The NY Times has an interesting article today about a group of homeowners in Hollywood who are trying to stop charities from feeding homeless people in their neighborhood. Adrian over at Curbed responded with a fairly reasonable take-down of the homeowners. After all, particularly at this time of year, it’s pretty hard to sympathize with … Continue reading “Feeding the homeless in LA”
Author: Moses Kagan
2514 London is in lease up
We’ve just completed construction on another fourplex for Adaptive Realty Fund 1. This one is on London St, just south of the 101. It’s kind of an experiment for us, since we’ve never done a project there before. But the units came out great, and we’re pretty confident we’re going to get our rents. If … Continue reading “2514 London is in lease up”
The DWP Tax
No, this isn’t a piece about taxes on our utility bills. Or, at least, not explicit taxes. Instead, I’m writing today about the implicit tax imposed on LA property owners by DWP’s horrific customer service. First, some context: When you buy and renovate an apartment building, you need to: Switch the master utilities into your name … Continue reading “The DWP Tax”
653-659 Silver Lake… leased.
We just signed the last lease on a 13 unit project on Silver Lake Blvd. Total time to lease up all of the units was 18 days, start to finish. Rents ended up averaging around 10% more than what we expected when we started the project last Christmas. Hat tip to Jon for his designs … Continue reading “653-659 Silver Lake… leased.”
Full contact renovation
I’m always surprised, when I speak with other so-called “value add” players, how limited their definition of “value-add” is. There are loads of firms out there running around buying buildings with plans to slap on a coat of paint, re-carpet the hallways, switch out the appliances, and raise rents a little bit. We are not … Continue reading “Full contact renovation”
Hudson Valley analogue?
Spent a bunch of time this weekend considering weekend homes. Don’t worry: I’m not about to get into that part of the real estate business. (For the record: I think buying a vacation home with a mortgage is totally insane, unless your personal balance sheet is very, very strong.) The analogy that got me going … Continue reading “Hudson Valley analogue?”
Not much to buy
… for me, anyway. Regular readers know I tend to buy beat up buildings. It’s not like there aren’t plenty of beat-up buildings on the market, it’s just that the sellers think they ought to be paid prices that don’t reflect the fact they’re beat up. Interestingly, there are several reasonable buy-and-hold deals floating around, … Continue reading “Not much to buy”
Check the permits
Are you considering buying a recently renovated building? One that has washers and dryers in the units? Check the permits! To put washers and dryers into a building that was not built for them, you need to re-size all of the plumbing, including water supply, waste and gas lines. If you put washers and dryers … Continue reading “Check the permits”
Love that dirty water?
If you spend a lot of time in crappy parts of LA (like I do), you have probably noticed an odd kind of retail establishment popping up in low-end strip malls: Water stores. Here’s how these businesses work: They have a normal connection to the city water system They install a fairly expensive charcoal filtering … Continue reading “Love that dirty water?”
Keeping the city clean…
…is about changing the culture. The LA Times has an interesting article about efforts to clean up the area around Macarthur Park. Gil Cedillo, the local council-member, has targeted millions of dollars of city funds to try to clean up garbage residents leave around. The solution has little to do with more garbage pick-ups. Why? … Continue reading “Keeping the city clean…”