@robbiehendricks Forget the asphalt, look at that beautiful stone wall.
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Mostly Housing Stuff
405 posts
Mostly Housing Stuff
@Housing_Stuff
Sometimes other stuff.
Katılım Nisan 2022
199 Takip Edilen65 Takipçiler
Repairing the roads at our 1940s asset. Don't think they'd been touched for 20 years.
And now, renewed!
Nothing looks better than fresh asphalt, and it's key to securing the first impression boost when trying to lease over 100 apartments.
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@JakehellerAI So Claude chat or code would yield similar results?
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@Housing_Stuff Many ways to go about this. But I had a lot of files stored locally on my computer, which claude code can access. You could drag and drop to claude chat or chat gpt...
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Next time you're comparing contractor estimates, try this:
Step 1: Create a new folder on your desktop and label it whatever you like
Step 2: Drop in the construction plans (if applicable) + all the bids
Step 3: Open Claude Code (desktop version is fine) and give it access to the folder
Step 4: Give it a prompt like the sample one below
Step 5: Let it go to work
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@markasaurus @ChuongIsHere @jasonc_nc I’m talking about the rest of the state. SF is its own special beast.
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@Housing_Stuff @ChuongIsHere @jasonc_nc I mean maybe but most of the townhouse projects around here are big enough that there would be an incentive for GCs to do this. We see this already with prevailing wage
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“You can build housing now, but only if we dictate the wages”
Dave Rand@DRand2024
AB1751 (Quirk Silva) is a must watch housing bill. It creates a new by-right townhome approval. But it also includes a new wage floor of $28 per hour (much more manageable than prevailing wage). If this succeeds it could provide a more workable wage standard in other legislation
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@ChuongIsHere @markasaurus @jasonc_nc This is the crucial piece that everyone is missing. Small scale contractors are not going to touch these projects if they have to do additional compliance paperwork or be threatened with a wage lawsuit.
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@markasaurus @jasonc_nc This may be true, but this sounds like more paperwork on the developers to certify that they are compliant.
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@mnolangray They also instituted a 1 year rent freeze earlier this year. Trying to nuke new development from all angles.
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The Santa Barbara Planning Commission proposed doubling "affordable housing" fee on new production, such that it would cost $159,968 in fees to build a single median-sized rental unit. This is the housing policy equivalent of applying leeches to a sick patient.
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@robbiehendricks You know a sponsor is cooked when they start advertising capital raises on instagram.
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$24M of LP capital. Nuked.
The biggest violation of trust by these guru GPs is not that they lost LP capital.
That's bad, yes. Losing capital is terrible.
But IMO, the worst offense is that most have been unwilling to publicly demonstrate even a shred of humility or take a single ounce of responsibility for these situations.
It's brand above all else.
Now I'm not saying full atonement is possible, at least not quickly. The reputation hit will linger.
But I do believe there is honor in being upfront about mistakes made and lessons learned.
As an LP myself, I wouldn't disqualify a GP because of a loss in the past.
But I will definitely disqualify a GP that doesn't clearly identify and take responsibility for where they went wrong...and what they're doing to ensure it never happens again.
I don't want to hear about the Fed.
The new supply.
The vacancy.
The insurance.
The concessions.
The property management company.
The lender.
or your partners.
No, I want to hear where you failed to build enough margin in your choices as the steward of my capital that led to this failure. I want you to own it.
Anyway, this is a brutal video from a local guy in our market that discusses one such loss. It was forwarded to me and was the genesis of this post.
I am not going to link it, but if you're interested, you can go take a look.
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@DRand2024 Why can’t the legislature just pass a clean housing bill? This one was so promising until they added the wage floor.
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AB1751 (Quirk Silva) is a must watch housing bill. It creates a new by-right townhome approval. But it also includes a new wage floor of $28 per hour (much more manageable than prevailing wage). If this succeeds it could provide a more workable wage standard in other legislation
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@moseskagan Mamdani’s legacy could be that he helped end rent control
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@Housing_Stuff They are laser-focused on getting what they want for the people they care about... and f everyone else and the future of the city
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This case is worth watching: Possible "kill shot" on vacancy control.
Gemini thinks it will take until '30-'31 to make it to the Supreme Court.
Repositioning Play@GoodGuyGuaranty
SPONY - plaintiff in the newest court challenge to rent control - just filed their opposition papers to the city's motion to dismiss. Nearly 21,000 words and worth reading. A kitchen-sink filing for a case that, I suspect, will land at SCOTUS. And my prediction below came true.
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@moseskagan Brought to you by the Water Board, another California Bureaucracy as ridiculous as the Coastal Commission
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This post brought to you by the $50k storm water run-off mitigation system we were forced to install when adding 4 units to an existing 2 unit building in Highland Park (a system which, as far as I know, has never been activated in the ~decade since we installed it).
