Keller Williams Santa Cruz
Senior real estate execs and small business owners to speak at Women’s Forum
By Maggie Barr, Keller Williams Santa Cruz
OCTOBER 6, 2018, SANTA CRUZ, CA >>> 2018 is turning out be a significant year for the Women’s Movement. Because of the spontaneous “Me Too” movement, and the possibility that Roe V. Wade will be re-visited by a more conservative Supreme Court, the number of organized Women’s marches across the country has exploded.
One women’s organization in the Central Coast is responding to the heightened awareness of women’s issues by hosting a luncheon event this month designed to inspire more women to find their voice, and begin to participate more actively in the political, business, and nonprofit arenas. The Women’s Council of Realtors Santa Cruz has invited seven women of all ages from various industries to speak on a panel about their personal experiences with leadership challenges and triumphs in their careers.
All the women on the panel live and work in Santa Cruz County. Said Maggie Barr, President of the Women’s Council of Realtors, “In addition to needing women marching and standing up for women’s issues, we need more women leaders to make a real difference in both the public arena and the business world. With this event the Women’s Council is hoping to move the needle in that direction.”
Speaking on the panel will be:
Elaine Della-Santina, Team Leader, Keller Williams Santa Cruz
Morgan Lyng, General Manager, David Lyng
Stephanie Lutz, President, Santa Cruz Waves
Laurie Negro, Co-Owner, Betty Burgers
Lisa Martin, Owner, Elegant Geek
Suna Lock, Owner, Stripe Design
Melissa Gerardi, Owner, Oceanside Escrow Services
All these women have endured their own personal struggles getting to the leadership positions they hold today. They will share their stories of how being a woman in the business world made a difference in how they were treated, and how they rose above discrimination and setbacks.
Says Elaine Della-Santina, Team Leader at Keller Williams Santa Cruz, “In past positions in my career, I noticed a difference between how I was treated by senior managers compared to my male peers. I had to discovered creative ways to leverage my heightened awareness of gender differences to build better, more positive relationships with those senior managers.” Elaine currently manages over 100 Realtors in Santa Cruz for a brokerage with five offices across the Bay area. She’s learned that where you work is just as important as how your work, when it comes to being successful as a woman in the business world. “Fortunately, Keller Williams is a performance-based business, and has always supported women in leadership throughout the entire company.”
Some of the panelists are entrepreneurs and will share with the audience how owning a business brings with it its own unique challenges. The panel will be moderated by Jacquie Van Metre, Program Director for the Women’s Council of Realtors, and a Realtor at David Lyng in Santa Cruz. The Council is hosting this event for their members and the public.
Shared Jacquie, ” We wanted to host an event focused on the women leaders and entrepreneurs in our community. There are so many strong, passionate women who live here and who have chosen to start businesses here. The Women’s Council wanted to give the professionals of this community an opportunity to learn from, and to be inspired by these incredible women.”
The event is co-sponsored by Body Lab Med Spa in Santa Cruz and Ashley Scontriano, who’s currently running for Santa Cruz City Council. Said Ashley, “We need more women in public office in Santa Cruz County and beyond. I am hopeful this event will inspire more women to take on leadership positions in their careers and in the community. Our experiences and perspective are greatly needed for a balanced dialogue.”
The luncheon event will be held Wednesday October 17, 2018 at the Santa Cruz Hilton in Scotts Valley, CA. The event will run from 11:30am to 2:00pm, starting with a 30 minutes networking period. Tickets are $49 until October 10th. Then $59 online or at the door. Seating is limited. Advanced tickets are recommended.
If you go:
Local Women in Leadership Forum
Wednesday 10/17/18, 11:30am – 2:00pm
Santa Cruz Hilton
6001 La Madrona Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95060
Tickets: http://bit.ly/wcroct18
Host: Santa Cruz Women’s Council of Realtors, www.wcr.org
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ABOUT WOMEN’S COUNCIL OF REALTORS SANTA CRUZ
The Women’s Council of Realtors founded in 1938 is a nationwide organization focused on advancing women as professionals and leaders in business, the real estate industry, and the communities they serve. Women’s Council has 253 Networks around the U.S. and is open to male members as well. The local Santa Cruz Network started in 1962 has over 70 members and strategic partners. Women’s Council offers quarterly industry events in Santa Cruz County covering a variety of real estate topics such as market trends, investing in real estate, rent control, and home renovation. To learn about upcoming events or learn more about Women’s Council visit www.wcr.org, or contact President Maggie Barr at maggiebarr@kw.com, or 831-252-0504.
