The Accidental Slumlord

Sadly, I am more disturbed at the author's woe is me attitude like he has done something wrong here. Jewish guilt? Actually, he is providing a service to those who choose to live this lifestyle and for whatever reason, are not willing to better themselves. Not everyone can or wants to go to college or "do the right thing". You can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink. Yes, there are white trash, rednecks and other colored trash in every town. Get over it, these white trash could be in the streets.

I live in Pocatello, not far from the "slum" in question. Why on earth would anyone invest in property "after seeing only e-mailed photos, an appraisal and an inspection report, I paid $62,750 for a two-unit rental property in Pocatello, which is 2,450 miles from my Massachusetts home". Ive had pictures of Bigfoot and aliens emailed to me, doesn't mean I'm investing in bear traps and anti-alien spray. What an idiot.

Here you go Daniel, follow the link. Idaho Sucks, Tell All Your Friends...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1LofGKy4Q

I have never rented a place where I felt the landlord treated me unfairly, I have lived in some real cheap units, I blend in by driving an older vehicle and appear to be scubby. As soon as the landlord notices that I am taking care of the unit he starts to do things for me. I carry the garbage out of the laundry areas, vacumm the hallway, pick the garbage up in the yard or common areas. Usally with in a month or two I am getting free rent and very soon I am getting paid to handle the little emergencies. My total cost is a tool chest that probably has about 200 worth of tools in it...The amount of time is paid back usally at much better rates then what any of the other people living in the buildings are making at their full time jobs. I make about $500 dollars a day and could stay at much more expensive places but why waste my money? I am only going to be working in the city for 6-12 months. People like Will and Bill live in a dump because that is the type of people they are.
Surprise your landlord by starting to help him the next time you see him doing something to the complex you live in...
So many people have the attitute of "If you pay me I will help you." I take the attitute that I dont need to be paid to do what is right and if you dont reward me...well somewhere it will balance out...and it does balance out.

One time I had a landlord break down and cry when I went to pick up my deposit from her. She told me that being a landlord had destroyed her faith in people. She had been lied to so many times...taken advantage of so many times, her properties had been abused so often that she had decided to give up. She said her expereince with me had restored her desire to continue to try to build her net worth by working on real estate.

If you move all of the Wills and Bills to new properties and demolish all the present slums...it will be a very short time till the Wills and Bills turn the new properties into slums.

When the Wills and Bills start to take care of the unit they live in it wont be a slum any more. PS3, beer, drugs, DVD's, CD's and tobacco is where they spend their money. I go buy a $30 box of floor tile and $10 worth of glue and grote and instead of getting drunk or high and watching video's all night I put a new floor down in the bathroom and then I get $450 worth of free rent the next month...In a couple of months I usally have all new floor coverings, fixtures, (both plumbing and electrical), all the walls are freshly painted...new doors, cabinets and windows...but I am not Will and I will not end up like Bill.

Plain and simple: All renters should move out to a better deal somewhere if they don't think the landlord is giving them good value for their rent money. Renters need to look around in the newspapers and look at other properties to rent at least once a year. If they can find something better, then go for it. The landlord in this article is not "exploiting" anybody. He is losing money and having to put up with some sloppy people.

This is all about the law of supply and demand. Rent prices go lower only when there are lots of investors going in and buying or building properties to meet or exceed demand. If a renter wants cheap rent, necessary if you work at low-paying jobs, then the place is not going to have new carpet, new plumbing, etc. If you can pay a little more rent, then you can get a better place to live. If renters think the landlord is not giving them enough value for the money, then please find a better deal by looking around. No landlord is obligated to financially support people who live in their houses. Sorry, but getting other people to fund your housing is not usually going to happen.

Wouldn???t it be nice is everything was free? I agree with all of the haters. Slums are awful. We should burn them down. Never mind the people displaced. The Government can print more money build them nice new apartments and the thankful tenants will keep them nice and clean. Oh wait, we tried that. They are called projects. Not very successful.
There are only 2 ways that things get built: ???Investors??? build apartments for people to live in or Governments take money from investors to build apartments for people to live in. Either way, it is the investors that pay for it. Hang all of the ???greedy??? investors and nothing gets built.
The reality is that people get what they can afford or what they will endure.
I would love for all of you critics to stop whining and provide a solution. While you are at it solve world hunger. That would be more productive than all of your sour grapes.

The "Accidental Slumlord"? Is that like the Accidental Bernie Madoff?" This waste of of space in a national magazine was simply the shameless ploy for sympathy by another "investor" who didn't make the quick buck he expected so is now using this as material for an article. There is perceived risk and assumed risk and obviously the author couldn't tell the difference. There were lots of other investments he could have made that did not impact on the lives of other people but he chose not to. Now he has chosen to add "insult to injury" by striping away any scrap of privacy these people might have had, in another effort to make this "investment" work in his favour. If $213 in carpet remnants (which he says can't justify from a cash flow point of view, despite his obvious neglect) is all that it takes to heal his conscience it's good to hear that he's not teaching an Ethics course anywhere from kindergarden to the university level. His continual haggling, whining and obvious resentment at finding himself without the easy money he expected but a "sticky" situation to deal with is evident in every paragraph.

Shame on the authour for his crocodile tears and Shame on Newsweek for publishing 6 pages of this drivel.

His elitist attitude bordering on sneering disdain for people living without granite countertops is in stark contrast to Marilyn Mock's "step up to the plate and knock one out of the park" action when she decided to buy a house she had never seen for a crying woman she had never met before during a foreclosure auction. She gave it back to the woman and told her she could pay her back whatever and whenever she had the money. That Newsweek would ever consider publishing this nonsense when her story is so much more deserving of 6 pages of ink and photographs is further evidence of a generation of spoiled yuppie MBAs.

