An interesting bit left out of the piece: it appears Mr Jiang is a real estate broker, who shares an office address with an investment firm in Walnut Creek, and represented himself in this purchase. While this story certainly speaks to unacceptable dysfunction in some respects, I think the "young family just trying to make it and running into unpredictable obstacles" framing may not be the whole story. "Experienced flipper is shocked to realize that the real estate bureaucracy is dysfunctional and he should have done some more contingency planning for this major work" would have been a much less sympathetic headline, of course. I think we should be able to tackle these processes, which obviously need reform, without the heartstring-tugging massaged narrative. Everyone deserves a better-functioning city.