Jul 7th, 2021 | In the News

Comments

Submitted by TurquoiseTurtle on

He warns people but few disciples heeed Tom’s advice.

Honestly I can’t tell if people are just flat out stupid, lazy or arrogant.

Submitted by ogalvan on

Tom,

Part of the issue in owning shared spaces like condos is that you're at the mercy of all the idiots that you share the building with. I've read the articles and it makes you scratch your head how so many morons in this world are perfectly capable of putting money in to "make it look nice" yet balk at something as necessary as the structural integrity of the building. If you can't afford to make necessary repairs on a property that you own, maybe you shouldn't fucking be buying anything!! What a bunch of idiots!

And I know this is perhaps in poor taste, but all those idiots who balked at the cost of the structural repairs got EXACTLY what they deserve.

Submitted by masterautotech on

There's all these so called gurus in life. Tony Robbins,robort kiosaki. Yeah Carlton sheets no money down. every bozo on YouTube nowadays has some motivational, get rich quick ,follow me I know the way, kind of thinking or book to sell or strategy to sell all bullcrap. I know I've tried to do it. I remember the 1st time I listened to Tom like this and I was just driving and I sat back in my seat as I was driving . the words that were going into my head listening To you. listening to the advice ,listening to the knowledge, listening to the experience took me away. I knew right then and there this man as a genius.

Submitted by matt120 on

I feel the same way about HOA's. The HOA board has the right to assess your property and there is not a damn thing you can do about it. I bought a place in Arizona recently. The neighborhood had some places with HOA's and some without. I purposely choose a home without the HOA.

Submitted by tomscarillo on

i'm an accountant by trade, have owned two townhouses in HOA developments in 26 years, and was on my 2nd HOA's Board for 12 years. A lot of what Tom says is spot-on. Here's the thing: The vast majority of people who buy into condo developments or planned communities under an HOA do NOT understand what they're buying into. Probably 95% don't bother to read the CC&R's nor do they understand that, by law, if you buy into an HOA, you are automatically agreeing to abide by the CC&R's (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions - basically, the "rules" of the development). These CC&R's and a great many functions of the HOA, certainly in CA, where i live, are also governed by state law (Davis-Stirling, in CA's case). What ends up happening, since they don't understand what they're buying into, is that people 1) come in and start trying to make all kinds of changes to their unit, some of which may be prohibited, and then get pissed; 2) engage in behaviors like having noisy parties, washing cars in common driveways, loading up dumpsters, etc and then getting pissed when they find out it's against the rules and 3) endlessly request to be super-served for things that are THEIR responsibility, because they were under the impression that the HOA took care of EVERYTHING (example: people asking when the HOA would replace their unit's water heater. That is never an HOA responsibility, and is usually in the CC&R's and spelled out in the By-Laws as to who is responsible for what). In my time on the Board, i was the youngest member, had by-far the most real-world business experience and understanding of the law, and the other members of the Board were a mix of old people who had no idea what they were talking about, and were easily bullied by certain non-board owners, and other Board members were people who came from backgrounds that did not lend themselves well to running such an HOA. Every major decision (and more than a few minor ones) ended up in endless discussions with no action. The time we had to put a roof on the entire development (four separate long-buildings) resulted in arguing, threats of lawsuits from owners with different agendas (the ones who invested in rental units literally told me "Just put the cheapest roof on the place - i need to make a profit and want to keep the assessment down"), and endless bickering and character assassination. If it were up to me, a sane individual with a business background who understands risk, i would've moved immediately with due diligence to resolve repairs, etc., but i was only one vote out of 5 and was completely hamstrung by people who preferred to kick the can down the road. That said, we've had no major issues here, but as i used to tell the oldsters who wanted to do things like vote down earthquake insurance, "No problems in the past" goes out the window the second the future 6.5 EQ arrives. Now in CA, and particularly LA, the issue to watch out for is mandatory earthquake retrofitting on buildings older than 1978, as ordered by the City of LA. But now that the FLA condo disaster has happened, there is already talk in many states, CA included, about mandating regular periodic structure examinations. This will invariably lead to significant expenditures to get the review, and assessments to remediate whatever those reviews find. SO - the takeaway: If i were a buyer TODAY, i would probably look elsewhere other than a condo/HOA for a place to live. Maybe places that are freshly built, to current engineering standards, have an edge, but there's also the risk of 'construction defect' problems, which is a very real risk in new developments (built with cheap Chinese drywall that eats thru wiring, etc). As a correction to what Tom L. said, the $10k deduction limit applies to State and local tax deductions (i.e your payroll tax withheld and your local real estate tax) and having that cap there, removes probably one of the last reasons to own real estate in a crazy market like L.A.'s. So just be aware. There are a lot of moving pieces to this thing, but the tilt in recent years has been decidedly not in your favor. As for me, i quit the Board in disgust because after the Pandemic, like Tom L. i don't have time for non-serious people who dick around.