We’d like to share this article with you on the rental market for Silicon Valley, we have felt this all year!  Please read on out of San Jose Business Journal….

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal by Mary Ann Azevedo, Reporter

 …Have you ever wondered when renting out a property as the Landlord, if a lease or month-to-month agreement is better?  Most Landlord’s will say the lease term is better because you lock in the tenant for a set amount of time and rent.  In actuality, the month-to-month agreement is better for the Landlord.  Once a tenant signs a lease, they are locked into that property for the set time frame and rent.  The rent is not adjustable in a lease term.  If you end up with a bad tenant, you are stuck with that tenant and it can take up to 60-90 days to evict them in California.  If the tenant bails out in the middle of their lease term, you will not see any money and can only file collections against the tenant.  So, it is in the Landlord’s best interest, to do a month-to-month agreement.  On a month-to-month, the owner is able to adjust the monthly rent amount, serve a 30 day notice (or 60 day notice if the tenant has lived there longer than a year) and get rid of a tenant right away, if they turn out to be bad.  This could save an owner thousands of dollars in repairs and headaches. 

Questions or concerns regarding your tenant or lease? Contact us today at (408) 423-8000!

Google’s Silicon Valley expansion now includes buying buildings

Google (GOOG) has purchased numerous office buildings in Mountain View, part of a multipronged property quest that underscores the startling expansion plans of the digital titan.

All told, Google this year has spent an estimated $115 million to buy 16 buildings in Mountain View, including a four-building complex a few blocks from the downtown. The purchases are on both sides of Highway 101. The locations and prices were obtained from public records and realty experts.

The shopping spree for buildings comes on the heels of Google’s 715,000-square-foot lease of a four-building Sunnyvale complex known as Technology Corners. That marked Google’s largest Silicon Valley outpost outside of Mountain View.

In addition to the building purchases, Google has proposed a 1.2 million-square-foot campus at NASA Ames. Google has also leased an old Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) campus off Ellis Street in Mountain View. And it is planning a project on city-owned land.

Including all of Google’s efforts — property purchases, building leases, and development and construction proposals — the company is planning to add 3.5 million square feet to the 4.3 million square feet that Google currently occupies in Mountain View. The realty strategy is long term and will play out over several years.

 Were Google to fill all of these spaces today in a hypothetical expansion, the buildings could potentially accommodate more than 11,000 employees in the South Bay. At present, Google has 29,000 employees, worldwide.

“The ‘pie in the sky’ objective for Google is probably bigger than we can even imagine,” said Chad Leiker, a vice president with Kidder Matthews, a commercial realty brokerage.

“We have a multipronged real estate strategy that includes developments like the NASA Ames campus, new off-site leases, and the development of properties in the North Bayshore area,” said David Radcliffe, a vice president of real estate and workplace services for Google.

Google emphasized it’s unlikely to move into existing properties right away. For example, Google won’t occupy the Sunnyvale buildings until sometime in 2013, after existing tenant leases expire. And the NASA project will take years to complete.

“We’re pursuing all of these projects to give us the flexibility needed to handle future growth according to business need,” Radcliffe said.

Some Google property deals have gone far afield from Silicon Valley.

In Manhattan, Google spent $1.8 billion last December for a 15-story building that occupies an entire city block, the biggest transaction of 2010 involving a single U.S. building, reported Real Capital Analytics. In Ireland, Google this year spent $140 million to buy Dublin’s tallest commercial block.

Yet even what Google has obtained in Silicon Valley through leases or property purchases might be only the tip of the iceberg.

Many buildings that Google bought this year are in areas that Mountain View has under review for allowing greater building densities.

What Google really wants is the land beneath the buildings, local experts say.

“Over the long term, those buildings will be developed into something much more than they are today,” said Michael Saign, a vice president with Cornish & Carey Commercial, a realty brokerage. “Many will be torn down.”

Most of Google’s current hiring, analysts say, is coming in a few key areas. These include display advertising sales, local commerce sales such as its Google Offers discount coupon service, mobile technologies like the company’s Android software, and the Google+ social network.

Previously, Google predicted 2011 would be its biggest year for hiring, with plans to add 6,000 workers. Halfway through 2011, Google had added 4,400 employees.

From Google’s earliest days, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have always believed their company was destined to evolve into a big and influential company, said Steven Levy, whose recent book “In the Plex” documents Google’s technology, culture and history.