ABOUT KELLER WILLIAMS SANTA CRUZ
Keller Williams Santa Cruz is a top-ranking brokerage with over 100 REALTORS serving the greater Santa Cruz County area. For more information about working with, or becoming an agent at Keller Williams Santa Cruz, contact Elaine Della-Santina at 831-457-5577, or visit www.kwsc.om.
ABOUT ASHLEY SCONTRIANO
Ashley Scontriano is running for Santa Cruz City Council in 2018. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University with a BA in Communications. She has had a career in advertising at Metro Santa Cruz, Good Times, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and helped launch the Santa Cruz Magazine. She has worked in fundraising at UCSC for both the Arts and the Humanity Division. She currently owns Bone-A-Fide Dog, a dog boarding and daycare service. Ashley is a proponent of City of Santa Cruz investment in public safety, affordable housing and small business growth. For more information about Ashley Scontriano and her campaign visit http://www.voteashley.org.
7 questions for evaluating a real estate investment
By Maggie Barr, Keller Williams Santa Cruz
MARCH 15, 2018, SANTA CRUZ >> A real estate investment is a business. You need to evaluate the investment as if you were going into business. You want to decide if the flow income from the investment will be high enough to justify, a) the hours of work you will put in it and b) the amount of risk you are taking on. Ideally your investment will generate a steady flow of income, just like a business. It will also give you an asset you can sell later – the property has value just by holding it. But that value reduces over time if the property is not properly maintained. It might also reduce over time due to a housing market turndown. Your six research questions are:
1. Will the income stream be high enough?
You’ll want to determine how much income you’ll get and KEEP, i.e., what your Net Income will be after taxes and expenses. To calculate this use a spreadsheet or free online calculator like this one: Real Estate Calculator For Analyzing Investment Property. Take your monthly income over 12 months (rent) and subtract out expenses like utility bills, property management service costs, estimated repair and maintenance costs averaged over the year, property taxes, and property insurance. You’ll also need to assume if you’re renting you will have some time each year with the property vacant between tenants. Assume 1 month with no rent, for example. That gives you your income stream. This is called Net Income Before Tax, or NIBT. Then subtract out your income tax on that income at whatever rate will apply to you. That’s income after taxes. Got any money left? You might be surprised what you end up with.
2. What risks are you taking on?
You should also subtract another 5%-10% for the risks you’re taking on. In any market, whether it’s the housing market or Bitcoin, you get paid for risk. That means the people making big money are getting lucking because they didn’t experience a loss that was statistically likely to happen. You’re gambling! To factor in risk to your formula, you’ll want to subtract 5% to 10% from your income for market risks like downturned rental markets and major unexpected expenses like a fire, or a lawsuit. Now how much do you have? Is this investment still worth your time and effort after you factor in risk? Would you make more money in a mutual fund? Or Beanie Babies?
3. Do you need to subtract financing costs?
If you are not paying cash for the property you financing the property with a loan. That’s another expense you need to subtract. What interest rate are you paying? Is it a variable rate that brings the risk of higher rates with it? Is there a change you will lose your job, and not be able to pay the loan off? That’s more risk. In California where I live, even though rents are high, it’s usually not financially worthwhile to rent a residential property you have to get a loan on. Whatever slim margin of profit you might have had gets eaten up by your mortgage interest. And don’t forget to add to your expenses the cost of BUYING the property too. You’ll incur closing cost that you’ll want to amortize, (spread out) over the first year or two when calculating your income for that period. (Ask your CPA how to amortize it and other major expenses.) These costs can be calculated with an online investment calculators like this one: Real Estate Calculator For Analyzing Investment Property.
