Approximately 1,800 house for rental units operated by Page Mill Properties in East Palo Alto, California will go into foreclosure if Page Mill fails to pay the $50 million due in August on its $250-million loan owed to Wachovia Bank, which was acquired by Wells Fargo Bank last year.

Page Mill was given 120 days to resolve its debt, based on documents filed by Wells Fargo with the Assessor’s Office of San Mateo County on September 25.

According to Wells Fargo spokesperson Elise Wilkinson, the bank has filed default notices on all of the apartment units and has warned Page Mill that unless it negotiates a new written agreement with Wells Fargo, all the apartment units will be foreclosed and sold off.

In September, a Superior Court Judge in San Mateo appointed David Wald as receiver and supervisor of the apartment buildings after Page Mill’s real estate management unit Woodland Park Management removed its staff from the complexes.

Wald hired Investors Property Services to manage the apartment units, partially addressing the concerns of tenants who have been worrying about the ownership of the house for rental units. Even before the foreclosure notices, tenant associations in properties operated by Page Mill throughout East Palo Alto have been filing complaints against Page Mill for raising their rents and for failing to maintain the apartment buildings.

Real estate analysts in the area said that Page Mill could negotiate a short sale, a loan-term extension or reduced interest rates, but some of them doubt the capability of Page Mill to raise the money to pay off its missed August payment.

Additionally, investors in multifamily properties in East Palo Alto have been long having difficulties because of the efforts of tenant associations and working-class families to control rents and maintain affordable housing throughout the city.

Investors who have huge plans of rehabilitating and improving apartment buildings and then raising rents are surprised to discover that they cannot just raise their rents without running into fierce opposition from the community.

For the November ballot, the city of East Palo Alto crafted a revised rent-control law to address loopholes in the current rent control law, but Page Mill was able to block the attempt.

Nonetheless, according to analysts, even if Page Mill has successfully blocked the planned revision of the rent control law, it may not be able to block the foreclosure proceedings by Wells Fargo and it may ultimately lose its power over house of rental units in the city.

Homes for rental in the Mobley Lane neighborhood of Hemet, California have been foreclosed by banks and most residents are being instructed to leave even if they have already paid their rents.

Based on interviews, the block of apartment units on Mobley Lane has a history of troubled finances. Trilar Realty, which previously managed the property, said it stopped managing the property as soon as lenders foreclosed on the apartment units.

Some of the renters were more fortunate than other residents because they were notified by the owners before the foreclosure and they were given a couple of thousand dollars to move out of the properties. There were also some families which were told to stay and make their monthly payments to the new owners.

But for most of the renters, the foreclosures were becoming a nightmare because they are receiving eviction notices without any refunds of their security deposits or any financial assistance for moving out.

For those who have not received any kind of notice, uncertainty and anxiety have been filling up their nights and days because they do not know if they should continue paying their rent to the same entity, use up their security deposit or begin looking for another rental.

Adding to the woes of residents of the distressed homes for rental is the notice that electricity, water and garbage would soon be shut off even if not all of the renters have received eviction notices.

Despite the anxieties of eviction and lost security deposits, Hemet renters can take comfort from the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which was signed by President Obama in May.

The federal law protects renters of housing units that have been foreclosed by banks. Under the law, renters have the right to remain in their rented houses for 90 days after foreclosure. Those with longer lease terms as spelled out in their lease contracts can stay through the rest of the term.

Based on foreclosure data, about one-third of foreclosed housing units in California are rental units. Under California law, lease contracts are cancelled by foreclosure and renters must be given 60 days to move out after foreclosure.

But under the federal law, lease contracts survive the foreclosure of homes for rental. However, they can be terminated if the renters are given a 90-day notice. For some California cities that prohibit foreclosure evictions, the federal law does not preempt these prohibitions.

If you are planning to buy and operate housing homes for rent, you need to learn from the mistakes of other landlords who have experienced huge losses in their rental investments.

Oftentimes, first-time rental investors rush into buying rental properties which are seemingly bargain-priced, but in reality in need of costly repairs.

To avoid losses in your real property investments, study common investment assumptions that have turned out wrong and see to it that you do not make the same assumptions.

One of the first incorrect rental investment assumptions is consistent rental income. Many landlords assume that the rental housing will always have a tenant. When estimating your cash flow projections, you should factor in times that the rental property has no tenant.

With this vacancy possibility, you should also have funds to cover monthly mortgage payments during months you have no tenant. Have a contingency plan in case your rental property is not occupied by a paying tenant for the first 12 months.

The other wrong assumption is the low cost of repairs and property maintenance. To make your housing homes for rent always attractive to tenants, you are expected to replace defective appliances and repair major damages.

To prevent unexpected and costly repairs, you need to set up a maintenance schedule. Include in your rental contract a provision that would allow you to periodically check the exteriors of the property to detect damages and prevent further deterioration.

Another common mistake committed by landlords is their failure to conduct thorough checks on potential tenants. Remember that your rental income will depend on the ability of your tenants to pay consistently their rents, so check their rental payment history.

You can obtain needed personal information from your potential tenants without violating privacy or discrimination laws by using a rental application form crafted by a lawyer. A copy of this form is available for free from nonprofit legal web sites.

After receiving the filled-out application form, contact previous landlords and employers and other references. Before choosing your final tenant, get a credit report from a paid service so you can check if your potential tenant has a history of account delinquencies and late payments.

Additionally, see to it that you comply with all state and local laws related to housing homes for rent. Your property should meet safety and health standards, zoning codes and building codes so you would not be charged with non-compliance and liability lawsuits.

Investing in house rentals can take at least two routes: investing in a house rental property acquisition and management firm or investing and managing directly rental properties. Either way, there is always the possibility of failure, but if one has invested in a real estate investment firm, one can sue the firm if investments fail. [...]

Commercial properties for rent have become great opportunities for Oregon businessman Chuck Shepard during the downturn. Shepard said that there have been business opportunities he was able to take advantage of because of the recession. He explained further that he would not have been able to afford the investment costs required during normal times when [...]

Apartments for rent are again gaining the interest of real estate investors after about two years of negligible activity in the multifamily housing market. Boston-based Bostonian Investment Group has started raising money to reach its goal of $100 million to launch an investment fund that will buy mortgages backed by delinquent multifamily buildings in North [...]

House renting provides additional income but it also brings up problems that you need to solve or prevent from happening based on the experiences of other landlords. Among the most common problems are those that arise from the rental conversion of a single-family house that was supposed to be occupied by the buyer. Before advertising [...]

Renting for profit during the downturn is one option or investment opportunity that you can consider to weather the harsh effects of the recession. If you are staying in a large house with several rooms or with a large basement, you can consider renting the extra space to someone you know or someone well recommended. [...]

Vacancy rates for both homes for rent and homes for sale have been increasing in many cities in the country, according to a study made by forbes.com. Forbes.com studied Census Bureau homeowner and rental vacancy rates in the nation’s 75 biggest metro areas in the first quarter and ranked these areas based on their average [...]

You could be a homeowner, a retiree or a young professional planning to buy a condo unit and then rent it out for added income. You may have read about lots of unsold condo units being sold by developers at lower prices, giving you the idea of investing in one of them. Your idea is [...]