Moses Kagan@moseskagan
The main reason more so-called "missing middle" housing doesn't get built: In most states (including CA), there is little regulatory distinction between a 5 unit building and a 500 unit building. Despite posing 1/100 of the risk, the 5 unit building is required to have the same sprinklers, same actively monitored fire panel, same elevator(s), etc. But, obviously, the 5 unit building has many fewer units across which to amortize these costs, leading to higher cost per unit to construct and structurally lower operating margins. If you want more "missing middle" housing, pressure building regulators to take a risk-based approach to regulation: The smaller the building, the fewer the regs.
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@ScottChoppin I love this model, but have you had any issues with overcrowding in the units?
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Multi-generational families sharing a 5-bedroom unit are the most recession-resilient renters in the industry.
Multiple earners.
Shared expenses.
Deep community roots.
Lowest turnover rates you'll find.
It’s both a feel-good story and a risk-mitigation strategy.
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@LA_Multi_Fam Property rights are a massive YIMBY blind spot.
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Nolan keeps posting this, but ignores the fact that the business model no longer works in 95% of the city because of DSA politics.
Today I would not be able to pencil most of the ADU projects I have done. Property values have tanked thanks to politicians Nolan and the Yimbys are continuing to endorse for elections and re-elections.
M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray
@LA_Multi_Fam You question a movement that passed the laws your entire business depends on? Smart!
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@follard I wish that the Road to Housing Act would have incentivized/rewarded For-Sale development instead of punishing BTR.
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Today is your annual reminder that build-to-sell development (especially as it relates to single family homes and small multifamily) is taxed at ordinary income vs. long term capital gains.
This in itself keeps the incentive for developers to build homes for first time homebuyers and families extremely low.
Let's fix this! 🛠️
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@mnolangray @CirculateSD Nolan, you need to stop using SLO as a victory lap for YIMBY. Our recent boom in permit activity is from several large single family subdivisions that have been in the works for decades and has little to do with recent housing bills.
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@CirculateSD 3. In cities where YIMBYism has been most active, it has transformed permitting. Once havens of no-growtth Left NIMBYism, college towns like Berkeley and San Luis Obispo are now YIMBY boomtowns.
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Lately, there has been a lot of frank discourse about what YIMBYism has accomplished in California. I think this impatience, even after big wins, is good and healthy—but it misses the early signs of success in front of us. In a new post, I offer a YIMBY hopepill.
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@DRand2024 I was going to say that PW would still make SB35 infeasible for market rate
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This could have interesting land use implications in LA. SB35 - which permits by right approval for GP compliant projects -currently requires 50% Low Income (LI) in LA. But if the city falls short of both market rate and affordable RHNA goals then SB35 kicks in at only 10% LI
The Real Deal California@trdsocal
.@LACity is in a bind, as newly released figures from the planning department reveal the city is at 17.8% of its state-mandated housing goals, despite being more than halfway through its timeline. therealdeal.com/la/2026/04/03/…
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@benjamintink We have a rezoning project in year 3 of entitlements and last week the city said they discovered a specific plan park fee that applies even though it hasn’t been on their fee schedule for over 8 years.
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Yep, cities multiple cities can't/won't tell me their own fees :)
So many places build so little housing that it's like a little fire drill anytime you actually propose a project.
"Oh, I remember that something like this might happen when I was hired"
YOU ARE A CITY PLANNER!
M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray
One idea we've explored is to say, "impact" fees cannot collectively add more than (say) 5% to project costs. And the feedback we've received is, "Nobody knows what the total fees are, agencies don't talk to each other," which is an insane policy failure in its own right.
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@coryfromphilly This is what Pacific Legal Foundation is trying to do.
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CA YIMBY should not have gone the legislative route, it should've gone the judicial route. CA YIMBY should've gone around contesting every single stupid law on the books as a taking. The conservative SCOTUS would probably rule 5-4 in favor today, just to spite California.
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I got blocked by Nolan Grey for pointing out that SB79 was pretty weak, allowed cities to opt out of it, or delayed implementation until 2030.
Yet, here we are! CA YIMBY is simultaneously influential and also functionally useless.
Austin Nissly@atnissly
LA City Council just delayed SB 79, the state law that would've allowed 9-story buildings near transit. Instead we're getting 4-story max in 55 zones. We have the lowest construction starts in 13 years and local govt is actively working to contain it further.
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@JoshInEncinitas Surfboards in Utah is quite aspirational.
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@Cobylefko I would argue the buildings matter as much as the street because of their detailing. Real window and door recesses from thick walls. Real operable shutters. Real window sills to shed water. This wouldn’t look right with today’s peel and stick windows and shutters on stucco.
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This street is completely enchanting.
But note how the buildings aren't particularly beautiful. They're simple, some may be attractive, but all of the work is coming from the intimacy of the street, and abundance of the flowers.
Scale & greenery matter more than we think!
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