4. How low will your purchase price be?
I’ve heard investors tell me, “you make all your money on the purchase.” They mean that you have to get a really great deal on the purchase to make any long-term profits on the investment. They break even on renting the property. They only see a profit after they’ve held the property for a decade or so, then sell it for more in an expanding market. Again – you’re gambling! They “buy low and sell high.” That’s why as a Realtor I see significantly more investor purchases in a downturned housing market. Investors love foreclosures and auctions! That’s where the deals are. If you’re good at looking at an ugly house in disrepair, and determining if you can fix it up easily without breaking the bank, then you’ve done well. But if you don’t know much about construction, dry rot, mold, and foundation problems, you might accidentally buy a lemon. You’re in for a huge loss. Be very careful.
5. Who can help you with renovations?
Unless you’re Bob the Builder you’ll need to consult an expert when evaluating properties to purchase. This is true even for properties that appear to be in great condition. You just never know. Sellers can be very crafty at hiding problems. They are legally supposed to disclose current and past problems, but……. people are people. You’ll need an inspector and a contractor that has lots of experience evaluating and renovating properties. And you have to pay them too! There’s another cost to add into your calculation. This is why TV shows about flipping are so popular. You really need to renovate a house to get a big gain from your investment. And you don’t even have to hold the property and rent it out for years. You could sell it right away and realize your gain immediately. Either way, don’t assume you can “wing it” or just buy some books at Home Depot. You need help figuring out things like how to get permits, how to fix foundations and roofs, and how to get rid of asbestos legally without poisoning yourself. A renovated property could generate 50% more income. But not if it burns down because you did the wiring wrong,
6. Where will you buy the property?
Consider investing in a property in another part of the state, or even the country. Every real estate market can be rated in terms of how lucrative it is for investors. Google it. Some cities are great places for investors because a building boom is keeping housing prices relatively low, and expenses are also lower than other places in the country. Las Vegas is a good example. Some places are not good for investors because permit costs for remodeling are unusually high, or because tenant laws are very restrictive for landlords. Check city, county, and state regulations. Don’t assume where you live is where you’ll make the best return. You can hire property managers and contractors in another city. Call a local Realtor for recommendations. Is there a favorite vacation place or relative you go to see a couple times a year? Do you have a close friend or relative somewhere else you can partner with? If you search online you can find articles about the most favorable places for investors today – both commercial and residential.
7. Who do you trust that can help you?
Because every market is different, you’ll want to consult with an expert in the market you’re operating in. Offer to buy someone lunch and get all your questions answered. There will be some gotcha’s you didn’t think of. For example, is the Coastal Commission passing a law this year prohibiting expansion permits for homes without 3 blocks of the ocean? Is rent control coming soon? Is a new city ordinance going to forbid short-term vacation rentals in that particular neighborhood? Does the condo you’re buying have a new rule constraining renting going forward? There’s no way to know about some of these risks if you don’t talk to someone in the know. They might have information about a great new opportunity coming up too! The task is to ask.
Hopefully this guide has given you some insight into how to analyze a real estate investment. Like a business, an investment property has income and expenses. You’ll want more income than expenses – that’s the bottom line. And you’ll need to calculate in risks. The more expert advice you can get before you buy an investment property the better. It’s the investors that have been in business for 10+ years that are making a killing. They’ve made tons of mistakes and learned from them. Be smart and learn from them first before diving in. Best of luck on your new venture!
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Maggie Barr is a Realtor at Keller Williams Santa Cruz that specializes in mountain properties. She serves on the Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission on behalf of the 5th District County Supervisor, Bruce McPherson. Maggie serves as Treasurer on the board of the Valley Women’s Club of the San Lorenzo Valley. Maggie is the 2018 President of the Women’s Council of Realtors Santa Cruz. Maggie lives in Boulder Creek with her husband Michael Barr. To contact Maggie Barr visit her website at http://www.MaggieBarr.com, or call 831-252-0504.
Santa Cruz’s renter protection ballot initiative, explained
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20180310/NEWS/180319977
MARCH 10, 2018, SANTA CRUZ >> City residents and property owners are trying to understand emergency rent control rules adopted by the City Council last month in the wake of tenant advocates seeking to put their own rent control measure on the November ballot. This is the second of a two reports by the Sentinel to help residents understand what they could be voting on if tenant advocates gather 3,774 valid signatures by Aug. 4 for their ballot initiative.
