Magazine Articles

You’ve heard the saying, “To win big you’ve got to bet big?” That pretty much incorporates the essence of Risk right there: there are two sides to it. “Risk” is not the

Q:  I own an old house that is in need of many repairs.  I don’t have the money to fix up the house so I rent it out “as is.”  Now my tenants are claiming that the house

Will an old law that threatened private property and encouraged fiscal irresponsibility be returning toCalifornia? A new statewide initiative seeks to resurrect aCalifornia law that enabled unelected governmental agencies to use

Question 1: I recently asked a tenant to vacate our duplex in Cupertino. We had to do significant termite work, including fumigation, and in addition, they always had many people staying over, causing undue wear and tear

It has been said that there will always be resident turnover at some point.  Well, this got me thinking – what would be the steps to approach zero resident turnover?  Obviously, zero resident turnover is

Question One: I recently initiated an unlawful detainer against a tenant who had failed to pay his rent. The tenant engaged the services of free public counsel and they have requested a jury. In my lease agreement, it specifically prohibits

Hello everybody.  First a bit of trivia:  The California Department of Real Estate no longer exists.  The DRE has been taken over by the California Department of Consumer Affairs and Consumer Affairs then changed the DRE’s name to the Bureau of Real Estate.  Cost savings is the reason

Have you stopped to consider how high your taxes are? If you live in California, you are taxed at a higher rate than nearly any other state. Some say California taxes you for everything. It has some of the steepest sales tax, personal income tax and corporate tax rates in the nation.   Jon Coupal…

If you owned property at the beginning of 2013, you have to have a smile on your face today – right? After a near-record price increase in 2013, many headed into 2014 full of consternation. John Burns, who was a delight to

Our “progressive” supervisors and state legislators, with the enthusiastic support of the Mayor, are tripping over themselves to come up with new ways to make life tougher for San Francisco’s housing providers. Hardly had we completed filing our lawsuit against the first Avalos Amendment than we learned of Supervisor Campos’s new bill that greatly increases…