Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
A key House committee was set to grill home lenders and housing advocates on Friday about mortgage industry efforts to work out affordable loans for troubled homeowners.
Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
Last week I posted an item about my decision to withdraw an offer I made on a duplex in Los Angeles. Thanks to everyone who commented. There was another factor in my decision I wanted to discuss. I checked out the address of the duplex on www.meganslaw.ca.gov, a Web site that publishes the addresses of sexual predators.
The site gives you photos of the predators and brief descriptions of their crimes. I wish it had the date of their offenses because if it was a long time ago that might be a mitigating factor.
The Justice Department runs a similar site nationally. You have to search first by zip code rather than the specific address. The California version has an easy-to-use map feature which the federal site doesn’t.
There are several unsavory characters near the duplex I was considering, including three rapists within a five block radius. One of them lives right down the block. Seeing the photos of these people was creepy and scary.
The California Association of Realtors requires landlords to remind prospective tenants of the Megan’s Law site in their leases. According to The California Landlord’s Law Book (Nolo), landlords can choose not to rent to someone on the sexual predator list. Landlords are not required to disclose to prospective tenants if there is a predator in the neighborhood. But if the landlord knew there was one and a tenant was attacked, the landlord could be liable.
I couldn’t in good conscious rent to a female tenant without telling them there was a rapist down the block. My real estate agent said I shouldn’t let this deter me from buying the property because there are unsavory characters in every neighborhood in Los Angeles. Sure enough, there are a few child molesters near my old apartment (but no rapists). The blocks immediately around our present home are predator-free, but there are a few within walking distance. And there is the argument that you stand to make the most money investing in a neighborhood before it’s completely gentrified.
So are predators in the neighborhood a deal breaker for real estate investors?
Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
Foreclosures continue to soar, with 220,000 homes lost to bank repossessions in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest statistics from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. That’s nearly triple the number from the same period in 2007.
Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
Village Hillcrest, a 578,000-square-foot mixed-use complex in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood, has been refinanced to the tune of $31 million. Read more »
Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
Lee & Associates has named Phil Royster as its president of strategic growth. The newly created position will have Royster overseeing all of the company’s expansion efforts. Among the responsibilities will be identifying growth opportunities and establishing the company’s strategy for new office acquisitions and the formation of new Lee & Associates companies nationwide. Read more »
Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
Plans for the development of University Gateway (pictured), an upscale mixed-use student housing development across from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, move forward with the closing of financing for the 421-unit project. With the assistance of commercial real estate capital intermediary Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P., developers Urban Partner L.L.C., Real Estate Capital Partners and Blackstone Real Estate Advisors attained funding totaling $167.5 million in the form of a construction loan and joint venture equity. Read more »
Continue Reading Add comment July 25th, 2008
Long Branch, N.J.–In an area that was once considered the epitome of oceanfront blight in New Jersey, a multi-million dollar upscale redevelopment project is now being built. Read more »
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