Policy for Madison - RENTAL HOUSES INCREASING DRASTICALLY!!!! BAD SIGNS TO COME!

[lowendbob]

There is some truth to what the OP stated. I live in Sandalwood east of 55. I know of a few rental properties in the development particularly one across the street from me. The tenants have recently moved but when they where renting there where problems. I am talking about 5 or 6 nursing students that continually had parties, and parked their cars and their friends cars on the street.
I know from experience that most rentals are occupied by an undesirable crowd that come and go as they please.
The home is not an investment for them so why bother with keeping maintenance, and appearance up on the property.

So yes, I am seeing this occur in my neighborhood, but hope it's not a trend.

As far as the mature landscaping goes, that's what attracted me to our neighborhood, and I have not noticed a smell of any sewage.

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by lowendbob

There is some truth to what the OP stated. I live in Sandalwood east of 55. I know of a few rental properties in the development particularly one across the street from me. The tenants have recently moved but when they where renting there where problems. I am talking about 5 or 6 nursing students that continually had parties, and parked their cars and their friends cars on the street.
I know from experience that most rentals are occupied by an undesirable crowd that come and go as they please.
The home is not an investment for them so why bother with keeping maintenance, and appearance up on the property.

So yes, I am seeing this occur in my neighborhood, but hope it's not a trend.

As far as the mature landscaping goes, that's what attracted me to our neighborhood, and I have not noticed a smell of any sewage.

I just looked at the Google Street View of the Sandalwood Drive entrance to your neighborhood. I see what is known as a 'Valuable Defect' (spend a little correcting the defect, and you profit substantially). Nothing "wrong"with the current entrance. But I'm thinking that a hundred thousand spent on a first-rate entrance will add MILLIONS to the value of the subdivision in-aggregate. And it will create "Positive Pressure", as I call it.

Think about homes in Israel. Ideally, they have the capacity for maintaining positive air pressure, when there is a threat of chemical weapons being deployed by the enemy. The Positive Pressure helps keep out the poisons, which otherwise will seep in, through the cracks. Toxic people can be discouraged from entering a neighborhood, if there is 'Positive Pressure'. Competition for homes lowers the threat of slumlords and predatory flippers. Competition helps keep prices above the range comfortable for undesirables. Prestige is a form of Positive Pressure.

Sandalwood has beautiful, large lots. The plantings are mature. The houses, while not new, are clearly luxury homes, rather than the painfully minimal houses you see in some other Pre-Mary neighborhoods. Sandalwood is a lovely neighborhood. But it has NO CACHET. Its 'branding' is weak.

The name sounds like something off the Naming Wheel, circa 1975. It's got no class at all. It's not sleazy or embarrassing, like "Loblolly Pines" (in Florida). But the name is definitely not impressing anybody. Nobody will be paying extra for the cachet of the name. In fact, they will be paying less, because the name sounds dated - and in a bad way.

Then, there's the entrance. Nothing wrong with it. But it's underwhelming. The pylon sign is not pretty or impressive. And the three areas of planting are underwhelming - especially at the sides, where they look dinky, minimal, and just plain PARCHED. Nothing wrong with it. In '75, I'm sure this was considered quite impressive, to people who'd grown up poor, in then-impoverished Madison County. It probably looked "New and Rich" to them. Clearly the sign's designer "Took Drafting at Hinds" (Junior college), where he also was taught how to draft entrance landscaping "With the wagon wheel, an' the cow skull, an' the white rocks, just like in the book." (I've actually had this suggested to me, by draftsmen from that era and area). And a local sign company took the snazzy lettering then in vogue, and composed that tired logotype you've got. I bet they congratulated themselves on how it looked "Just like somethin' on uh motel in Pensacola! or Panama City!"

And really: having something "as nice as in Pensacola" was a huge step up, for rural Mississippi, in '75.
But that was then, and this is now. New benchmarks now apply: http://madisonmsrealestatehomes.com/...1/100_7070.jpg and http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SsQEawSXxA...00/Stives1.jpg

Gate the entrances in a really classy way. Change that Seventies El Contempo name, to something that says "Old Money" (the current one screams, "Uh builder's wahf named Dawrluh picked it off thuh Namin' Wheel"), and establish a REVOLVING FUND, to buy and upgrade vulnerable properties, before scumbag slumlords (or Neal & Anna) have a chance to snap them up.