Magazine Articles

The key word in “Estate Planning for Apartment Owners” is PLANNING.   When owners do not plan, or plan poorly, their heirs suffer financially from unnecessary taxes, wasted inheritances or losses to creditors and predators. [I use the latter term to refer to ex-spouses who may want to get their hands on the inheritance you meant…

A decade after homeowners used a soaring real estate market to go on a borrowing binge against their own home equity; many across the country are now falling behind on their payments. This looming crisis threatens to leave banks on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.

Hello everybody.  AOA members may recall my discussion of age discrimination in the February 2015 issue of this magazine entitled “Discrimination Against Children: Traps and Pitfalls.”  As I explained in that article, there are two types of age discrimination under California law:  those acts that intentionally discriminate and those which have an adverse disparate impact…

Having a vacant rental can sometimes be stressful.  Many rental property owners want to minimize the time the property is vacant and would like to find a tenant before the last tenant has even moved.  After all, having a vacancy means lost rent and hidden costs such as utilities and turnover costs.

Dear Patriotic Americans for Secure Borders:  Taxpayer Revolution is very grateful to each of you for your assistance.  Thank you very much to all of our patriotic donors who ensure our work continues to end sanctuary cities.

[AOA: Are you a housing provider in the city of Hesperia?  If so, you have our sympathy.  A new law was passed and became effective on January 1st of this year. The program and your requirements are listed below.]  Effective January 1st, 2016, any rental property within the city limits of Hesperia is required to…

As most readers of this magazine know, several Bay Area cities have existing rent and eviction control laws, commonly referred to as “rent control.” Beginning with Berkeley, then San Francisco, then Oakland, these ordinances all share the same basic features of a rent control provision and an eviction control provision. 

Apartments can no longer ignore social media – this we know.  But how can you best leverage social media platforms?  Residents are now turning to social media for recommendations, leasing info and customer service and this trend will only continue as a younger, social-media savvy generation comes of age for multifamily properties.

Dear Dan: When you hire a lawyer and you ask for an idea of what it will cost, BEWARE.  Any price quote you get in an email, as I did for an eviction, means nothing, because if you want to complain about the final fees, the State Bar will ONLY go by the contract you…

With rents in Alameda seeing dramatic increases over the past several years due to a tight rental market, politicians in this historically more affordable Bay Area community have been under intense pressure from tenant advocates to impose rent control measures in order to stabilize rents and deter evictions.