The biggest difference between the 33-page document tenant advocates submitted to the city Feb. 9 and the seven-page set of rules the City Council adopted Feb. 13 is that the proposed ballot measure calls for an independent entity, the Santa Cruz Rent Board, to administer and enforce rent regulations. Single-family homes are exempt from rent control because of the state’s 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, and so is housing first occupied after Feb. 1, 1995.
What is covered under the ballot initiative? An estimated 5,100 to 5,800 rental units in the city were built before that date. That’s about 22-24 percent of the city’s housing stock. Both the current and the proposed rules offer protections to tenants by limiting rent increases and evictions. Current rules set a limit of 2 percent and the proposed rules saying annual increases cannot exceed the consumer price index of the prior year, with rent in effect on Oct. 19, 2017 as the starting point.
The ballot measure specifically excludes rentals in hotels, motels, tourist homes, boarding houses, vacation rentals for less than 30 days, college-owned dormitories, nonprofit homes for the aged, hospitals, convents and extended medical care facilities. The new city rules on “just cause” evictions apply to all landlords in the city but those who own a single rental are exempt. So are landlords who live in the same home as the renter, in a duplex or in a single-family home with an accessory dwelling unit.
The ballot measure does not contain these exemptions. Current rules leave rental oversight in the hands of the city manager and his staff but the ballot measure would create a new agency with broad powers independent of the City Council, city manager and city attorney,
Here’s how it would work, as detailed in 33 pages of regulations submitted by tenant advocates:
Elected board: Initially, each City Council member would appoint one member for the seven-member rent board. At the next municipal general election, city residents would run for a five-seat rent board. The three top vote-getters would serve a four-year term, with the next two serving for two years. After the first election, all terms would be for four years. Terms would be limited to 12 years.
Pay: The rent would determine the compensation of board members based on their time and work performed.
Disclosure: Board candidates and nominees would have to submit a verified statement listing their interests and dealings in property during the past three years, including ownership, sale or management. Interests include partnerships, corporations, joint ventures and syndicates.
Staffing: The rent board would hire an executive director, and ensure sufficient staffing, which would include hearing officers, housing counselors and legal staff.
Rent adjustments: The rent board would determine the annual rent adjustment based on the consumer price index, publicize it, establish hearing procedures, appoint hearing officers to consider individual petitions from landlords or tenants, and then render a decision.
Penalties: The rent board would set penalties for noncompliance, pursue civil remedies, and refer violations to authorities for prosecution. Landlord violations would be considered misdemeanors. If these rules are approved, a tenant facing eviction could use landlord violations of the rules as a defense in a legal action to contest eviction.
Agency financing: Landlords are to pay a fee for each rental unit annually, a fee to be set by the board to fully fund its operating costs. Fees would be collected at the same time as business license fees, with landlords not allowed to pass on the rental fee to the tenants as a separate charge. The board has authority to reduce the rental housing fee on units where the rent is 10 percent below market rate for a comparable unit; a definition of market rate is not in the measure, leaving that up to the rent board.
The city is required to advance all funds until the rental housing fees collected are sufficient for operations. The rent board’s budget would be decided by the board, after scheduling a hearing prior to July 1. The amount considered reasonable and necessary would be up to the board. The ballot measure includes detailed procedures for landlords to request a rent adjustment to ensure a fair return, maintaining net operating income in 2016 adjusted by 80 percent of the consumer price index.
Tenants can request an adjustment downward, alleging failure to maintain a habitable premises based on state law, and specifying the conditions and showing the landlord was given “reasonable notice and opportunity to correct the conditions.” Tenants also can request a downward adjustment, alleging a deterioration beyond ordinary wear and tear and specifying the conditions not corrected by the landlord. Thirdly, tenants can file a petition if the landlord charges excessive rent, and if the board rules for the tenant, the landlord will be ordered to return the excess. Decision by a hearing officer can be appealed to the full board.
The ballot measure would allow landlords to evict for not paying rent, being a nuisance, using the rental for illegal activity, the owner or owner’s family members moving in, repairs and breaching the lease, such as unpermitted subleasing. Subleasing has become common as tenants seek to make their rent affordable. The ballot measure details a procedure for subleasing, prohibiting subleasing evictions if the sublease is a one-for-one replacement, the tenant requested permission in writing and the landlord did not respond within 14 days.
