Fremont Real Estate and Beyond

The City of Hayward's preliminary Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance includes fines and jail time for rental property owners who don't share rent increase and eviction information with City Hall. Other rules include Hayward politicians and bureaucrats determining a property owners "fair rate" of return on their investment. You can review the entire draft Ordinance here. The City Council will take action on the Ordinance during their June 18 meeting.  Share your thoughts about this issue, and your experiences as rental property owners or managers, with the Hayward City Council.

“Like-kind” means I must exchange the same type of property, such as an apartment building, for another apartment building.   FALSE A 1031 Exchange means that the sale and the purchase have to happen at the same time. In other words, the seller has to find someone willing to swap properties. FALSE My attorney or CPA can handle the exchange for me as my Qualified Intermediary. FALSE To do a 1031 Exchange I just need to file a form with the IRS with my tax return and “roll over” the proceeds into a new investment.  FALSE I can only defer my capital gains tax via a 1031 Exchange.  FALSE All of the funds from the sale of the relinquished property must be reinvested.   NOT NECESSARILY You must replace the debt that you had on the relinquished property with at least the same amount of debt on the replacement property.  FALSE Opportunity Zone Funds are another alternative to defer my taxes.  POSSIBLY When I sell my personal residence I need to set it up...

A special City of Hayward task force will discuss a moratorium on increasing rents and other tenant protections during a meeting on Thursday, March 21.  An agenda for the meeting was released March 19. The Council Homelessness-Housing Task Force was established to advise the City Council on rental housing policies.  During the March 21 meeting they will study the rent moratorium and these other issues: A mandatory mediation program with binding arbitration triggered when rents are increased more than five percent.  (Single family homes and condominiums would be exempt); Elimination of the vacancy decontrol provisions of the current Residential Rent Stabilization Ordinance; Protecting Section 8 voucher holders from discrimination; Requiring landlords file rent increase and eviction notices with the City of Hayward; and Explore ...

During their March 5 meeting, the Hayward City Council unanimously approved an emergency that requires landlords to show a "just cause" for evicting a tenant.  The requirement applies to all rental housing in Hayward including single-family homes and condominiums. According to a press release issued by the City of Hayward, landlords must notify their current tenants of the new policy no later than April 5 and must notify all future tenants, as well. A complete list of "just causes" for eviction are available here .  For more information please contact Jennifer Ott, Deputy City Manager at: Jennifer.Ott@hayward-ca.gov

During their Feb. 19 marathon meeting lasting well past midnight, the Hayward City Council directed staff to work on the following new rental housing policies: Increasing rent, and all other charges, more than 5% would trigger a mandatory meditation process with the potential of a binding arbitration between the landlord and tenant.  This requirement would apply to all rental units except single-family homes.  It is not yet clear whether condominiums would be exempt. The current vacancy decontrol process could be eliminated altogether or possibly suspended for three to five years for the remaining 1,000 to 1,600 units in Hayward currently subject to the Residential Rent Stabilization Ordinance. Eviction for Cause would be expanded to cover all rental units including single-family homes and condominiums. Require all landlords to notify the City of Hayward when in...

The Hayward City Council is considering new rental housing policies some of which will cover single family homes and condominiums. Hayward staff will present the suite of new and expanded regulations to the City Council during a work session on Tuesday, February 12.  They include: Binding landlord-tenant mediation in disputes related to rent increases exceeding five percent.  Single family homes, condominiums and rental units constructed after 1979 and would be exempt. Eliminating the vacancy decontrol provision from the existing Residential Rent Stabilization Ordinance. (RRSO) Expanding eviction for cause to all rental units including single family homes and condominiums. Adding a relocation assistance provision to the RRSO that would require a landlord to pay a tenant an amount equal to three times the Fair Market Rent as defi...

Happy New Year! My amazing Escrow Officer, Jennifer Thayer, put together this graph to summarize who pays for what in 2019 as there have been a ton of changes that went into effect.  Feel free to DM me if you have any questions!