The author's Bio lists skills and awards but actions speak louder than words and his actions, writing about them and not so subtle braggadocio of his plight speaks volumes. Here's what Newsweek should do, rebate 50% of any and all compensation for writing/publishing this article to the author's tenants in lieu of all repairs that weren't done and having their private life used as fodder for the "The Accidental Smear". I could be mistaken, but I don't think there is a Pulitzer for self-pity.

I was a renter from college until I was almost 40. I've lived in places with out-of-state landlords, and we would improve the property, always trying to leave the place we rented in better condition than it was when we moved in. Fortunately our landlords fixed the big stuff, but over the years, the properties were never improved. In 1992, we were living in a duplex that came up for sale, so we bought both halves, and became homeowners and landlords at the same time. We've done many things to improve the place, including planting trees and flowers, putting up storm windows, and redecorating. We fix problems tenants tell us about, and check everything out and clean before we rent it out again. The flooring, wallpaper, and many of the appliances and fixtures have been replaced, and I've painted almost every time a tenant leaves. We've do almost everything ourselves, but have hired help for big repairs, like replacing the roof and foundation work. Sometimes all this work has paid off and we've had wonderful people who take care of the property and leave it clean and undamaged. Sometimes we've had people who don't really care. It's amazing how dirty and damaged a place can become in six months to a year. Once in a while we've had people who are utterly filthy and we've had to exterminate heavily and replace all the floors because of pet urine damage. And these were people who lived right next door to us! These carpets were about 15 years old so I didn't feel so bad pulling them out, but cleaning up the smells that soaked into the concrete was a huge chore.

If a landlord has never seen the property, he can't assume that it was in good shape when someone moved in. I wouldn't let them. A landlord who doesn't even know what the place looks like between tenants, who has a manager who doesn't want to replace things because there's no profit in it, can't fault the tenants for the state of the carpets. The young family in the article probably moved in to the place when the carpet was already filthy, but that was the best place they could find. Being on disability is not the same thing as being on welfare, and it's hard to get on SSI - it takes years, most of the time. I'm glad the author of the article did some improvements before he left. He could have stayed a while and done so much more. No one should assume that people are fine with living in filth. Landlords aren't responsible for cleaning that tenants should do but they also should make sure places are clean, livable, and repaired before they're rented to new people.

Sometimes I get very tired of being a landlord, but I do see it as doing a good thing for others, and try not to think about how little profit we've made on it. If I were doing it just to try to make a profit, I would have sold the property long ago.

You should count your lucky stars you haven't had your ass sued for some of your negligent behavior. Seriously. If you don't do careful background checks and you rent to a criminal, you can hold some degree of liability if that tenant causes trouble. If you don't maintain smoke detectors you can get served. If anyone injures himself on your property, you may hold the bag on that as well. There's more ... these were just three I could think of immediately.

I HAVE NOT MEANT A LANDLORD YET. THE ONES I DEALT WITH BECAME SLUMLORDS AS SOON AS THEY CLOSE THE DOOR THE FIRST ONE I TOOK TO COURT YOU KNOW THE COURT IS ALWAYS ON THE LANDLORD/SLUM SIDE. HE WOULD SHOW UP AT THE DOOR ON THE FIRST OR BEFORE THEN IF HE WAS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, MADE PLENTY PROMISES NEVER KEPT ONE. SECOND LANDLORD SHE THE LANDLORD FROM HELL WHEN SHE WENT TO WORK SHE WOULD TURN THE HOT WATER OFF YOU GOT HEAT IN JAN WHICH SHE WOULD TURN OFF WHEN SHE WENT TO WORK,L&I SITED HER ON 19 THINGS THAT HAD TO BE FIXED BUT ITS NOT WHAT YOU KNOW ITS WHO AND IT WAS NOT EVEN HER PROPERTY AND SHE HAD NO RENTERS LICENSE I FOUND OUT LATER IT RAIN IN THE APARTMENT SO SHE GOT IT FIX ON THE INSIDE DUH I STARTED PUTTING IN ESCROW AND SHE TOOK ME TO COURT I GUESS SHE WOULD INTERCERT THE MAIL SO NATURALY I GOT EVICTED AND HAD TO LEAVE MY SUFF SO I RETURN TO COLLECT MY THINGS 15 DAYS LATER AND SHE WAS RESPONISABLE FOR IT AND SHE ROBB ME OF 50,000 THOUSAND PLUS WORTH OF THINGS, OLD COINS DATED 1800 STAMPS PRESIDENT PICTURES SIGNATURES INVITE TO OTHER PRESIDENTS ALL THE WAY BACH TO THE TRUMANS SPORTS CARD SETS FROM THE 60S AND 70S SHE WAS A MESS THEN THE NEXT LANDLORD WE MADE A RENT TO OWN AGREETMENT FOR 55,000 AND IT TOOK 2 YEARS TO GET A STOVE EVERYONE SHE HIRE TO DO WORK SHE FIRE BEFORE THEY FINISH SHE NEVER WANT TO GIVE YOU A RECEIPT ALWAYS WANTED HER MONEY IS CASH THEN SHE DIED NERVER GOT THE DEED FROM HER AND AFTER SHE DIED I REALIZED SHE DIDN'T OWN THE PROPERTY IT WAS A FAMILY MEMBER THAT DIED 30 YEARS AGO SO I THINK I MAKE THE TOP TEN SLUMLORD LIST. ONE DAY I MIGHT GET A WORKERABLE HOUSE.