Hi Orlando. My husband and I own a few rentals in California and your landlord should be giving you a 24 hour notice to enter the inside of your rental. Definitely sounds like a tricky situation for you since the landlord is there all of the time. Our thought on our tenants is it’s our house but it’s their home and we are respectful of that.
Orlando - Thanks for this thoughtful piece. We've owned our house in Northern California for 33 years, but I still remember both the positives and negatives of renting. Home ownership is great in many respects, but it can be expensive. Today we've had an exterminator come out to give us a quote (mice) and our handyman came by to discuss redoing a part of the patio where water accumulates. When/if we do move, it will probably be to a condo or an apartment where someone else can deal with the maintenance.
I want to add that I really enjoy reading your posts. They are informative but also so personal which is a wonderful combination. The essay from last week about your financial and life difficulties is one that I've been thinking about a lot and wondering how things are going for you.
Have you ever thought about doing another design/life book like Get it Together! You have such a great writing voice.
Hope things are on the upswing. You have lots of us out here rooting for you!
I can comment on being a landlord during Covid. We own property in a rural area in CA. This is the first home I have ever owned and it was bought when I was in my early 60's with an inheritance. It has been awesome to own, even with the expenses (property taxes & insurance in an area that has seen two wild fires - yowza), but the privacy and ability to do what I want to it has been wonderful. We have 13 acres and to make some income we have two areas which we rent out to tenants who live in their RVs. (Some have been kind of shabby but we've had others that are pretty fancy). During Covid renters where legally allowed to pay less rent (they had to pay at least a quarter) here in CA. We understood the circumstances and told one of our tenets, who we knew even before the new rules that they were not going to be able to pay the full amount, that we would expect less. They paid 1/2 for about 1 1/2 years but then for the last 5 months they decided to pay us nothing. At the end of the time when tenants could legally pay less there was a program where landlords could be compensated by the state. The problem was that it wasn't the landlord who could apply, it had to be the tenant, which made absolutely no sense. Our tenant cooperated for the time they paid half. But they ghosted us (they had already moved) and wouldn't file for the months they paid nothing. We were screwed for over $3500 which may not sound like a lot for some people, but was for us. Anyway that's one example of how the whole Covid/rent thing worked here in CA. I really appreciate your attitude about paying your rent during that time. Not all landlords are big guys who are raking it in. We have a small farm and these two rental areas really help us pay our bills.
We are first time owners, in the Midwest. Formerly renters in CA. We could not afford CA. We are glad we bought when we did, as prices and interest rates have increased so much since we purchased
I love owning my home, but ours came with two other homes. We are now landlords and I hate it. I hate asking people to pay on time and I hate living next to people I'm sometimes in conflict with. Because we're in a rural area, I hate the thought that in an emergency, I'd have to go to them for help. It's calmed down a bit now, but I've lost lots of sleep over it.
Hi. I grew up in Berkeley (parents went to Cal) and after college moved in with my new husband to a condo in SF. I’ve now lived in the city for 25 years! Woah. And, I’m not surprised that your story of the evasive tenant came out of SF. So classic. (This city has aggressive renters rights and I’d never choose to be a landlord here.)
I grew up a renter (well I was a kid, but that was still my identity). We had a gorgeous downstairs half of a house, perched on two garden lots with views of the entire Bay Area! My parents did the gardening for a break on the rent. There is Definitely something to the concept of our childhood homes getting a glow-up in our memories. Upon coming to SF after college (1998) my in-laws gave us a 100k (wedding gift) down payment on a 2br condo in the Western Addition. At the time I was so naive: I was mostly just happy that I could get a big dog.
San Francisco has given me so much equity over the years, it’s hard to complain... but is anybody else shocked at property taxes? And no satisfaction in whatever they pay for. We now live in a 3/2 “flat”, in a Victorian house in the Haight. Only in SF can you have a half a house worth 1.8...
I live in the suburbs (so uncool, so much cheaper ;)) of a slightly less expensive city and, honestly, the thought of the mental/emotional *effort* of arranging repairs/maintenance (without even getting into the cost) is enough to make me glad I rent in a nice building. Professional maintenance shows up promptly whenever I am like 'the thing doesn't work :((((( help :((((' and it's all just... someone else's problem.
