Q: I have a “situation.” I buy, repair and resell homes. I’ve been doing it professionally for many years. Often, in order to buy a home, especially if they are high-end properties, I have to get private financing from investors who are generally well known in the industry for investing in these typ
All Things Real Estate: Plenty of pros, cons to investing your money in real estate
All Things Real Estate: Tim Jones
Q: I’m a longtime reader but have never had a reason to write to you before. That is, until now. A couple of months ago I inherited several hundred thousand dollars from a relative of mine and I’ve been trying to figure out how best to invest it. Other than the house I own now, and bought 17 years ago, I have never been involved with the purchase of a house, let alone renting it out. Can you give me some pointers as to what I need to know?
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
All Things Real Estate: You and your neighbor own the tree if the trunk is on both lots
All Things Real Estate: Tim Jones
Q: I’m a longtime reader and I appreciate your column very much. I feel very fortunate that I’m not losing my home like so many people I have been reading about in your column over the past year. However, I have a different problem. The homes in my neighborhood are somewhere around 50 years old. There is a giant tree that sits between my lot and the neighbor’s. The tree was obviously planted on my neighbor’s lot decades ago, but has grown so big that a whole side of it is on my side of the line. The thing is always a mess, dropping leaves, nuts and branches next to my house. But until now I’ve just cleaned them up and never said anything. Well, I just found out from a home inspector that the roots are tearing up the foundation to my house. There’s probably already a lot of money in damages. I think I’ve read in your pr
All Things Real Estate: Rental help program available for Solano landlords, renters
All Things Real Estate: Tim Jones
This week I’m going to dispense with the question-and-answer format of this column, as I occasionally do, to get out some valuable information that doesn’t seem to get much publicity here in Solano County.
If you are a tenant or a landlord in Solano, you’ll want to pay attention to this since it’s a new program that will help all parties prevent what is being called Rental Armageddon once the Covid-19 eviction restrictions are fully lifted.
Let me say upfront that I’m providing my best interpretation of the scope and requirements of this program as I understand them right now. I’ll provide the address to the official website, which I’d encourage anyone who’s interested to explore more deeply, at the bottom of this column.
All Things Real Estate: Start eviction process right away to get rid of deadbeat renter
All Things Real Estate: Tim Jones
Q: My wife and I own a house that we lived in for many years. Two years ago we decided to downsize, but because the market was so bad we decided not to sell our house and just use it as a rental until someday when the price goes up. I’ll say this upfront: We didn’t take your advice and hire a property management company. We thought we’d save the money and do it ourselves. So we rented to a single mom with two young children and thought we were doing a good thing. That was last summer and it’s been a nightmare ever since. We set the rent very low, $1,300 per month, thinking she would take care of the property because she was getting such a good deal. Well, the place is a wreck now. She’s never paid the rent on time, but now she hasn’t paid anything in three months. We don’t know what to do. My husband went over there this week and told her that if s