Family Traditions and Legacies By Sonya Loera

BY SONYA LOERA

Holidays are a time of family gatherings and upholding longheld traditions. However this year, as we all acknowledge, is apt to include a lot of change. On the bright side, perhaps, new traditions will emerge.

The same also might be said for your legacy plan.

Many of the articles written by Bill Gorman, Tim Gorman and I have addressed the dollars and cents aspects of apartment ownership. We have covered a host of topics related to income property investing, but the bottom line comes down to your personal goals and vision for the future.

What is it that you really want your ownership to accomplish?

For many apartment owners, they see their rental properties as their legacy. Years ago, they purchased maybe just a rental house or condominium, a duplex or a fourplex. Some have never sold that original property but have continued to purchase more. Others have used the 1031 exchange process to obtain more and larger buildings.

Over the years, the cash flow from those properties often helped to pay for college educations, provide a down payment for a son or daughter’s first home, and offer the security of a good retirement income. In many instances, the properties themselves became a second or — as their spouses might claim — a full-time job.

But what about now? For Orange County apartment owners, the past year has presented challenge on top of challenge. First there was statewide, mandated rent control and everyone had to learn new regulations as well as deal with potential income limitations. Then the coronavirus arrived, along with another new layer of complexities.

Back in the beginning of the year, Tim Gorman wrote a series of articles on “How to Survive and Thrive with the New Norm.” He imparted a lot of very good, pertinent steps that owners could take to understand and evaluate how well their properties were serving their goals.

The only problem is that the “new norm” has continued to change and it is becoming more and more difficult to know what to do. But, as Tim and Bill will both tell you, now is the time to go back to the basics. And the very first step is to evaluate how your properties are performing in fulfilling both your near-term needs and your long-term objectives, which have, undoubtedly, been evolving over the course of your lifetime.

If your goals involve your family, particularly in regard to having your children inherit your properties and carry on the tradition of wealth building through real estate, now is also the time to do a check-in with them.

As you sit around the table (inperson or virtually) during this holiday season, do some observing and some asking. Just as you have met and adjusted to challenges in owning and operating your apartments, your children have probably faced an equal if not greater number of changes within their own personal and professional lives.

Maybe this is not a bad time to ask about goals and bucket lists. Although no one has the answer as to what the future will bring, especially with all of the disruptions that are happening at the moment, planning a path forward is one way to gain a sense of control over one’s life.

The key will be to listen as well as to share your own hopes and aspirations. No decisions need to be made. But what you learn may help guide you in your own evaluation and planning regarding your properties and your legacy. Perhaps your children and their children’s paths are heading in a different direction than your own vision for their future. Maybe taking over your properties is not going to turn out to be the right answer for what they can and even want to accomplish. Now is a great time to do a little thinking and looking into all of the possibilities.

Creating a world of possibilities might just be a wonderful way to start a new tradition as well as leave a lasting and meaningful legacy.

About the Author: Sonya Loera joined WR Gorman & Associate in 2013. With a background in accounting she serves as not only officer manager, but also as property manager, transaction coordinator and real estate agent.

Founded in 1972 by William (Bill) R. Gorman, this Brea-(CA)-based firm focuses on personalized wealth building through real estate. With a client-first philosophy, the firm serves as a n expert resource for informed decision-making and transitioning that creates sustainable legacies for investors and their heirs.

The Apartment Association of Orange County (AAOC) is pleased to announce Senator Melissa Melendez as AAOC’s Legislator of the Year for 2020. Senator Melendez has been a stalwart champion of the rental-housing industry, previously as a member of the State Assembly and now as a member of the State Senate. In 2019, Melendez gave a strident Assembly Floor speech against rent control bill AB 1482. This year, she was equally vocal on the Senator Floor against the last-minute eviction moratorium bill AB 3088 and the fact that debate was severely limited due to COVID-19.

Melissa Melendez was elected to represent California’s 28th Senate District in a May 2020 special election to replace Senator Jeff Stone who resigned to accept a federal appointment to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Senate district is entirely in Riverside County and includes the cities of Blythe, Canyon Lake, Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Indio, Lake Elsinore, La Quinta, Murrieta, Temecula, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and Wildomar. A number of these cities are part of AAOC’s Riverside County territory, meaning that Melendez is also one of the association’s state legislative representatives.

Prior to her election to the Senate, Melendez represented California’s 67th Assembly District from 2012 to 2020, and before that she served on the Lake Elsinore City Council from 2008-2012. She is also a United States Navy veteran. Melendez served her country for 10 years during the Cold War, and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After retiring from the Navy, Melissa started her own small business providing transcription services to high-level Pentagon officials.

During the 2019 Assembly Floor debate on AB 1482, Melendez was quoted as saying, “The voters said ‘NO’ to rent control last [2018] election. So today the legislature signaled they couldn’t care less about the will of the voters and passed rent control anyway. This is a disincentive for people to build, and what we need is to build.”

During the final week of the 2020 State Legislative Session, the Republican Senate Caucus was prohibited from entering the State Capitol due to a positive COVID-19 test of one Republican Senator. Cast from the chamber and told that their input would be limited, the self-quarantined Republicans staged a remote revolt via Zoom. “So, you’re just going to shut Republicans out of debate?” said Melendez. “Not only are you going to kick us out of the chambers for no good reason, but now you’re not going to allow us to debate and speak on behalf of our constituents?” Senator Melendez went on to famously say on Twitter, “Senate Democrats just voted to limit the number of speakers on a bill to only two speakers. This silences the voices of millions of people so Democrats have enough time to pass their crappy bills before midnight. This is outrageous and is Complete Bull***t.”

Melendez is an outspoken leader who stands firmly upon her principles in support of housing, small business, and private property rights. Now, more than ever, the rental-housing industry needs legislative champions who not only recognize the political threats to our industry but who will stand up and be truth tellers in the halls of the Capitol and in the news media.

The Apartment Association of Orange County appreciates all that Senator Melendez has done to represent and defend the rental-housing industry and we are pleased to honor her as AAOC the 2020 AAOC Legislator of the Year.