Hi Orlando. My husband and I own a few rentals in California and your landlord should be giving you a 24 hour notice to enter the inside of your rental. Definitely sounds like a tricky situation for you since the landlord is there all of the time. Our thought on our tenants is it’s our house but it’s their home and we are respectful of that.
Orlando - Thanks for this thoughtful piece. We've owned our house in Northern California for 33 years, but I still remember both the positives and negatives of renting. Home ownership is great in many respects, but it can be expensive. Today we've had an exterminator come out to give us a quote (mice) and our handyman came by to discuss redoing a part of the patio where water accumulates. When/if we do move, it will probably be to a condo or an apartment where someone else can deal with the maintenance.
I want to add that I really enjoy reading your posts. They are informative but also so personal which is a wonderful combination. The essay from last week about your financial and life difficulties is one that I've been thinking about a lot and wondering how things are going for you.
Have you ever thought about doing another design/life book like Get it Together! You have such a great writing voice.
Hope things are on the upswing. You have lots of us out here rooting for you!
I can comment on being a landlord during Covid. We own property in a rural area in CA. This is the first home I have ever owned and it was bought when I was in my early 60's with an inheritance. It has been awesome to own, even with the expenses (property taxes & insurance in an area that has seen two wild fires - yowza), but the privacy and ability to do what I want to it has been wonderful. We have 13 acres and to make some income we have two areas which we rent out to tenants who live in their RVs. (Some have been kind of shabby but we've had others that are pretty fancy). During Covid renters where legally allowed to pay less rent (they had to pay at least a quarter) here in CA. We understood the circumstances and told one of our tenets, who we knew even before the new rules that they were not going to be able to pay the full amount, that we would expect less. They paid 1/2 for about 1 1/2 years but then for the last 5 months they decided to pay us nothing. At the end of the time when tenants could legally pay less there was a program where landlords could be compensated by the state. The problem was that it wasn't the landlord who could apply, it had to be the tenant, which made absolutely no sense. Our tenant cooperated for the time they paid half. But they ghosted us (they had already moved) and wouldn't file for the months they paid nothing. We were screwed for over $3500 which may not sound like a lot for some people, but was for us. Anyway that's one example of how the whole Covid/rent thing worked here in CA. I really appreciate your attitude about paying your rent during that time. Not all landlords are big guys who are raking it in. We have a small farm and these two rental areas really help us pay our bills.
We are first time owners, in the Midwest. Formerly renters in CA. We could not afford CA. We are glad we bought when we did, as prices and interest rates have increased so much since we purchased
I love owning my home, but ours came with two other homes. We are now landlords and I hate it. I hate asking people to pay on time and I hate living next to people I'm sometimes in conflict with. Because we're in a rural area, I hate the thought that in an emergency, I'd have to go to them for help. It's calmed down a bit now, but I've lost lots of sleep over it.
Hi. I grew up in Berkeley (parents went to Cal) and after college moved in with my new husband to a condo in SF. I’ve now lived in the city for 25 years! Woah. And, I’m not surprised that your story of the evasive tenant came out of SF. So classic. (This city has aggressive renters rights and I’d never choose to be a landlord here.)
I grew up a renter (well I was a kid, but that was still my identity). We had a gorgeous downstairs half of a house, perched on two garden lots with views of the entire Bay Area! My parents did the gardening for a break on the rent. There is Definitely something to the concept of our childhood homes getting a glow-up in our memories. Upon coming to SF after college (1998) my in-laws gave us a 100k (wedding gift) down payment on a 2br condo in the Western Addition. At the time I was so naive: I was mostly just happy that I could get a big dog.
San Francisco has given me so much equity over the years, it’s hard to complain... but is anybody else shocked at property taxes? And no satisfaction in whatever they pay for. We now live in a 3/2 “flat”, in a Victorian house in the Haight. Only in SF can you have a half a house worth 1.8...
Anyways sorry to ramble. Love your stories!!
Hi Orlando. This is unrelated to this post, but I couldn't not share it with you and wasn't sure where else to do it! https://chateauorlando.com/
I live in the suburbs (so uncool, so much cheaper ;)) of a slightly less expensive city and, honestly, the thought of the mental/emotional *effort* of arranging repairs/maintenance (without even getting into the cost) is enough to make me glad I rent in a nice building. Professional maintenance shows up promptly whenever I am like 'the thing doesn't work :((((( help :((((' and it's all just... someone else's problem.