“Don’t break the rules when you haven’t fully figured them out yet.” Pawan Mishra

Even though we are halfway through April, I wanted to remind housing providers about a new law that is in effect as of January 1, 2025. This will affect timelines during eviction procedures. Evictions are never fun for anyone, which makes doing a great job of vetting potential tenants more crucial than ever. As always, I recommend that you use a licensed real estate attorney for any evictions, as the process has become much more complicated recently. That being said, it is always good to know your timelines so that you can proceed accordingly.

TENANT RESPONSE TIME We used to be have a 5 day maximum response time for a tenants’ answer to your summons and complaint. It is now 10 days. If served by mail, an additional 5 days is possible allowing for a potential 15 days.

MOTIONS AND DEMURRERS If your tenant files a demurrer, challenging the validity of an eviction or some other motion, those motions must be heard by the court in 5-7 days. This means that you and your team need to be ready in case of an uncontested eviction.

WHAT TO DO? The first thing is to choose an experienced attorney. Your attorney should be able to keep you posted about timelines and any additional changes in legislation that may come up during the eviction process. Make sure your property managers are aware of rule changes as they come along. If your property manager and your attorney are all working together, it will be much easier to navigate a potentially uncomfortable situation.

At the end of the day an eviction is a time and money loser for us all. Most of us have been down that road a few times. Evictions have gotten much more complicated, but having the right partners such as your real estate attorney and you Apartment Owners Association can help you through it.

“About the only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure.” Tommy Lasorda

What we at PRS PROPERTIES CAN DO. We can give you a good idea of the current value of your building. We can suggest changes you might want to make before sale to give you an idea what type of building you would be able to exchange into. You may decide to stay in the rental business or you may want to move into a more passive real estate investment, such as a triple net or a DSL.. We are always available to chat. We can give you referrals for professionals, such as lenders, contractors, and engineers, so that you can decide who you feel best with. We can supply you with rent and sale comparable in the area of your properties, so that you know what rental values are in your area. It is important that you know the true value of your rental units, so that you can get them rented right away at market value, or at least as much as possible with rent control restrictions. We can look at potential purchases that you may be interested in to make the property more desirable, and maybe look at potential issues that an insurer might require you to repair.

If you should decide to sell your building, we can help you exchange into a larger or smaller properties. We can even help you move into something with less management responsibilities. We can also help with getting the paperwork together for a refinance if that is your desire. We can also recommend experienced licensed contractors who can perform any repairs or installations you may need prior to selling. We can also look at your building for other easy and inexpensive changes that might allow you to get a higher value. We can help you to get the maximum value for your property, should you decide to sell, or the maximum return if you are planning to keep your building.

We are currently looking for “as-is” properties and are willing to purchase with low rents, deferred maintenance or even with a problem tenant in place. We can offer a 7 day escrow and all cash at closing. Give us a call. We have also put together numerous transactions over the years which involve properties that are not listed for sale. Many investors are currently in 1031 exchanges and need to identify a replacement property before their 45 day identification period runs out.

Should you decide to put your property on the market, we will put together an aggressive, targeted and professional campaign to get your property sold fast. We have been doing this for over 40 years, and we will use all the tools available to bring you the most dollars at closing. If you are thinking of selling or are just curious about the value of your property, don’t hesitate to give us a call.