By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company I recently received the following question by telephone: QUESTION: We have lived in a rental apartment for some years and have ALWAYS paid our rent on time. The property was sold a few months ago and we are having all sorts of personality problems with the new […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company I am afraid to compare title insurance to women, so I will compare the industry to “the opposite sex.”  You can’t get along with them or without them. Actually, some men stay bachelors all their lives and some women give up on men and stay single for […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company In a recent column I explained in detail the theory of real estate leverage that a customer had recently asked about. In the same conversation that customer asked for a definition of “the greater fool theory.” I thought that would be a good, light topic to discuss […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company One of my clients recently asked me (somewhat sheepishly) to explain real estate leverage. They actually understood the basic concept but not the down side. Let’s use some SIMPLE (perhaps unrealistic) examples. Your neighbor buys a $100,000 small rental house. The purchase price is all cash—no loan. […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Picture this scenario: In 1991 you buy a $200,000 house with 10% down and obtain a $180,000 first trust deed from XYZ Bank. By 1994 the real estate market is depressed and the house is now worth $140,000. In the interim period, you have lost your job […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company “I want to buy a foreclosure property.” This is a statement that is made daily by people contacting real estate brokers. An offshoot is, “How can I buy a property in foreclosure?” The real answer to this question or statement involves a discussion of the technical aspect […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company In a previous column I complained and expounded on the “hidden Glendale tax.” The bottom line of that column was that local professionals, contractors, builders, architects, engineers, property owners, etc. were beside themselves with frustration in dealing with the building department in Glendale. Though I authored a […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company If you are planning to remodel your house or commercial property or build a new house in Glendale, or if you have done so in the last 15 years, I want to warn you about the “hidden” building tax. When you go to the city and pay […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company For my inaugural column in the Glendale Gazette, I have decided to revisit an old friend: the bi-weekly mortgage. If you own a house or a piece of property anywhere in the United States, you are probably making a mortgage payment to a private party or conventional […]

By PETER ROSENTHAL, President V.I.P. Trust Deed Company Though most of you fully understand what I will lay out in this article, I thought it would be good to revisit the beauty of the starter investment in a single family residence, duplex, triplex or fourplex. Certainly a better case can be made for an investment […]