Owner-occupied — now I know what this means
I have nothing against renters, and I understand that buying and rehabbing properties is a way to make money and also a means by which a neighborhood can have a new life.
But this house in my neighborhood tells a different story.
It’s a story of someone — I’ll leave his name out of it — buying a house in Grant Park in 2001 and NOT fixing it up. And then renting it to people who sat on the porch all night, carrying on and occasionally chasing after the dog rather loudly.
House in so-so shape = tenants who aren’t going to pay top dollar and hence probably don’t require the landlord to mow the lawn, maintain the property, etc.
I think the photos make this house look better than it is — probably because it does have potential. But the front and back yards are completely overgrown (see below); the netting is ripped from the screened-in porch you see in the photo; the paint is peeling; and there’s a note on the window warning trespassers to go away (too late; three air-conditioning units were stolen).
The tenants who carried on eventually moved on. And the house sat empty. It’s been empty for at least a year. And at first, that was good. I mean, there were no more disputes with drunk girls who thought nothing of yelling in the middle of the street at 4 a.m. on a Monday night.
But you can’t deny that the house is a hole in an otherwise vibrant neighborhood.
A hole that’s now attached to a foreclosure notice. The bank bought it in December, and has tried to sell it since. Friends went to visit it, and I guess the internal configuration of the house’s two units is a bit odd, and of course, the house needs a lot of work.
So now who’s going to buy it? Someone nice? Someone local? Or someone else from Fayetteville, which is where the last owner may have lived, and which is far enough away that regular oversight is just not likely (and in this case did not happen).
And I tell this story because everyone who reads the blog can relate, unfortunately. This is just one house in Grant Park. Two blocks away there’s another house with a large For Rent sign in the front window. And yet the front lawn is completely overgrown, and the man from Bartow County who was working on the house recently either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
Hey Bartow County man: is YOUR lawn unmowed?
Why do you think it’s okay to treat OUR neighborhood this way?
Interestingly, I passed this house recently and saw the same car in the driveway and a woman on the front lawn. When I looked closer, I noticed the front window was broken. She said someone had thrown a brick through it but didn’t break in.
Uh, hmmm, I wonder why? I mean, I don’t want any homes near me to be victims of burglaries so I do sincerely sympathize with her. But on the other hand, what made her think she could just leave a house that’s obviously vacant and not run into trouble?
And again, why does she think it’s okay to do it in this neighborhood? Would she considerate it acceptable in her own neighborhood?
I think we know the answer to that one.
While in the past, I’ve had issues with the tenants who lived in this home, the real culprit is the owner. That’s the person who conveyed in one way or another that he couldn’t be bothered to make the house nice; he just wanted to make a profit.
There are nice renters everywhere, and these renters just took their lead from the owner, who clearly didn’t care what happened to the house as long as the rent was coming in.
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Comments
3 Comments on Owner-occupied — now I know what this means
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Jeff Baillis on
Wed, 26th May 2010 8:29 pm
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Jeanne Bonner on
Thu, 27th May 2010 8:21 am
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Beverly on
Sun, 6th Jun 2010 9:13 am
I understand your frustration, but neither of these properties sound like they are owned by full-time investors. Most likely they bought these properties after watching a Flip This House episode on A&E or ordering a Carlton Sheets package from a late night infomercial.
The fact of the matter is that unless you do this full-time, and buying at VERY LOW prices, it is damn hard to make a profit being a landlord these days. Water bills, tenants who don’t pay (whether because of losing a job or just an itinerant lifestyle) , maintenance, vandalism, etc. all eat away at those profits that seemed so attainable on paper.
Not to excuse their negligent property ownership, but my guess is they don’t have the savvy (and probably not the cash) to do what needs to be done. Doesn’t help the situation, but it’s probably pretty close to the truth.
Jeff, you raise a great point. I actually wasn’t meaning to suggest the owners of these homes are slick property speculators or New York investors so I’m glad you weighed in.
In the case of one of the homes, the owner appears to have bought the property (according to tax records) years and years ago for a song so if he’s not making money on the rent, he’s doing something wrong. And bear in mind I have both types of landlordship in front of me: I know who the attentive landlords are either because I actually know them because they, too, live in the neighborhood (the best strategy and a win-win for all), or because their properties are immaculate.
In any event — whether they are making money hand over fist or not, these property owners are certainly not being good neighbors, and they are hampering the efforts of owner-occupied homes to make our neighborhood pleasant and inviting.
Right now there is a mountain of unwanted items in front of one of the renter-occupied homes in my neighborhood. The tenants moved out and I’m guessing the owners live in, I don’t know, Cumming, or wherever, and have not bothered to come by and remove the shopping cart (no joke), the old shelving, the discarded magazines, the steamcleaner, etc, from the front curb. Instead the rest of the neighborhood gets to look at what HIS tenant left behind.
My main beef, I guess, is out of sight, out of mind.
And as for having the money to do what needs to be done, in many cases that may be true, Jeff (especially with this oddly-configured home that I photographed above).
But, uh, it won’t cost anything to remove the shopping cart and mow the lawn.
That stinks about the slummy, absent landlord situation. It’s not easy to make a buck on house rentals.
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