The current city rules are similar but the ballot measure adds more tenant protection, requiring landlords to pay relocation assistance equal to six times fair market rent as determined by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. If a tenant who is unable to pay rent increases of more than 10 percent in a 12-month period is displaced, the landlord must provide relocation assistance at the time of move-out if the tenant has applied to the rent board for help with 15 days of being notified of the rent increase. The measure gives the board authority to set a threshold of less than 10 percent for rental assistance.
If a landlord plans to exit the rental business, the rent board would require forms to be filed. In case demolition is planned, a 120-day notice to tenants would be required, with a year’s notice required for tenants who are 62 or have a disability and have lived in the unit for a year.
More protections are provided for renters who are families. The measure says a landlord cannot terminate a tenant for adding a child, foster child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or a spouse or partner of those relatives as long as the number of occupants does not exceed the maximum in state law. The board would have authority to write rules to further protect families of school-aged children.
A landlord cannot evict a tenant who is 62 or disabled and has lived in the rental for five years or who is certified as terminally ill by the treating physician unless the landlord or the relative to occupy the unit is 62, or disabled, or is terminally ill. A victim of domestic violence or sexual assault or stalking can challenge an eviction if the notice to terminate the lease is based on noise, disturbances or police activity related to the stalking or assault.
Why are there so many more homes for sale in Monterey than in Santa Cruz (or in Marin for that matter)?
By Maggie Barr, Keller Williams Santa Cruz
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-more-homes-for-sale-in-Monterey-than-in-Santa-Cruz-or-in-Marin-for-that-matter/answer/Maggie-Barr
MARCH 5, 2018, SANTA CRUZ >> Why are there so many more homes for sale in Monterey than in Santa Cruz (or in Marin for that matter)? In one word, Traffic. The vast majority of jobs in Central California come from Silicon Valley and companies like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and this company, Quora. The cities and towns that make up the area know as “Silicon Valley” (not a real city), are San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Campbell, Milpitas, Palo Alto, and Redwood City. Before the tech boom in the 90’s those towns were primarily orchards. Homes were built spread out – not packed in efficiently like in a major city. Thus there are NOT ENOUGH homes for all those tech workers. 90% of the workers at those companies can’t afford to live in Silicon Valley today. The average 2-bedroom home a typical family would buy costs $1.5M. The average worker makes 85k/year. Not good.
Most tech workers have to live in the suburbs WAY out of the area, with over a 1-hour commute in horrible traffic due to insufficient infrastructure. Towns like Pleasanton and Gilroy that are 40 minutes away without traffic now take 2 hours to reach in rush hour. What’s a tech worker to do? Well, how about the beach? If you’re going to sit in miserable traffic anyway, might as well go live somewhere nice.
The young hip workers like San Francisco. But the young families and seniors like Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Mountains — Scott Valley, Felton, Ben Lomond, Brookdale, and Boulder Creek (where I live). In Boulder Creek, you can get a 2-bedroom with 1200 sqft in good condition for $600k. Not cheap, but it definitely beats $1.2M! And it’s a beautiful mountain community with good schools and a little downtown area. Gas station, restaurants, drug store, dentist, all that you need for a lovely lifestyle. 4 State Parks close by for hiking, and 45 minutes to the beach. Santa Cruz is a good option too, if you’ve got a little more to spend. For a 2-bedroom with 1200 sqft in good condition, you’ll pay $800k. Still much less than Silicon Valley. And you’ve got the beach!
Monterey is also a lovely seaside town like Santa Cruz. But it’s another hour’s drive to Silicon Valley. Thus fewer tech workers choose to live there. And if you take the route through Santa Cruz, there’s a terrible bottleneck South of Town in Aptos that slows traffic to a crawl between 4pm-8pm every weekday. That makes your commute home (at to work in the AM) more like 2.5 hours, instead of 1.5 hours. If it weren’t for that horrible traffic bottleneck I’d guess more tech workers would live in Monterey. There are alternate routes through Gilroy – but you get stuck in traffic in Gilroy too, for the same reason. Roads don’t have the capacity to handle the Silicon Valley commuter volume.