“A lot of people have grandiose visions,” Levy said of Brin and Page. “Theirs turned out to be accurate.”

Mountain View officials see Google’s hectic activity as a great sign.

“It’s exciting that the company continues to be interested in Mountain View,” said Ellis Berns, the city’s economic development manager. “It’s great that Google is looking at growing and staying here, at the unique opportunities here.”

WASHINGTON — The number of people who bought previously occupied homes fell in July for the third time in four months. This year is on pace to be the worst in 14 years for home sales, as more Americans worry that the economy could slip back into another recession

Home sales fell 3.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.67 million homes, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s far below the 6 million that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.

The dismal report on home sales contributed to a rough day on Wall Street. Stocks plummeted in midday trading on fears that the global economy is slowing. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 400 points within the first hour of trading.

Many people are reluctant to purchase a home two years after the recession officially ended. Sales are lagging behind last year’s 4.91 million sold — the weakest in 13 years.

Bigger down payments, tougher lending rules, high debt and a shortage of desirable starter homes have kept many would-be buyers away. Even people with good credit and enough money for a down payment are holding off because they are worried home prices will keep falling.

First-time homebuyers made up just 32 percent of sales. First-time buyers are critical to strong housing markets and normally make up about half of all sales. Their purchases of low and moderately priced homes also allow sellers to move up to pricier homes.

The weak data show “the housing market will not save the U.S. economy,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

Since the housing boom went bust in 2006, sales have fallen in four of the past five years. Declining home prices and super-low mortgage rates haven’t been enough to boost sales this year.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.15 percent this week — the lowest level on records dating back to 1971.

Some sales are falling apart at the last minute. At least 16 percent of deals were canceled ahead of closings last month. That’s four times the number in May and the highest level since such records began being kept more than a year ago. A sale isn’t final until a mortgage is closed.

Buyers have canceled purchases after appraisals showed that the homes were worth less than the buyers’ initial bids.

“Buyers are worried about falling house prices, the job outlook, the stock market and gridlock in Washington,” said Patrick Newport, U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

Sales were also hampered in the West by new maximum loan limits by government-controlled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On Oct. 1, the maximum loan in high-cost areas will fall from $729,750 to at least $625,500 and, in some areas, to $550,000. Some buyers will be unable to finance their purchases in cities where homes are more expensive, such as New York, San Francisco and Washington.

Foreclosures and short sales — when a lender agrees to sell for less than what is owed on a mortgage — made up about 29 percent of all home sales last month. That’s up from about 10 percent in past years. And a wave of foreclosures are being held up, either by backlogged courts or lenders awaiting state and federal probes into troubled foreclosure practices.

Investors have targeted foreclosures and other deeply discounted properties. Their purchases accounted for 18 percent of sales in July.

The median sales price fell in July to $174,000, according to the Realtors’ group. June’s large jump in sales prices was attributed to missing data that had not been collected from Phoenix, which has been hit hard by foreclosures and dropping prices.

Most economists say home prices will keep falling, by at least 5 percent, through the rest of the year. Many forecasts don’t anticipate a rebound in prices until at least 2013.

Sales were uneven across the country. They rose 2.7 percent in the Northeast and 1 percent in the Midwest. They fell 1.6 percent in the South and 12.6 percent in the West.

The glut of unsold homes declined slightly in July to 3.65 million homes. At last month’s sales pace, it would take 9.4 months to clear those homes. Analysts say a healthy supply can be cleared in six months.

When your house won’t sell: Walk away or sell too low?

The house is unsold after three years. Should the owner sell it super cheap or give it to the bank?

By Steve McLinden of Bankrate.com

Q: I’ve had my house on the market for three years, starting with a regular real-estate agent and, lastly, talking briefly with one of those “we buy houses” people who seems a little shady. Should I sell to one of them, let the house go into foreclosure or keep dropping the price and hope someone takes it on the conventional market? I am getting desperate.

A: Sorry to hear of your protracted plight in real estate. First, while the “we buy houses — fast closing” people are typically legitimate businesses, they pay only rock-bottom dollar. For example, expect only about $60,000 or so on a $100,000 home these days with them. Ouch! You don’t say how much equity you have in the house, but it is unlikely you will recoup any of it in such a scenario. Don’t forget you’ll need to get a big enough sum to pay off the existing mortgages and any liens against the house. Those “we-buys” tend to get money on very short-term notes from hard-money lenders who charge high interest rates and usually lend on the expected value of a house, post-repairs. So those investors will need to flip the property pretty quickly, often to another investor.

