Utah Real Estate Investors Association

One of the most effective public policy campaigns of the last few decades has been the one that taught us not to park in spaces reserved for the disabled.

A combination of robust public education and stiff penalties has helped make it universally understood that able-bodied persons should avoid parking cars there.

A newer push is underway to curb the growing practice of people passing their pets off as service animals. While most people associate the conflicts this practice presents with access to business - particularly restaurants - landlords are also increasingly impacted.

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Each Spring/Summer the Home Depot invites students from other countries to work at the stores located in Sandy, Brickyard, and West Valley.

On March 27th the Sandy store will have 11 students arriving from the Philippines. At this time, they have no housing. Students will stay through June with a few staying until August 10th.

If you have a vacant house (preferably with utilities connected), this would be a perfect opportunity to get it rented for a short term. Each student plans to pay $300 per month and they would prefer to stay together, if possible.

Here are other requested guidelines from the Home Depot:

• Close (walking, bike, or bus) to the Home Depot South Sandy (135 East 11400 South)
• One bed per student (they can purchase their own air mattress if beds are not available)
• Can sleep several to a room (last year 8 slept in one room with bunk beds)
• Access to a bathroom and kitchen (can share with the rest of the household)
• Owner is required to pick up students from the airport upon their arrival

If you are interested, please contact Danielle Lueck at (801) 523-0069 x 077 or send an e-mail to danielle_r_lueck@homedepot.com.

As there has been a great deal of hype on all sides of tax reform, let’s see if we can dig into the issues with more light and less heat.  Hopefully you find this helpful and instructive on items that will no doubt have lasting ramifications and unintentional consequences for many years.  The summary: The reforms should be good for real estate, with tax advantages for pass-through entities improving.  Before making decisions based on tax reform, please be sure to speak with a tax accountant up to date on the all real estate rules, as those will be coming fast and furiously from the IRS!  To start, let’s get a quick understanding about “the process” and how we got here:

The rules in the Senate, specifically those about budget reconciliation drove the GOP Tax Reform process; or more perhaps accurately, hemmed it in.  The Senate rules would not allow not budgetary items to be included in the bill, though somehow the opening of the ANWR for oil drilling was deemed appropriate.  I say that not to be tongue in cheek or sarcastic, but to highlight that the rules of the Senate can be rather extensive and somewhat archaic.  Nothing illustrates that more the Byrd Bath, or Byrd Rule, named after Sen. Byrd of WV, who was prolific in his ability to ear mark projects (and have them named for him throughout the state).  This provision limits a budgetary item from being either “extraneous” to the budget or would significantly increase the federal deficit beyond a ten-year term.  T
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Minimize your risk of getting a bad tenant by following these important pointers:

Screen Every Applicant

Background checks should include five steps:

1. Credit

2. Criminal

3. Financial (income, employment, overall stability)

4. 
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Our friends at the Utah Apartment Association has notified us of a need to alert our Senators of the desire to make Section 8 an Optional Government Program. Details are below:

The rental housing industry had a big week at the legislature and we need your help to make sure our gains are not released.

What we need from you:

Housing Authorities and their advocates are engaged in a grass roots efforts to contact Senators to urge them to vote against a bill that is GREAT for our industry and affordable housing. We need your help contacting your Senator as a constituent and letting them know how good this bill will be for affordable housing. SB 175 Fair Housing Option Amendments, Margaret Dayton (R), Orem, has passed out of Senate committee and will go to the floor of the Senate this week for a vote. The housing authorities and advocates will be sending emails this week to Senators claiming the sky will fall if this bill is passed. Nothing could be further from the truth and emails from actual constituents of each Senator will counter this hysteria. We need your help to let your Senator know what this bill does and why they should support it.

What this bill does:

It allows Utah landlords to opt out of working with housing authorities, by allowing us to refuse to work with the Section 8 voucher program without being discriminatory. Here is the actual language of the bill:

(a) Government assistance payments paid to a landlord under
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