Dear AOA:
I am writing about Maria who helped me today. I just joined the AOA. I used to be able to depend on others to help me with my rental but life played a joke on me and I found out that I was being taken advantage of so here I am, navigating the rental process with little knowledge. AOA was recommended to me by a good neighborly friend.
Not only do I not know about this process, I am spoiled with assistants who can navigate the computer for me. Today, I have no such access so I went ahead and braved through your website. I was unsuccessful and I dreaded the chat process because I have not had much luck with people really wanting to help. To my great surprise (and luck) – I got Maria. What a hopeful presence in my otherwise bleak day.
Maria was very patient with me. She was clear. She listened. She knew within minutes that she had to hold my hand and that, she did. Talk about better than excellent customer service – Maria was a great blessing. I was stuck. What I did did not work. She picked up on my stress and guided me – in some cases, even gave me the forms I badly needed in a hurry, since nothing I did was working.
She made things happen. What can I say about someone who is so knowledgeable, so patient, so kind, so amazingly wonderful to work with but that she is a joy to work with, a great asset to AOA. It is sad but there aren’t too many people like Maria Alvarado. I sure hope you have more of her–perhaps have her help train others. Too many people are lazy; too many people judge those of us who cannot navigate the digital world. She was amazing. I sure hope that your company recognizes that.
Dorie S.
Letter Sent to City of West Hollywood
Reading your city’s ordinance, page 8 paragraph d (1) states towards the end of the paragraph that the city now wants to control what the landlord charges for side agreements just like a socialist govt. that the city has to approve the MAR. Is this correct? Just want to confirm. For example, if the landlord and tenant agree to pay $100 for a parking space, the city can come in and say no – the landlord should only charge $50 or whatever. Is this correct? If so, then the next phase would be grocery stores, restaurants, businesses and services. With that said, why would anyone want to live in the state of California!
I guess that proves that California is the first state to move towards socialism in this country – specifically the city of West Hollywood. I don’t think this has made its way into the social media and I think it should – thanks to our socialist councilmembers of city of West Hollywood.
Kind regards, Dariush, “David” K.
Dear Dan:
Daniel you probably know this already, but just in case – many of the Section 8 inquiries we receive are from homeless – no employment and no rental history. They state they live in their car or on the street. Section 8 reps offer us $2,000 signing bonus to house these homeless. The reps admit the persons are not examined for drug use or mental health issues. This isn’t well known in my area of property owners and warrants investigation. Warn your members – the risks are substantial.
Be well, Tom S.
Letter Sent to L.A. County Supervisors
Dear Supervisors:
As an owner of six rental homes in L.A. County, and as a former L.A. County employee of forty (40) years, I am writing to you to implore you to take fair and equitable action on behalf of individuals who have invested their retirement funds in rental real estate. Folks such as myself provide a vital source of housing for a segment of the population that work hard for a living but are not yet able to afford home ownership. I am sure you have all heard many stories of rental homes’ owners who are taking outrageous losses and are being penalized simply because they happen to have invested their hard-earned money in real estate as a way to fund their retirement. It is not fair and equitable to deal with the housing shortages and homelessness situations in L.A. County on the backs of people who own a few rental homes.
Your board and staff should be a bit more innovative in addressing the housing needs of our county. Rent control does not and will not work. Perhaps your board should ask staff to develop recommendations for the solutions that would be fairer and more equitable. Otherwise, people like myself will find it more advantageous to our financial condition to sell our properties and, move our equity to neighboring states that are not penalizing property owners to solve a budget issue that should be borne by all tax payers, including your honorable board. Property owners are already paying the “lion’s share” of the revenue that comes into our county from local sources of revenue. You and your staff have a responsibility to develop more equitable and fair solutions to this vital social need. Spread the pain to the corporate world, to the higher income bracket individuals and, budgets of county departments and your administrative operations and not just to folk who happen to own some modest holding in income producing real estate. We are in the business of providing essential housing in our county. Please show greater leadership that is fair and equitable.
Respectfully, Fernando L. Escárcega
Dear AOA:
I have one applicant whose sources of employment income verification (application, bank statements, employer) all differ from each other by fairly significant amounts.
I have another applicant whose employer says the income is over twice the amount listed on the application.
It is common for employers to not be honest in verifying, with them wanting to help rental applicants. But it instead gives me pause and worry. I am also hearing that applicants are having a difficult time getting accepted. What else could possibly be expected, when the city in its wisdom says there are no
evictions and no rent raises. Plus, people can self-verify having Covid. Applications are the only possible defense for landlords; get it wrong and the landlord is permanently stuck.
Mine is a difficult job.
Gerald S.