Instead of going that lowball route, you could sign a new listing agent to market the place as a “motivated seller” property, signing a short listing agreement while impressing on the agent that a quick turnaround is a high priority. You’ll still face folks trying to steal a deal, but if you price the place right, you might at least get into a multiple-offer scenario where your low, low — but not giveaway — price is met or even exceeded. At present, you should be able to negotiate a commission that’s a trifle lower than the standard 6 percent.  Sadly, sometimes a foreclosure is the only viable option for many well-meaning sellers these days. But I would first urge you to contact your bank to work out a short sale, which means selling your house for less than the mortgage balance, or try making other arrangements. Realistically, though, short sales can take a long time and have high failure rates. Offering a deed in lieu of foreclosure to the lender is faster than a short sale and carries about the same possibility of you being pursued by the lender for the difference between the sale price and what you owe, known as a deficiency judgment. In a deed in lieu, you are contacting the bank and stating that you can’t continue to make the payments and believe foreclosure is imminent. This at least saves the lender the expense and time of foreclosing.

You are in the same boat with a lot of folks these days. But don’t give up, and don’t give away the farm.

Check out the advantages of renting, by: Edmund Gallese

Most people believe that buying a home is always superior to renting. Indeed, many subscribe to the wisdom that real estate is always a good investment. However, this, of course, is simply not true. There are definitely situations where renting a home is the smart choice.

To begin with, it is entirely possible that renting is cheaper. Consider a numerical example. Let’s assume you buy a 350,000 home in a nice suburb of a major city. Assuming you get a good mortgage rate of 5 percent over 20 years and you scraped together 25k for your down payment that means your mortgage payments will come out to $1427 a month. But then, to be realistic, a homeowner needs to figure in 2 to 3 percent of the homes value per year to be spent on repairs. That comes out to $729 per month, bring the monthly payment up to $2159. This does not even include any condo association fees or other hidden costs that many times come with owning a home. Depending on the area, the same house could likely be rented for between $1000 and $1500 a month.

Renting a home is also a safer choice than buying. First of all, there is risk of your house temporarily loosing value, based on the financial situation. Of course, “temporarily” can mean up to 10 years. Also, depending on the market and your own financial situation, a fixed rate mortgage may be beyond your means. Opting for an adjustable rate mortgages come with a whole other set of risk. Additionally, the risk of foreclosure is something that the renter simply does not face. Many homeowners depend on two incomes to pay their mortgage, and often do not consider the possibility that own of those jobs might disappear. This is especially a risk in the current economy. A shock to household to income is less of a big deal to a renter, who does not risk the loss of a major asset.

Bay Area rents, especially in Silicon Valley, are on the rise

By Pete Carey

Bay Area apartment rents are on the rise, fed by the contrasting economic forces of a booming tech recovery and the steady flow of foreclosures that is turning former homeowners into renters.

The San Jose metro area, which includes Silicon Valley, weighed in with the highest average rent — $1,759 a month — among 43 metro regions monitored by RealFacts, a Novato apartment rental research company that released a report on second-quarter rental prices Thursday. The region also saw the biggest year-over-year increase, up 12.6 percent.

The San Francisco metro area — encompassing the Peninsula, East Bay and Marin County — had the second-highest rents in the survey, at $1,644, and the third-highest year-over-year increase, at 7.6 percent.

Rents are a barometer of the region’s economic vitality and job market, and after several years of stagnation, this year they’re pointing to recent job market gains. But they also signal the continued weakness of the housing market, with stiff competition for rentals throughout the region.

Renters are feeling the pinch. Some have decided to leave the Bay Area; others can’t afford to move to bigger apartments because of high rents everywhere; and some have moved in with their parents.

School bus driver Beth Ahlquist thought about moving after the rent was raised on her Campbell apartment, but she decided to stay after checking out apartment rents in her neighborhood.

“I’m lucky. They’re raising rents all over,” she said.

Some cities have seen double-digit increases over the past year.

Sunnyvale was up 17.6 percent from last year to $1,731, back to where it was — unadjusted for inflation — at the height of the dot-com bubble. San Mateo was up 14.5 percent to $1,964 a month. Average rents in Mountain View increased 13.2 percent over the year to $1,812.