Last time there was a tech boom int he 80’s there was lots of building and road expansion that happened to accommodate the greater demand for housing. But, then there was a tech crash and employment in Silicon Valley dropped dramatically over the course of a year. Some developers got burned, and the city lost out of the property tax revenue the housing boom was promising. Home values crashed, and there were thousands of foreclosures. So for this tech boom, there is hesitancy for the city and the major developers to do more building in town — when is the next tech crash?
The number of jobs in Silicon Valley is directly correlated to the stock market. When we have a bull market tech companies that are normally considered high-risk get more capital from institutional investors – and thus take on more projects and need to hire more people. In a bear market institutional investors shy away from “risky” tech stocks, thus reducing the number of new tech projects in Silicon Valley, leading to slower hiring or even layoffs.
Think of the Silicon Valley housing market like a balloon. The hotter the tech market and stock market, the bigger the balloon gets spreading upward pressure on the housing market further and further from the center. Housing prices in Monterey (and Marin) go up too, but not at the same rate as Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz values go up slower than Scotts Valley. San Scotts Valley prices go up slower than Los Gatos, and so on. When the stock market, and thus the tech market contract, the balloon gets smaller. Thus buying real estate in markets farther away from Silicon Valley is more risky. Those values are likely to come down sooner, and ultimately down farther, than homes closer to the “hot” center.
The smartest investors buy property in the center of Silicon Valley during the bust years, then sell them in the boom years. But who knows when the next bust will be? Anyone? Also, more and more tech jobs at these top employers are moving overseas. Many companies prefer to hire developers in India, China, and Korea. Just like manufacturing jobs go overseas, developer and supporting jobs go overseas too. And what point will the majority of those jobs go overseas? And what impact will that have on the housing market in Silicon Valley, and the surrounding areas? Only time will tell.
Maggie Barr is a Realtor at Keller Williams Santa Cruz that specializes in mountain properties. She serves on the Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission on behalf of the 5th District County Supervisor, Burce McPherson. Maggie serves as Treasurer on the board of the Valley Women’s Club of the San Lorenzo Valley. Maggie also serves at the 2018 President on the board of the Women’s Council of Realtors Santa Cruz. Maggie lives in Boulder Creek with her husband Michael Barr. To contact Maggie Barr visit her website at http://www.MaggieBarr.com, or call 831-252-0504.
ABOUT KWSC: Keller Williams Santa Cruz is a top-ranking brokerage with over 80 REALTORS serving the greater Santa Cruz County area. For more information about working with, or becoming an agent at Keller Williams Santa Cruz, contact Elaine Della-Santina at 831-457-5577, or visit www.kwsc.om.
Renee Melo installed as President of the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors
by Maggie Barr, Keller Williams Santa Cruz
http://www.MaggieBarr.com
At the Installation luncheon event today at the Seascape Golf Club in Aptos Renee was honored to be installed by her broker and manager, Mike Sibilia, past President of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. Mike is the Broker or Record for Keller Williams Santa Cruz as well as for three other location in Scotts Valley and San Jose owned by Sibilia and his team of partners. Keller Williams Santa Cruz did over $1.3M in business in 2017, and is one of the top real estate brokerages in the County. The office has over 100 agents.
Also installed were the Board of Directors for the Association including: Seb Frey, President-Elect; Morgan Lyng Lukina, Treasurer; and Candace Bradfield, Immediate Past President. The 2018 Directors include: Fred Antaki, Pete Cullen, John Flaniken, Jackie Heath, Sandy Kaplan, Connie Landes, Greg Mann, and Jennifer Watson.
To learn more about the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors, upcoming industry events they are hosting, and the incoming board, visit their website at scaor.org/bod.php. To learn more about Renee Mello visit her website at reneemello.com. To learn more about Keller Williams Santa Cruz visit kwsc.com.
Keller Williams agents tapped for leadership of Santa Cruz County real estate groups
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20171221/new-scotts-valley-mayor-eyes-affordable-housing-as-key-priority
December 27, 2017, SCOTTS VALLEY >> Two agents with Keller Williams Santa Cruz will head industry organizations in 2018. Maggie Barr of Boulder Creek is serving as president of the Women’s Council of Realtors Santa Cruz, following her installation this month.
