We also live in Oakland. I didn't have any luck with agastache and Autumn Joy sedums. The agastache didn't like our cold wet winters, and the Autumn Joy looked horrible. I think it needs more heat than we get. The flowerheads barely turned pink for two weeks, then started going brown, then went black and the stems yellowed. They all looked awful. I yanked out all but two which are in out of the way corners. Osteospermums do well and should be on your list. Don't plant ANYTHING until you have spent sufficient time killing off the Bermudagrass. It took us 3 successive sprayings with Round-up over a period of 8 months, with watering in-between to make sure we got all of it. Bermudagrass is incredibly aggressive and will send underground runners 6' away under concrete to infest surrounding areas. No plant can compete with weeds; in our frost-free zone they must either be pulled or sprayed. Don't forget to mulch, it will make weeding in the future much easier. Trailing lantana is more rust-resistant than shrub lantanas, BTW. I have both, and the shrub lantanas look pretty bad from December-March. They'll do well with either exposure. Hellebores will do well with the eastern exposure. What is plecanthrus neochilus? Do you mean Plectranthus? I have Plectranthus argentatus but that certainly isn't drought-tolerant. Helichrysums are very drought resistant and pest-free. Give them plenty of room because they'll take off enthusiastically. But they're easy to cut back since the long stems don't root. Beautiful foliage, particularly the variety "Limelight". Aucuba, of course, for a eastern exposure. Gives fast verticality, never has any problems, and 'Gold Dust' or similar variegated types are eye-catching. New Zealand flax (phormiums) will do very well with a western exposure and varieties like "Yellow Wave" or "Dazzler" or "Maori Princess" are colorful and carefree. Keep them dry and avoid overhead watering, BTW. The trailing verbenas seem to need a lot more sun and warmth than they get from me. But there's a rare shrub verbena, V. lilacina 'De La Mina', which is a 2' tall, 2' wide, bloom powerhouse. Lacy foliage and spikes of little purple flowers -- it has never stopped blooming since I put it in over a year ago with a western exposure. And of course, the standard Erysimums -- 'Bowles Mauve' and the 'Variegata' are regularly available at the HDepot garden centers. They are short lived but dependable, fast growing, and although they look better with an annual deadheading, they don't really need it. Downside is that the flower spikes are pokey rather than soft, so site it where you're not brushing against it. They will lean towards the sun. 'Bowles' gets 3' tall and around, 'Variegata' is a 1' tall trailer. Both have lavendar blooms year round. Good luck! Kudos to you for being a concerned property owner, too.

It isn't easy to generate a net revenue stream from a rental property under the best of circumstances and is nearly impossible if you are using a property management company. If you want to be a landlord, you really need to be the landlord. If you have to pay someone else to manage the place, that often eats up whatever cash flow was available. As a general rule, you cannot expect for someone to pay significantly more in rent than it costs to cover the mortgage, insurance, upkeep etc at first. The key to making money is to hold the place over time. If you have a fixed mortgage rate, you lock in most of your expenses at today's costs. Over time, rent rates tend to increase, so eventually you should have a positive cash flow. Sometime in the future, you will have the place paid off and then you can just continue to collect rent or sell it and cash out the equity. Of course, all sorts of things can go wrong in the meantime. You can have major repairs. You can have deadbeat tenants. Your town can overbuild apartments and drive your rent down. Who knows what the future holds? If you are looking for a safe, no work way to make money, rental property isn't the way to go. If you are willing to manage the place and have enough other assets to weather the tough patches, then you may want to look into it further.

Remember that if disneyrsh's neighbor was that lame, and that inept, he was going to be too lame or inept to press charges. And I just can't see the cops wanting to bother to arrest her for trespass. They don't like bogus calls. iI annoys them to have their efforts wasted for petty stuff, even when the person complaining has a point; imagine how much energy they'd put into it if his complaint was that she took his trash to the dump and mowed his lawn and painted his hous the same color. "Excuse me, sir, I need to go fight crime." And to make an arrest that would stick, a cop would need witnesses to say it was her, and if it came down to it in court, I bet any neighbor who saw her would lie, lie, lie. No prosecutor would bother. Technically, it may have been trespassing. The risk was nominal, and obviously, disneyrsh's gamble paid off.

MOST municipalities or states have laws that say essentially the same as your old lease said--if the landlord finds a new tenant, they can't keep charging you rent. So really, I bet your situation isn't ANY different than it was in the last lease. It's just that in the new lease, they didn't bother to put in the stuff that's probably covered by local or state laws. And, quip is right--while the landlord has to make reasonable attempt to rent it out, he isn't required to steer whatever tenants he finds, to YOUR apartment. He may not even be required to rent YOUR apartment to any tenant YOU bring him--he may be allowed to say, "thanks for finding me a tenant; I'm going to rent him 2B instead of your apt." That's probably no different, really, than your old lease. You want to buy in an area you don't currently live in--that means market research will be slower and harder (bcs you'll have to travel a short bit to go to open houses, etc. I'm betting March will be just fine. Also, if you're ready to put in bids in December, you'll probably find that sellers are pretty motivated then. If they're selling in Nov,/Dec./Jan, it's usually because they HAVE to. So that might stand you in good stead. I wouldn't sweat the "breaking the lease" thing right now--you need more info on your market, etc. You don't *need* to rush, really--you're living together now, so you're not in a hurry to accomlish that. And the market is probably not rising rapidly, so you don't need to rush on that account. It's possible your current rent in the more expensive area is more than your potential mortgage would be, but by the time you factor in moving costs, points, etc., I don't think you'd come out that far ahead by moving sooner and not later. Esp. if the market is dropping a bit. (also, if you're ready to buy a house together in the next few months, why not just get married in the same timeframe? I've never quite understood the "we know we want to get married in the future but not now" mindset. Either you want to get married, or you don't. If you do, why are you waiting a long time? If someone is willing to go through all the financial permanency and paperwork, etc., of buying a house, why not a marriage ceremony? I work at a weddings magazine, and I really hate that my daily work contributes to the fact that so many people are waiting until they can "afford" to get married--which translates "until we have $20k to waste on a fancy party")