FEMA announced late Friday that it will once again renew flood insurance policies, which were halted during the partial federal government shutdown.  This has affected ~40,000 home sale transactions nationwide.  More info here-- https://rismedia.com/2018/12/31/nar-helps-secure-fema-reversal-shutdown/

Costar, the commercial real estate data behemoth that owns Loopnet and Apartments.com recently purchased Cozy.co, the landlord management system.  It will be interesting to see how they connect their current holdings with Cozy to make the purchase and management of properties more streamlined. More info here-- https://cozy.co/blog/great-news-cozy-joins-costar/

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As a Realtor, it's difficult to watch this.  I have a fiduciary duty to my clients to help them buy and sell homes, not give legal advice on how to interpret a loophole in a law.

On April 5, 2018, the jury in a second trial ruled in favor of the listing salesperson and Coldwell Banker on all claims in a square footage case. This is the second jury to exonerate the listing salesperson and broker in the same matter. Billionaire Horiike bought a large Malibu house for $12.25 million in 2007. Although he admitted not reading any of the documents containing varying square footage such as permits, disclosures, public records, architectural drawings, he claimed the “approximate square footage” of 15,000 square feet on a flyer was a misrepresentation and a breach of the listing salesperson’s fiduciary duty. The first jury held in favor of the broker and the listing salesperson on intentional and negligent misrepresentation claims. The judge had dismissed the breach of fiduciary duty claim against the broker that was based solely on the listing salesperson’s actions as the buyer’s salesperson, also licensed with Coldwell Banker, was not named. In 2016, the Ca...

I received this from the Fremont Police and wanted to share with everyone. https://local.nixle.com/alert/6404263/?sub_id=406327 In April, 2017, Fremont Police received information from a Fremont landlord involving an ongoing fraudulent home rental scheme conducted by two brothers dating back to 2015. At least five (5) property owners fell victim to these serial renters, suffered a significant financial loss and damage to their homes as a result. The investigation revealed Mohammed QADIR (30) and his brother, Habibullah QADIR (42), engaged in intentional fraudulent and deceptive practices to obtain at least five residential property leases in Fremont. Once the properties were rented to them, they failed to pay rent and forced the landlords to evict them while they remained in the properties rent-free, for months at a time. In summary, Mohammed QADIR, acting alone or collaborating with Habibullah QADIR, sought to obtain leases for single-family houses in high-end neighborhoods in Fre...

This information was from my 1031 Exchange Specialist.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me! The Tax Cut and Jobs Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017, and took effect on January 1, 2018. It is a complex modification to the Internal Revenue Code that will take businesses and individuals some time to fully understand, notwithstanding that it became effective just nine days after the President’s signature. The new law retains Section 1031 for real estate exchanges. However, Section 1031 may no longer be utilized to defer taxes for transactions involving  personal property . Real estate exchanges  are subject to the same rules and regulations as under previous law. The 45 day identification and 180 day exchange periods remain unchanged, as does the role of the Qualified Intermediary. All real estate in the United States, improved or unimproved, also remains like-kind to all other domestic real estate. Foreign real estate continues t...

For any agents out there--it could someone from any country, so be on the lookout! A person claiming to live in China will contact an agent and ask to purchase property in the area. The person will entice the agent with a request to write an offer and get the transaction open. They claim they will be in the U.S. for the closing. They also will ask to recommend an attorney to assist with the review of documents and assist with the transaction. After they get a referral from the agent they will contact the attorney and state they were referred by the agent. They will ask for help on the transaction. The attorney will probably ask for a retainer agreement and amount to be placed in trust with the attorney. After some prodding, the person from China will have a check delivered to the attorneys’ office drawn on a British Columbia Bank and allegedly paid through Wells Fargo in the U.S.—a process used in the past and not used so much today because of wire transfers. The check will be for f...

HUD is changing some of the rules behind reverse mortgages today.  Specifically, seniors won't be able to borrow as much and they will have to pay more up front.  A great explanation and interview from Marketplace Weekend.

The CEO of Redfin interviewed with Kai Ryssdal at Marketplace for their Corner Office podcast.  It was really interesting to see what my alma mater is up to, and even more interesting that they still aren't profitable.