New restrictions on short-term (Airbnb, etc.) rentals in L.A., damn it

Have you been considering building a guest house on your property and renting it out for short term rentals? Or do you have an extra bedroom that you've thought about using as an Airbnb-type rental? Or, are you planning to buy a condo for short-term rentals? Well, Los Angeles is putting some restrictions in place this July.  The link is below.  The main restrictions are:
- You can only rent out your primary residence;
- It has to be registered with the city; and
- It cannot be rented out on a short-term basis for more than 120 days a year.

https://planning.lacity.org/ordinances/docs/HomeSharing/adopted/FAQ.pdf

Yup, this makes short-term rentals much less attractive.  On the good side, this will probably cut down on noisy party houses that have been driving neighbors nuts.

Is your personal info safe during a real estate transaction? Probably not.

As we all know, data collection and privacy issues are a real problem these days.  Data sales are a big, big business, and several national real estate brokerages now admit to being in the business of selling data.  The good news is there are lots of state and federal laws to protect your privacy.  See California's https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/privacy-laws. 

But some of your info can still be sold.  How can your real estate company, escrow company, bank or title company protect you from having your data sold? First, review the company's privacy policy and ask questions.  The company may be able to furnish you with an opt-out form.  Second, ask if data and files are stored in an online platform.  Some online platforms are theoretically safe (such as your lender's), but some are furnished to third party companies.  If the company does store the info, again ask for an opt-out form or ask if it can be stored in another manner.  Finally, make sure that you are on the do-not-call registry, although this is no guarantee that you won't get annoying calls soliciting your business.  A client of mine recently got about six calls from every five minutes from Realtors who wanted her business.  And her phone number was unpublished.  Her mother got calls too, even though her number is also unpublished and she doesn't even live with her daughter!  (By the way, the info was furnished to Realtors by a company called REXD.com -- steer clear!)

Wonderful L.A. architecture -- the Stahl house

Are you interested in Los Angeles residential architecture? I was privileged enough yesterday to tour the iconic Stahl house.  You've likely seen tons of pics of this place, including the famous picture above.  It was built by Pierre Koenig in 1960 in the Hollywood Hills and featured a completely modern design of steel and glass.  It opens to a panoramic view of Los Angeles as well.  If you are interested in taking a Los Angeles architecture tour, you may want to sign up for Meetup's L.A. Architecture and Art tours.  No, these are not free, but these small group tours are lead by professional docents and expert educators.  You can see more pics on my Facebook page: Facebook/judygraffrealtor. In the picture below, I am sitting in the same spot as the woman in the picture above.