Investment firms curbing their home buying in California

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-wall-street-landlords-20140329,0,2899743.story



Among the 20 firms buying the most California real estate since January 2012, purchases are down more than 70% compared with last year in each of the last four months.

Investment firms curbing their home buying in California
By Tim Logan
March 29, 2014, 5:00 a.m.

This time last year, investment firms raced to buy dozens of single-family homes in neighborhoods from Fontana to South Los Angeles to lease them out, transforming the mom-and-pop rental business into a Wall Street juggernaut.

The flood of cash helped spark a steep rise in prices, drawing criticism for pushing families out of the market.

But now the firms themselves have all but stopped buying in Southern California, the latest evidence that home prices have hit a ceiling. The professional investors no longer see bargains here.

The real estate arm of Blackstone Group, the largest buyer, has cut its California purchases 90% over the last year, a spokesman said. Santa Monica company Colony Capital reports a similar retreat. Oaktree Capital of Los Angeles, meanwhile, is looking to cash out by selling its portfolio of more than 500 homes, many of them in Southern California.

[pipoman]

1. The residential rental market requires

Micro management. The difference between profit and loss is noncommercial repairs, monitoring tenants for move outs and useage, monitoring utility bills are paid, and on and on. Most renters are turnips when it comes to recovery of damage costs and deposits can't be high enough to pay for commercial repairs.