Per the LA Times (and via Curbed): Landlord and tenant groups in LA are uniting around an initiative to allow landlords to legalize non-conforming apartments more easily. Right now, if the Housing Department catches a landlord with an illegal apartment, here’s what happens: LAHD cites landlord for un-permitted unit, orders her to either get it permitted
I usually avoid giving design advice on this blog, mostly because my partner Jon is the design expert at Adaptive. I mostly do the numbers. That said, I thought I’d draw your attention today to a classic error that landlords make when renovating apartments. Look at this picture: Can you see what’s wrong? The owner
How can you tell that Silver Lake and Echo Park weren’t always so nice? The window bars. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, both neighborhoods had plenty of shootings, burglaries, etc. People naturally responded by “up-armoring” their homes with strong doors, fences and window bars. Now, both neighborhoods are very safe. It’s not that there’s no
I recognize that my continued harping on our antiquated zoning code is not the fastest way to build readership (to put it mildly). However, I am not going to stop writing about it, because zoning shapes LA in ways of which most people are not at all aware. In any case, today I want to draw
Can someone please figure out how I can block solicitations from brokers who want to sell me “turn-key” assets? “Turn-key” is broker-speak for “No value left to add”. Don’t misunderstand: There is a large group of investors for whom turn-key deals make a ton of sense, including everyone who has bought deals from me over the