Home Rentals - Do they bring in people you don't necessarily want in your neighborhood?

[Axiom]

Originally Posted by 2 kids and counting

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on this. My family will be making the move to the Phoenix area within the next year. We are questioning something though. We see many times on various news media and TV shows VERY nice homes and neighborhoods that look like nice family areas. Come to find out, this beautiful home is the home of some obviously trashy people (meaning cannot speak proper English when they are NATIVE English speakers, are uneducated, and do not look like they belong living in such a nice house). All of which leads me to believe they are renters.

Wow, judgemental much?

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

Wealthy educated people with nice homes are pretty selective about who they rent to because they care about their home. They are not slum lords nor are they desperate. They do a background search on potential tenants. They require a certain credit rating. They require a one to two month deposit. They require evidence of a job (Pay stubs) or if they are unemployed they need evidence showing they can cover 6 months rent (bank statement). They require proof of renters insurance. Usually only quality renters can meet these requirements. These are not the type of people who just rent to anyone, they didn't acquire that nice home by being stupid.

Which is much more than can be said about requirements lenders were using to qualify homeowners a few years ago.

Hey OP, maybe some of those "obviously trashy people" are actually homeowners who bought when financing was free flowing.

Renters have to actually be able to afford their monthly payment or they get kicked to the curb. Homeowners (homedebtors is probably more accurate) can apply for any number of government affordability programs, strategically default, squat payment free for years, etc, etc.

Point made by Captain Bill is also valid.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

Wealth and education have absolutely nothing to do with character and cleanliness.

Agreed. Because of several other related posts, I think one of the forum members needs to take a peak at chapter one of the Millionaire Next Door. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s...llionaire.html

When I was 32-40, I worked 12-15 hours a day for 7 days a week. I made about 8X more money than I do right now and I am doing the same thing. The economy had something to say about my income but I also intentionally slowed down. I take in more than I spend, I am healthy, and I am debt free so I am counting my blessings. But I prefer to live under my means. I've had cool "stuff" and it didn't make me happy. Therefore I bought in Surprise.

Some might say I was wealthier before. I disagree. I don't define wealth in terms of dollars and cents. I buy used cars, shop at Kohls, Penny's and Costco, send my oldest to a public University, watch for sales, etc. I am definately frugal. So was I better person when I was chasing money??? I could argue the opposite.

So statistically, people in Sun City West (Surprise AZ) might have more wealth and education than some of the hoods in Scottsdale who are trying to look or tout that they "wealthy and educated". I'll take down to earth people over people who pretend to be sophisticated and educated. I have learned that people that brag deep down suffer from low self esteem. Just my 2 cents..

[unit731]

I don't think race, ethicity, religion, or wealth has much to do with such.

But. I think that it is a fact of life that some rich people have the money to go out and buy Sam or Susy a new car if the childrens car breaks down. Thus eliminating the extra junk car in yard. And also some rich folks will pay to have Sam's car fixed quickly eliminating the car on jacks in front yard having the tranmission replaced by Sam himself. With said fluid leaking down the driveway into the street. Does this ever happen in a "rich" neighborhood. Of course it does. Some young people just like to work on cars.

[whodiman]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

Agreed. Because of several other related posts, I think one of the forum members needs to take a peak at chapter one of the Millionaire Next Door. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s...llionaire.html

When I was 32-40, I worked 12-15 hours a day for 7 days a week. I made about 8X more money than I do right now and I am doing the same thing. The economy had something to say about my income but I also intentionally slowed down. I take in more than I spend, I am healthy, and I am debt free so I am counting my blessings. But I prefer to live under my means. I've had cool "stuff" and it didn't make me happy. Therefore I bought in Surprise.

Some might say I was wealthier before. I disagree. I don't define wealth in terms of dollars and cents. I buy used cars, shop at Kohls, Penny's and Costco, send my oldest to a public University, watch for sales, etc. I am definately frugal. So was I better person when I was chasing money??? I could argue the opposite.

So statistically, people in Sun City West (Surprise AZ) might have more wealth and education than some of the hoods in Scottsdale who are trying to look or tout that they "wealthy and educated". I'll take down to earth people over people who pretend to be sophisticated and educated. I have learned that people that brag deep down suffer from low self esteem. Just my 2 cents..

I was going to mention a simliar thing when people were discussing about wealthier people living in good or bad areas. The book above talks about this a bit. very interesting read. Basically the author surveyed several millionaires (not including their homes in their net worth) to come up with their living styles. very surprising facts.

