The main two metrics for analyzing real estate as an investment are its cash flow and its profitability, and for this week I will focus on cash flow. Simply put, cash flow analysis studies the property’s annual income relative to the price it was acquired for. The most basic way to assess a property’s cash flow is to look at the Gross Rent Multiplier, or GRM, which is the total of its annual rents divided by the price paid for the property, including cost of any improvements.

I was recently approached by a couple who have followed my column for years, asking if I felt I might be a good match for a project they were considering. They had recently decided to sell their long-time property to another couple on very favorable terms without putting the property on the market. Their question was whether it would be better to have the transaction handled by an attorney or a real estate broker. My answer was very simple: It depends. In the case of an attor

T he most meaningful part of my work isn’t just helping people buy homes—it’s walking beside them through the highs, heartbreaks, and little miracles that happen along the way. If you’ve ever faced setbacks or needed hope in your own season of change, this story will lift you up. K acie and I first met at an open house, instantly recognizing each other through many mutual friends and she was ready to find a fresh start for herself and her four-year-old daughter. Fi nding the

A local NextDoor member recently posted statistics from AMBAG’s recent report showing the RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) numbers for Santa Cruz County, where the state has called for 12,979 housing units to be provided for the 2023–2031 cycle. As another member pointed out, once adopted, those numbers are binding for housing-element planning, not construction. And to help keep the thread from veering towards impassioned exchanges, he went on to provide the following

Point of Sale requirements have gradually increased in recent years to present day standards, where the real estate transaction has in many ways become a checkpoint for a growing list of reporting and compliance items holding agents and sellers accountable to document various systems, and to generally bring them up to current code requirements. Back in the early 1990’s, one of the tricks savvy agents would use for assessing the age of a home was to open the lid to the supply

Every now and then, we encounter a situation where the neighbors don’t agree on where one property stops and the other begins, and this can create complications if left unresolved. In the case of a commercial property we listed in Watsonville, it was discovered during the course of our Buyer’s due diligence that the attributed square footage of the building was actually greater than the lot size. This was concerning, because it was a single-story building which meant that the

A client recently had me evaluate a house she owns that had been initially on the market for sale with one brokerage and then for lease with another, but neither effort coming to any avail. Based on preliminary analysis, the pricing didn’t seem to be far off on either count, and the data suggested instead that perhaps having a single brokerage market the home simultaneously for sale and for lease might make for a more coherent and effective campaign with a broader scope of po

Multiple readers responded to week’s column about ADUs, including a few who questioned whether the government-subsidized permit and design assistance is going to be effective in streamlining a process that has become notoriously difficult and expensive. Logically if the level of expertise isn’t up to snuff, as Plan B you can always opt to switch to a local expert who may be more adept at navigating the tricky waters of the application and approval process, and they might actu

If you haven’t brushed up on the rules around ADU’s lately, there have been recent changes at the State level that have made it a lot easier to get one approved, so if you have ever thought about building an ADU or getting an existing one permitted, now may be a good time to take another look.   Under California SB 543, size definitions, fee limits, and timelines for permitting and completeness-review rules have become State law. While our local planning departments are in th