A Beverly Hills real estate agent not only ignored a California law, but grossly violated it. That’s what California Attorney General Rob Bonta had found recently, announcing charges against Iman Eshaghyan for “allegedly advertising, listing, and eventually renting two properties at a cost that exceeds” the state law that prohibits price-gouging after a disaster, reported LAist.
After L.A.’s wildfires in January, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, which stopped landlords from raising rents by more than 10 percent. But Eshaghyan allegedly jacked up the rents at the Beverly Hills properties by a whopping 30 percent.
The Eshaghyan controversy is just one more example of the real estate industry showing its true colors, always looking to make king-sized profits off other people’s misery. It’s why we keep saying, and will keep saying, that only rent control will rein in predatory landlords.
In fact, a recent white paper published in the Harvard Business Review made that point, too.
Since we’re bringing up that white paper, it’s a good time to mention that Housing Is A Human Right has collected its key reports and articles about rent control, corporate landlords, the California Apartment Association, and California YIMBY in a single article so people can have easy access to that vital information. People can also use the link for the piece to share on social media or to send to family and friends, which we strongly recommend. It’s good to spread the word.
In the Midwest, the Milwaukee Independent reported recently that in a “review of records from the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access system, Milwaukee’s Assessor’s Office, and eviction tracking projects shows in certain ZIP codes, evictions are not isolated acts of hardship but part of a high-volume business model.”
The Independent also noted: “Many of these companies are registered under shell corporations or real estate trusts, making them difficult to identify by name.”
In short, the real estate companies make big profits by constantly evicting tenants and then charging higher rents for new tenants. They are not acting as “housing providers” (a public-relations term the California Apartment Association loves to use instead of “landlord”), but purely as predators who are trying to squeeze every last cent out of hard-working people. In Milwaukee’s case, Black and Latino tenants have been the primary victims of the “high-volume” eviction model.
Talking about predators, you may be amazed (we’re not) by the number of news stories about a developer or some other person in the real estate industry hiring a hitman to kill a partner or a wife or whomever. The industry, in other words, has a hitman problem.
In Florida, last year, a “Miami real estate titan,” according to HuffPost, allegedly put out “multiple contracts” to kill his wife, which included poisoning, arson, a hit-and-run, and two gun-related attempts. The titan, Sergio Pino, killed himself before an FBI raid at his $8-million waterfront mansion.
In New York, in 2023, a son was sentenced to life in prison for ordering a hit job on his father and brother so he could take over the family’s real estate empire, the New York Post reported. The father was killed, and the brother survived. The son would have seized control of some 90 properties in the Bronx worth around $45 million.
In California, also in 2023, real estate developer Arthur Aslanian was found guilty for plotting murders for hire, The Real Deal reported. Aslanian planned to have two people killed: an attorney who represented him in a bankruptcy proceeding and a person who stopped Aslanian from taking possession of the home where the person’s parents lived.
Aslanian also allegedly paid another person to set fire to a vacant unit at his North Hollywood property to try to force tenants out of the building. He was found guilty for conspiracy to commit arson.
And there are many more examples, which we bring up for a very important reason: the real estate industry is filled with these kinds of people, and that’s the industry that’s preying upon middle- and working-class tenants. For decades, the predatory thing has been deeply ingrained in the culture of the real estate industry, which makes one wonder about California YIMBY and YIMBY Action, who’ve been quick to work with predatory corporate landlords the past several months in a very public way.
(Yes, there are good people in the real estate industry, too.)
So we’ll say it once again: politicians must pass strong tenant protections, including rent control. Regulations are the only thing that are going to keep the predators honest, or at least hold them to account.
Published by Housing is a Human Right
Since we’re bringing up that white paper, it’s a good time to mention that Housing Is A Human Right has collected its key reports and articles about rent control, corporate landlords, the California Apartment Association, and California YIMBY in a single article so people can have easy access to that vital information.
The link you provided does not lead to a “single article”.
“Housing is a Human Right” views YIMBYs as part of the problem – on the same side as the California Apartment Association.
For example:
“The interesting thing about the delay of AB 1157 is that the CAA thanked California YIMBY and YIMBY Action for their work on stopping the bill for now. It’s interesting because those YIMBY groups also teamed up with the CAA and corporate landlords to kill Prop 33 in 2024 – like we mentioned before, the initiative would have ended statewide rent control restrictions. ”
“So California YIMBY and YIMBY Action are clearly foot soldiers for Big Real Estate.”
“They try to cast themselves as progressive organizations, but that’s the Big Lie they’re pushing these days. California YIMBY and YIMBY Action are doing the bidding of corporations, and not just any corporations, but companies that target Black tenants for eviction; use RealPage software to collude and wildly inflate rents across the country; and use the California Apartment Association as a blunt instrument to kill any kind of tenant protection in any jurisdiction in California.”
https://www.housingisahumanright.org/the-real-dirt-corporate-landlords-target-black-tenants-big-real-estate-delays-pro-tenant-bill-the-shame-of-yimby/
(This is also what’s so reprehensible regarding most of the state’s actions. They’ve taken the side of YIMBYs and the California Apartment Association, but attempt to hide their actual motivation – just like the YIMBYs themselves. Unfortunately, it seems that it’s fooling some people.).
And in this particular case (allegedly going after a particularly-egregious “price gouger”), it allows them to pretend that they’re actually on the side of tenants. Hell, even their YIMBY supporters themselves would hop on that train – at least for publicity.)