As the drought continues in California, water rights will probably become more interesting to many of us, like this local Willits reader who said, “Recently at a road association meeting in my Willits neighborhood, water rights came up. A neighbor said that the superior water right holder for our area was the Brooktrails Township, even … Read more
This summer I’ve written three “Real Estate Investing” columns covering single family residential properties; duplexes, four-plexes and apartment complexes with fewer than five units; and larger apartment complexes (with up to sixteen units). I recently received a request to write a column on investing in commercial real estate, so here you go. Commercial property is … Read more
A couple weeks ago, I talked about title insurance and how it can help you guard against unexpected liens on your property (someone having legal rights to your property that trump yours). I made a reference to an easement and promised to define it, so here you go. According to legaldictionary.law.com, an easement is “ the … Read more
With the longer days of summer, some of you have a little more time on your hands, providing an excellent opportunity to prevent future hassles. How? By making a floor plan. First, grab a tape measure, paper, and if, like me, you were not blessed with the coordination required to draw a straight line, a … Read more
If you don’t spend much of your time buying and selling homes, you probably don’t have a clear sense of what title insurance is or why it’s important. Like many types of insurance, it’s not important–unless it is, and then it’s crucial. People can have unrecorded or unofficial rights to your property, so it’s important … Read more
When trying to figure out how much renovating you can afford, zero-based budgeting is a good way to go. Zero-based budgeting means starting from scratch. Assume all decisions are negotiable. Start with a list of every renovation expense you can think of, and assign a cost to each individual item. Ideally, it’s best to choose … Read more
Some things are just plain common sense. For example, when there isn’t enough of something to go around, it becomes more valuable. This is the economics of supply and demand: low supply means shortage of available workers (and vise versa). In the real estate market, this principle is in play right now with contractors who … Read more
When you’re trying to sell your home, you want to engage in all the activities that encourage buyers and none of the activities that don’t. Common sense, right? Then why do I see so many sellers sabotaging the sale of their property when it comes to open houses? Realtors have many marketing techniques to get … Read more
As the headline implies, this is the third column in a series about real estate investing. I started with single-family homes, moved to duplexes and four-plexes, and now I’m on to small apartment complexes (residential real estate with 5-12 units). Before I move on, however, I need to correct last week’s column. I said duplexes … Read more