Cupertino and Palo Alto were among the least affordable Silicon Valley cities, with rents of $2,168 and $2,450 respectively. And both saw increases of about 14 percent.

The resurgent demand has apartment builders starting construction again, said Sarah Bridge, owner of RealFacts. “The developers are back and they are all looking for sites to build, especially in core markets like Santa Clara County,” she said.

About 2,000 units are under construction in North San Jose, said Joe Horwedel, director of planning for the city of San Jose. But they won’t come online for 12 to 18 months.

“What we’re seeing in the rental housing market right now is truly an imbalance of supply and demand,” said Joshua Howard, executive director of the California Apartment Association’s Tri-County office in Cupertino. “We have lots of individuals and families that either have been affected by foreclosure or who are moving into the area” to take jobs, he said.

The East Bay has been affected more by foreclosure activity than job growth. That helps explain why more people are looking for apartments, said Jill Broadhurst, director of community affairs and advocacy for the East Bay Rental Housing Association.

“It’s not because industry is booming or anything like that,” she said.

Edie Torres, a 31-year-old construction worker who pays $900 a month for a one-bedroom Newark apartment, and his fiancee have been searching for a larger apartment for about two months. “It’s pretty competitive, due to foreclosures. More people are renting now,” he said.

After six weeks of searching for an apartment, Airika Audio expected to sign a rental agreement Wednesday for a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland. The 29-year-old concert producer had moved up to the Bay Area from Los Angeles in search of better financial opportunities for her business. “The location is not my first choice,” she said of the apartment near Lake Merritt.

“The market was flooded and lots of property owners did not need the money. They were a little pickier, and holding off for that tenant, that dream tenant,” she said.

“By choice or necessity, there is a growing trend toward rent over buy,” Bridge said in a statement Thursday. RealFacts tracks rents in larger apartment complexes of 50 or more units. Rents in smaller ones tend to be somewhat lower.

Ron Stern, chief executive of Bay Rentals, a rental service in San Jose that covers the entire Bay Area, said he’s seen increases of 5 or 6 percent since the beginning of the year for the smaller two- and four-plex type apartments RealFacts does not track.

“Availability is getting a little bit tougher because of foreclosures,” he said. “A lot of people who are losing homes are looking for rentals and still have good incomes. Employment is also getting better in this valley. More people seem to be coming in.”

Do you ever wonder what to do to your home before you put it on the rental market?  Here are the top five things to complete that will put your property ahead of your competition.

1.  Make It Vacant:  Most property owners think they can live in the home while the property is being showed and on the rental market.  This is the worst thing you can do.  The rental market is not the same as the sales market, where people live in their home until it sells.  Prospective residents like to see the empty shell so they can have a clear idea as to how to make it their own.  Remove all furniture, pictures, belongings and make the property completely vacant.

2.  Remove all drapes, valances and decorative window tapestries, but leave window coverings:  By removing all of the decorative window drapes, you are opening up each room and allowing the light to come in.  Leave up blinds and plantation shutters.  If no window coverings are in place, make the investment and purchase some.  Always remember, you want to make the property a vanilla shell, so that the prospective resident can make it their own.

3.   Paint the Interior:  If the property hasn’t been painted in the past 5 years, add a fresh coat to the interior.  Don’t forget cabinets, closet doors and inside of closets.  Some homes are well kept and can get away without having to paint the entire house, but don’t forget to touch up nail and picture holes before you leave. 

4.  Put up Smoke Detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detectors:  California Law requires a working smoke detector in the hallway of each rental property and now as of July 1, 2011, a working carbon monoxide detector as well.  The landlord is responsible for supplying both a working smoke and carbon monoxide detector prior to move in.  After move in, the resident is responsible for notifying the landlord when the detector stops working.

5.  Clean Your Home:  Have your property professionally cleaned for a move in.  Clean inside all kitchen appliances, including the fridge, wipe down cabinets (inside and out) and have your carpets professionally steam cleaned.  Don’t forget the windows! You want your property to sparkle!

Once you have completed the five items above, you are already leaps ahead of your competition!  Before you put it on the rental market, you will want to make sure everything in the house works.   Repair all leaky faucets, clogged drains, replace your furnace/ AC filters, and if something doesn’t work, fix it! 

Finally, consult a property management company to complete a rental analysis for you and get your home rented! 

Western Property Group , (408) 423-8000

As a property manager, I always get asked the question, “What is the key to successful property management?”.  Although there are many things to consider when creating a recipe for success in this business, I can tell you the secret ingredient is tenant selection.

