale sign in their yard? Well, they should be smiling with the prices in the...
Getting Started In Real Estate Investing
With all the stories of people making tremendous amounts of money in real estate it's no wonder why so many are looking at real estate as an investment vehicle. It offers more security than the stock market, provides great potential returns, offers...
Massachusetts Real Estate – History Personified
Massachusetts is a state overflowing with history and yet oddly modern. Massachusetts real estate prices are very pricey.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts is an incredible mix of history and bustling modern influences. Historically, the state took...
Utah Real Estate – Mother Nature’s Masterpiece
Mother nature has done some amazing work in Utah. Fortunately, you can live in the middle of the masterpiece with reasonable prices for Utah real estate.
Utah
Utah is a state of open desert in the south and raging mountains in the north....
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Rent Control Rehab for the Well-Heeled
For those who don't need it, rent control can become an addiction, resulting from too many years of a sweet deal. It can leave the real estate muscles paralyzed and the investment portfolio sick. "Penny wise" might have a "pound foolish" problem.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about those who live in rent-controlled apartments because they cannot afford to move; I'm referring to the thousands of well-heeled ones. The affluent --with greater job stability—move less frequently than the needy, thus retain the treasured units. Those who can least afford it must re-rent at higher rates.
I stumbled upon this "housing disorder" as a Los Angeles Realtor, when encountering dozens of well-to-do Westsiders tucked away in dilapidated rent-controlled apartments, determined to stay for the appealing price tags. Landlords have no incentive to make improvements when they collect rents below market-rate.
It didn't matter that these tenants had higher incomes than their landlords, qualified three times over for a loan, or possessed the down payment to purchase rentals of their own. It didn't even matter that they were losing thousands of dollars in tax write-offs and hundreds of thousands in equity. They were proud bingo winners, and under no circumstances would they sacrifice that for a bigger pot.
Three years ago, I almost convinced Anne to buy. She was living in a $509 per month rental in West L.A., having assumed a new identity in order to dupe the building's owner. He still thought Gwendolyn--who lived there prior to James, Henry, Erica and now Anne —was the tenant. Most L.A. landlords cannot raise the rent more than three percent a year until the unit becomes
vacant; and some tenants succeed in pretending they are someone else just to keep the price low.
Anne refused to buy the $280,000 townhouse in Burbank we had selected for her purchase. First, it was in the Valley, and many Westsiders have convulsions about investing "over the hill." Secondly, she planned to put tenants in her new place, but worried that they couldn't be trusted.
"Now why would you think that, Gwendolyn? Sorry, I mean Anne."
That townhouse is now worth $550,000, a loss of $270,000 in equity, and her apartment—where she remains a psychological prisoner--has saved her a grand total of $18,000.
To date, Lindy is the only "rent control client" who has closed an escrow with me. In 1993, she agreed to abandon her unit in Santa Monica in order to buy a six bedroom, tennis court estate for $600,000. To afford the mortgage, she rented rooms, transforming the property into a virtual dormitory. The income sustained her unemployed status until 2004 when she sold the property for $1.8 million.
Property values have risen an average of 425% in California since 1980 and 115% in Los Angeles since 2000. If you have the means, escape the "perpetual tenant syndrome" and enter the rent control rehab program before it's too late.
Got property?
About The Author
Charlotte Laws is a member of the Greater Valley Glen Council, a Realtor and an author. Her websites are www.CharlotteLaws.org and www.YourTopBroker.com. Her Blog is http://charlottelaws.typepad.com.
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