[MotleyCrew]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I can promise you that I've been in WAY to many Doctors, Lawyers, and engineers homes that are messy slobs. Generally speaking, I don't consider most Doctors, Lawyers,and engineers "wealthy" but I suspect you do. I visit peoples 2nd or 3rd home in Aspen or Scottsdale. They are never there and have people who do all of their work for them. They are wealthy and their homes are always kept up. Doctors and engineers are generally missing that all important zero after their net worth and can be too cheap to hire people with their busy schedules.

So your "wealthy and educated" usually live in a nicer neighborhoods but cleaning and upkeep may not be their strength. Everyone cares about their home. But do they care enough to keep it up?? We agree that on average nicer homes are kept up better than more basic homes. But don't fool yourself. Your neighbor one or two doors down could be secretly in deep Hawk getting ready to rent to anyyone before the bank kicks their highly in debt butt out on the streets. It's survival now. They too will rent to anyone.

This made me laugh because two of our clients that were lawyers (couple) and one OBGYN were by far had two of the filthiest homes we have ever been in. I mean poop (busy baby) down the hallway walls, stepping over dirty laundry to get to the room and one, the kitchen looked like hoarders lived there. So I do agree with you, a degree does not necessarily mean they know how and when to clean and how to manage money.

[whodiman]

I am also going to take this one step further. Friend of mine when he first started out with his accounting firm worked with the financial consultants. Fact: roughly 1/3 doctors face financial hardship as in bankruptcy or struggling to stay out of it. This was back in 1998. The consultants asked one of the doctors "If you can cut your monthly expenses down to 8k/mth you'll be fine" but the doctor insisted it was impossible and that they HAD to have the 3 cars , etc. This was just one of the several examples.

don't know if it's still 1/3 but i bet it probably isn't that far off.

[AZ bound]

Originally Posted by azriverfan.

These are not the type of people who just rent to anyone, they didn't acquire that nice home by being stupid.

Sure they did, didn't they call them liar loans?

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by whodiman

I am also going to take this one step further. Friend of mine when he first started out with his accounting firm worked with the financial consultants. Fact: roughly 1/3 doctors face financial hardship as in bankruptcy or struggling to stay out of it. This was back in 1998. The consultants asked one of the doctors "If you can cut your monthly expenses down to 8k/mth you'll be fine" but the doctor insisted it was impossible and that they HAD to have the 3 cars , etc. This was just one of the several examples.

don't know if it's still 1/3 but i bet it probably isn't that far off.

It takes a unique person to go into Hawk in order to be a doctor. The 1st 4 years (typically a biology degree for $70K) is cheap in comparison to the final 4 years. To become a Doctor, the last 4 years are going to run $200K. So statistically, people who are freely able to go into debt also are the people that tend on staying in debt. In other words debt doesn't bother some doctors as much. There is another camp that learns to become extremely frugal because they hate debt. Those doctors long term live within their means and are "cheap" even when they don't have to be.

Speaking of generalizations / stereotypes, I also find that my customers who pay $1M for a 1200 sq foot home in Mountain View CA also don't mind staying in Hawk. They buy a $50K brand new car on credit while having a jumbo loan on their home. They are use to living on the edge. Scottsdale is also full of folks that make good money but live paycheck to paycheck.

If I was a doctor like a Demotologist making $500K+ and young, I'd pay off all of my debts and drive a used car and not take out a loan for a stupid car. Staying out of bad debt when you can is when I consider someone really "educated".

[oldtrader]

It is not the wealthy that put on a real show in most areas you will want to live in. They don't flaunt it if they have it.

It is the ones that want everyone to think they have a lot more than they have, that are the problem. They buy more home than they can afford, fancier cars and run up big credit card bills. It is all flash and show.

I spent my whole life in the business world, and over 30 years as a commercial real estate broker.

I learned early on, give me the man that looked just a normal Joe and a wife that looked like a normal Jane, who wanted to buy something nice. They would be able to buy it, often with small change.

The ones that drove in in the big fancy car, and dressed to the nines, I would prefer someone else have them as a customer as they probably cannot get their credit approved for one more purchase. Spending time with Joe and Jane, made me a lot more money than the guy or gal that just had to wait on that rich couple with the fancy car, and clothes. They would spend a lot of time making a sale, and not get their credit passed and had wasted a lot of time on them.

Joe and Jane's home gets taken care of. Too often: The other one cannot afford to have someone do it, and won't be caught dead letting the neighbors see them doing it themselves.