When choosing your tenant, you only want the best.  Knowing the correct questions to ask, red flags to look for, and reports to pull, will considerably raise your bar at finding a great tenant.  Employment, income and credit verification will only get you so far, knowing the right questions to ask, will be your key to success.

Below are a few examples of what to ask:

1.  What was the last address you lived at?

2.  Why did you leave your previous address?

3.  How many people will be living at the unit? (and make sure each adult over 18 fills out a rental application!)

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, just make sure you are aware of the rental guidelines and know what is legal to ask and what isn’t.  If you screen your tenant ahead of time, it will save you money in the long run. 

We are all looking for the perfect tenant, they are out there, you just have to know how to find them.  If you need help, don’t hesitate to call us at (408) 423-8000.  We know the secret ingredient to your rental success.

7 Easy Tips for Greening Tenants (& Your Bottom Line)

Posted on 09. Mar, 2010 by Jennifer Marcus Newton in Greener Properties

 Greening initiatives tend to produce more than just the obvious goal of reducing our impact on the planet. Often, in fact, opting for green actually saves the other kind of green—money. You might be thinking, “Saving the planet is obviously a good thing, but what does it have to do with property management?” Think of it this way: A property is like a microcosm of the planet. Encouraging tenants to be good environmental stewards will subtly shape their behavior within your property as well—all while chipping away at your costs.

Keep in mind that greening is a learning process for you and your tenants, and there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all approach. My yoga teacher’s advice seems apropos: “You might feel a stretch, but you should never feel pain.”

These 7 tips are easy to adopt and shouldn’t cause any pain:

 Cool It: Sometimes being green is more about using common sense than anything else. Encourage tenants to turn down the thermostat at night. There’s nothing wrong with putting on another sweater or snuggling up in Aunt Betty’s handmade afghan. Better yet, install a digital thermostat that can be programmed once and never thought about again.

1. Clear the Air: While we’re on the subject of furnaces, keep that critical cold-climate system running efficiently by making sure tenants change furnace filters regularly. Or furnish the property with a reusable furnace filter, which can be easily cleaned by vacuuming out or rinsing in water.
2. Trash the Trash: Despite the obvious benefit of reducing landfill waste, not everyone has implemented the simple practice of recycling. If your municipality provides free curbside recycling, make it easy for tenants to get on board by supplying a recycling bin, pickup schedule and basic instructions on how to recycle. Recycling lightens everyone’s load, but if you pay for trash pickup, reducing waste via recycling reduces your costs as well.
3. Low Flow to Cash Flow: If you pay for water usage, investing in a low-flow showerhead or toilet will undoubtedly increase your cash flow. But if you want to get a few more flushes out of an existing toilet, try this trick. Fill a half-gallon plastic bottle with water and place it in the toilet tank.
4. Kick the Paper Habit: Most folks are already used to conducting financial transactions online. Why not eliminate paper from routine processes related to property management by implementing paperless billing and rent payment? It’s cleaner, faster and won’t kill any trees.
5. Climate Control: Windows are wonderful, but left unchecked, they can leave you wide open to heat loss in winter and sauna-like conditions during summer. Challenge tenants to leverage those louvers by closing blinds or shades during hot summer days or cold, dark nights of winter.
6. Wrap It Up: Maybe Aunt Betty’s afghan would be put to better use by wrapping it around the water heater to cut heat loss by almost half. Better yet, for a few dollars you can purchase insulating blankets made precisely for this purpose without running the risk of insulting Aunt Betty.

In most cases, being green is really about using common sense. Partnering with tenants to reduce a property’s environmental impact will help to reduce your costs while saving precious resources. Give it a start with the low-hanging fruit and see where your efforts grow from there.

Smoke Free Property Management

 by Kimberly Madrigal

Green property managers are always seeking more sustainable ways to manage their residential communities. One strategy that costs nothing to implement, lowers turnover costs and extends the life of systems and furnishings is conversion to smoke free. For the unconvinced, a local city may soon provide the incentive. Since 2006 municipalities across the country have been passing smoke-free ordinances. Some may set rigid timetables while others allow a percentage of smoking units, but they all have the same ultimate goal. To prohibit smoking indoors.