Renee Mello of Watsonville will be installed as president of the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors on Jan. 24 at an event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Drive, Aptos. Tickets are $48 at mysccar.org.
Barr has been on the board or chaired a committee at the Women’s Council of Realtors for four years, starting when she became a real estate agent. She is a member of the Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission and a board member for the Valley Women’s Club.
Barr said the Women’s Council of Realtors is shifting priorities, holding four large industry events next year on topics such as county regulation changes, real estate investing and the changing tax implications of homeownership.
The events will be open to the general public, and Women’s Council of Realtors members will be encouraged to invite clients and business partners.
The first event will be a luncheon 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Dream Inn, with a panel speaking about Santa Cruz County real estate, affordable housing, market trends, short-term rental regulation changes, new residential developments and tax or regulation changes. Cost to attend is $45.
Mello, a broker associate, started in real estate in 1984 and joined Keller Williams in 2008. A certified John Maxwell coach, she said her passion is coaching new agents.
Mello said her priority will be to connect opportunity and responsibility.
Keller Williams Santa Cruz has 110 real estate agents in offices in Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, and the team leader is Elaine Della-Santina.
Rising Rents In Santa Cruz Inspire Rent Control Push
By Ericka Mahoney, KAZU.org
http://kazu.org/post/rising-rents-santa-cruz-inspire-rent-control-push#stream/0
December 5, 2017, SANTA CRUZ >> The majority of people living in Santa Cruz are renters. But high rents are driving some of them out. One homeowner is leading an effort to change that. Josh Brahinsky just became a homeowner. He lives on a tree-lined block in Santa Cruz with his wife, two boys, and their dog. But they also live with a tenant. The family rents out a bedroom. And they plan to bring in more people by converting their garage into an apartment.
“We can’t afford the mortgage if we don’t also share the space, but we also want to create homes for our friends. Like
everybody is getting booted out of town,” says Brahinsky. As a contractor builds the new door frame, Brahinsky says his friends and neighbors are getting priced out. According to the real estate website Zillow, rents are growing at an aggressive rate in Santa Cruz, about twice the national average. The median rent is roughly $3,200 a month. That’s almost as much as San Jose.
Brahinsky says they will keep the rent on their new garage apartment affordable for whoever moves in. But he wants to help even more people. He’s an active member of the local group Movement for Housing Justice, which is affiliated with Tenants Together, a statewide group. Movement for Housing Justice is leading a campaign to establish rent control. Rent control limits how much a landlord can raise the rent. Right now in Santa Cruz, landlords can do whatever they want. “We have hundreds of people signed up already to gather signatures. The minute we said we are doing this, everyone was like how can I help, how can I help?” Brahinsky says.
Fourteen cities in California currently have rent control. Brahinsky hopes Santa Cruz voters pass it next November. The Santa Cruz measure proposes tying the allowable increase to the increase in the cost of living. It also proposes just cause eviction. Meaning a landlord would have to provide a reason when they evict someone. He and other advocates will start collecting signatures in January to get it on the ballot.
Tracy Cone says she will definitely add her name to that list. She rents her home with her boyfriend and children. And she rents her office. Her biggest fear is dramatic increases in both. “I don’t think I could sustain those in terms of my income, my income doesn’t, won’t match that,” Cone says. Cone is a self-employed acupuncturist. “I’m paying more than 50 percent of my income toward rent. And it’s at the point where it’s difficult to save enough money to be able to buy something. You know the hope of doing that is diminishing every month. And so now I’m thinking, like, I don’t know how I’m going to stay here. I may just have to suck it up and go start a practice somewhere else, where I can afford to live,” says Cone.
She says, unfortunately, rent control would not help her. That’s because it doesn’t apply to commercial units for her office and because she lives in a single-family house. A California law called Costa-Hawkins bans rent control on single-family houses, condos, and all homes built after 1995. That means about 77 percent of Santa Cruz’s housing stock would not be eligible for rent control.
But it’s still a problem for landlord Darius Mohsenin. Rent control would affect every unit he owns in Santa Cruz. “Santa Cruz total, 53 units, spread across five buildings,” says Mohsenin. Standing in front of one of those buildings on Broadway, he says rent control would discourage him from doing upgrades. He points to the double-pane vinyl windows he put in a few years ago. It cost him $20,000. “I would go and put my money in places in Salinas or other towns I have properties in, San Leandro, Vacaville. Because I just wouldn’t see a way to recoup my investment under a rent control initiative,” Mohsenin says.
The second reason has to do with Costa-Hawkins, that state law which dictates how cities implement rent control. It gives landlords the right to raise the rent as much as they want in between tenants. “It only benefits one group of people, the current tenant base, that’s it,” Mohsenin says. But Homeowner Josh Brahinsky says rent control is about protecting the people who live in Santa Cruz now.
“It’s not a perfect system. It’s not going to make everything great. But it does mean that a substantial number of units will have the rent limit and that’s going to make a big impact on the community because those people will stay here,” says Brahinsky.
Santa Cruz residents could vote on rent control next November. There’s also a statewide effort to repeal Costa-Hawkins, which could go before voters on that same ballot. On Tuesday night, Santa Cruz City Council will be discussing housing issues. The meeting starts at 7:00 at City Hall
State Sen. Scott Wiener wants to speed affordable housing approval
Scott Wiener pushing Senate Bill 35 to speed approval for affordable developments
by Jondi Gumz, The Santa Cruz Sentinel
Published July 1, 2017
7/1/17, Aptos, CA – Carrie Birkhofer bought a house in Santa Cruz for $200,000 and raised her family here.
Now that the median home price is $875,000, Birkhofer’s 23-year-old daughter, who has a master’s degree in business administration, wonders if she will ever be able to live in Santa Cruz.Dan Smart, director of sales and marketing at the Santa Cruz Dream Inn, said he knows it’s tough to recruit people from out of state to take a managerial job. They can’t afford to pay $3,000 a month for a place to live.
Birkhofer and Smart joined 150 people at Seacliff Inn on Friday to hear State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who is advocating for more affordable housing.
Wiener was invited by Casey Beyer, executive director of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, who declared Santa Cruz has a housing crisis. As he sees it, “we can become a retirement community, a bedroom community of Silicon Valley, or we can try to reinvest in our community, building the housing we need, all income levels.”
Wiener is taking the latter route. He’s heard about escalating rents, senior citizens worrying about eviction, college grads who can’t afford a place to live. Wiener introduced Senate Bill 35, which would trigger a speedier over-the-counter permit process for multifamily affordable housing projects when cities lag in meeting housing goals assigned by the state. The faster process would apply to housing types with unmet needs such as low-income housing.
In some cities, these housing goal numbers “sit on a shelf and collect dust,” Wiener said.Wiener also wants to end the time-consuming review and appeals that stretch the process and result in pricier housing. A 12-unit project in San Francisco complied with zoning yet approval took six years, he said, adding, “That is not OK.”
The state has not been tracking housing production and 121 cities with their own charters are not required to submit housing data to the state — two loopholes Wiener’s bill would close. “Why not include a carrot?” suggested Maggie Barr, of Boulder Creek, president-elect of the Women’s Council of Realtors. Giving cities an incentive would provide more motivation, she said.
Wiener has a coalition of support for Senate Bill 35 among housing advocates, builders and some environmental groups. Sierra Club California and the League of California Cities are opposed. This year, 130 housing bills were introduced. “It happened over 50 years due to policy that was short-sighted,” Wiener said.
In June, the State Senate approved a $3 billion affordable housing bond, which could help nonprofit developers such as Eden Housing, but whether Gov. Jerry Brown will sign it is not known. Previous state housing bonds are depleted, and the federal housing money has been cut. State Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, introduced Senate Bill 2, to impose a $75 fee on real estate documents, including refinances and foreclosures, but not sales, creating a housing fund. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is opposed.
Santa Cruz Mayor Cynthia Chase asked Wiener about dealing with opposition. At meetings, he often asks people how many of their kids will be able to live in the neighborhood. “It does actually change the energy in the room,” he said.
Santa Cruz Real Estate News 