Luckily consumer acceptance of smoke free regulation is high. Non-smokers not only prefer living smoke-free indoors but surprisingly many smokers do too. A completely smoke free building takes time to achieve. The challenge can be to serve the needs of current smoking residents and their guests during a transition. Smokers may resent the inconvenience of designated smoking areas, but a covered and sheltered area with seating can be a good compromise. Existing tenants are generally grandfathered if an existing lease does not prohibit smoking, so be patient. A longer transition period gives everyone time to adjust. A few may even quit smoking.

 A smoker’s health risks are well-known, but secondhand smoke is the major concern for doctors and government health officials. Multifamily buildings are meant to ‘breathe’, but the ventilation creates a natural conduit and smoke easily infiltrates adjoining units. As children are particularly susceptible to second hand smoke exposure, recent studies have focused on them. Even if a child’s own family does not smoke – if they live in multifamily housing and the neighbor does smoke – they risk exposure. Reuters Health reported on a very large study’s results in February:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/14/us-nonsmoking-apartments-idUSTRE6BD5AE20101214

 “Living in a nonsmoking apartment is no guarantee against the dangers of secondhand smoke, warns a new study that measured a nicotine byproduct in the blood of more than 5,000 children across the U.S. Researchers found that among children in households where no one smokes — at least not inside — those who live in multi-unit complexes were exposed to an average of 45 percent more tobacco smoke than those who lived in detached houses.”

A series of studies have confirmed similar results. Unfortunately other people can also bring chemical residues as secondhand smoke to a home on clothing and their person. As these latest researchers publish more information and it reaches the public at large, there will certainly be an outcry from parents. The Surgeon General has long held that there is no safe level of tobacco smoke exposure for infants and children.

 Going completely smoke free is the best way to prevent second hand smoke exposure, but if this is not yet possible, property managers have some technological alternatives. They can mitigate risk by installing special air filters that are specifically designed to clean the air of smoke. These systems are reasonably priced and useful until managers can implement a full smoke free policy.

 Beyond the improved health and safety of staff and residents, in a smoke free building managers can expect:
•    Paint on interior walls and ceilings to retain a good appearance longer.
•    Paint touchups after minor repairs will be easier to match reducing staffing costs for repainting.
•    Drapes, blinds and carpeting will maintain a better appearance, need less frequent cleaning and have a longer life.
•    Air ventilation filters will need replacement less often.
•    Mechanical HVAC systems will need less frequent servicing.
•    The leasing office and interior spaces and hallways will smell better.
•    Unit bathroom and kitchen fans will need replacement less often.

 On the public relations side, resident relationships frequently improve when there are fewer conflicts over migrating smoke and odors. Management should also receive fewer complaints about general air quality, ventilation and interior comfort. However, one major benefit of a smoke free property very often overlooked is the reduced risk of fire. A quick call to the insurance carrier can verify whether the property will qualify for a reduction in hazard insurance premiums.

Opinion: Government must step in to prevent rental housing shortage

This week’s article….”Fair Housing Laws, by Mary-Girsch Bock.  Are you familiar with the following laws and regulations?  If not, then you need to contact a professional, don’t put yourself at risk, contact us today!  (408) 423.8000

Are you up to date on the Fair Housing Laws? Both federal and state anti-discrimination laws need to be adhered to on a regular basis in order to prevent potential lawsuits from crippling your property management company. Fair Housing laws clearly state that you cannot take specific actions against rental applicants based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or handicap. These actions include refusing to rent a property, setting different rental terms for specific applicants, or providing different housing services for some renters.  Continue reading here   http://www.propertymanager.com/2011/02/fair-housing-laws/

Here comes the sun!  After weeks of rain, we are finally seeing the light.   The nice change in our weather is bringing people out of the wood works to look at our properties for rent.  If you are sitting on the fence, deciding if you should move or not, now is the time!  Beat the spring rush and call us today!
If you are deciding if you should rent out your home or not, now is the time!  With rents predicted to go back to the highs in 1997……why wait!!  Call us today for a free market anaysis on your property!

Thank you for visiting our new site! We are happy to have launched the site and hope you like our new page.  Please visit us weekly to read up on our new blog.  This will benefit both owners and tenants, as we post weekly news on our rental market and the latest in Silicon Valley.  Western Property Group is excited to share all of our new information with you!  Please use our new site to logon as an owner or a tenant.  Prospective residents are now able to complete a rental application and email it directly to us.  Wow, life just got a lot easier didn’t it?  We look forward to working with you!

~The Western Property Group Team