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Have you ever invested your life savings in a business venture... which can include income property?
It is one thing to have ideas and everybody does... quite another when you have skin in the game.
My cosst continue to rise and I am in an area with many rent controlled jurisdictions... over the summer my city imposed a flat out ban on rent increases across the board... funny thing is I have not raised rents on existing residents in years but I do go to market when I have a vacancy... so it was punishing "Good" owners because it hit them harder as they lag on rent increases.
I know the projects... Public Housing has been tried and almost a universal failure and given a choice people will wait years for a Housing Voucher then a few months for housing in a project because people don't want to live in projects.
The alternative, Section 8 Housing, which is privately owned and has proven vastly more successful and greatly limited the cost of shelter since the property owner is on the hook for all costs and no longer government as it is with projects.
What many fail to realize is Real Estate is cyclical... just look at how desirable Detroit was at one time and compared it today with a much smaller population.
In my own city I walked past abandoned homes on the way to and from school... no one wanted them and the city finally came up with a plan to get them back on the tax roll by selling homes for $1 in Oakland CA...
Rent Control has my pitfalls... owners don't invest as happened in large areas of New York...
Just look how Native Americans fared under government housing for generations... is this really a solution?
One way to provide more housing is to remove barriers... many projects here never leave the drawing board... one close to me had so much opposition the land is now open space and no housing will ever be built there... saved from developers and off the tax roll.
A friend took 5 years from conception to completion for 1 single family home in Oakland... the red tape would boggle the mind of most not to mention the fortune it costs to hook up to services and the fees for fire suppression, design review and endless community input.
I must be doing something right having tenants going back to the 1980's and almost all my vacancies are filled by referrals... when I have one.
The government closed large military bases around the Bay on land that was often seized under eminent domain for WWII and opted to sell in most cases... some that bought went into receivership because the risk proved to great... land that was not sold is being flooded and turned back into wetlands... rather that than have homes is what I hear the most.
I get it... it is only natural to want what you don't have or covet what others have.
Wrong I am angry with people who are given legal cartblanch to receive things through cleaver theft, graft and fleece. That is why land lords are so politically active to preserve their grip on their profits, its basically a small time form of lobby.
Not everything the land lords are doing is in the peoples best interest, so then the question has to be asked why are they allowed to exist as a business entity ... because the lobby and favors are exchanged etc. THAT is crony capitalism.
What is a reasonable limit? How much of a cap are you going to put on a businesses earning potential?
It is different because the power company holds a monopoly whereas in non-rural areas you could easily move within two square mile or less; go pull up any major city on Zillow and look how close together those purple dots are. I'd be interested if you could find one example of a LL raising the rent with only half a terms' notice and a court holding a tenant to it. If a LL raises rent 300% it is a clear indication that he either has the unit way under priced and wants to bring it up to market in which case congrats you got one hell of a deal for at least a little while so you should have some savings to cover moving expenses. Otherwise, he doesn't want you there and doesn't know of a polite way to ask you to leave. No one is going to pay 300% over market, and any reasonable adult knows that, so he isn't going to get what he is asking for anyway.
Ok so maybe the answer should be to deregulate utilities and just let them float on the market, how would you like that? Then you could have the city issuing easements across your land to run 6 different gas companies lines. Let me know how you like 6 power lines going across your property and $300 AC electric bills, let me guess you will then carefully craft a disingenuous argument that favors your gripe because now its you getting hit with a big bill.
Regardless of how you label it I have seen rental units within a 10 mile radius all roughly the same prices which were all around 60% of the median income. That leaves people at the median income with only %40 of their income for EVERYTHING ELSE. The rates barely varied by $50.
You could argue semantics but when it boiled right down there is functionally no difference between utilities and rent prices.
Maybe start charging people with collusion and market fraud?
When I get to where I can transitionally retire I would love a state inspector job and just shut these land lords down with code violations unless they are up to code.
I have seen so many rentals (and homes for sale) that have so many code violations its not even funny and they are asking top dollar. Once they start getting hit with 5 figure fines their tunes will change and I would thoroughly enjoy that job though it does not pay much so I would have to have my own retirement padded lol.
And in direct correlation to the skill set you can offer an employer.
I could see that happening if there was some kind of major black death and in some bizarre circumstance employees actually had so much leverage that they could cause a society significant pain.
The real problem with rent control in most areas are the loopholes landlords exploit to make it ineffective. Worse the landlords use the loopholes to make life a living hell for the tenants who do get the rent control.
Can you share which market you are in?
There needs to be a middle ground here. A landlord should be able to increase the rent 10-15% a year, sure. But they don't need to be able to triple the rent with two weeks notice either. No excuses.
Predominantly the Oakland California market although also have Berkeley and SF...
Here is link to the emergency rent increase moratorium
July 1, 2016: 2.0%
July 1, 2015: 1.7%
July 1, 2014: 1.9%
July 1, 2013: 2.1%
July 1, 2012: 3.0%
July 1, 2011: 2.0%
July 1, 2010: 2.7%
July 1, 2009: 0.7%
July 1, 2008: 3.2%
July 1, 2007: 3.3%
May 1, 2006: 3.3%
May 1, 2005: 1.9%
May 1, 2004: 0.7%
May 1, 2003: 3.6%
July 1, 2002: 0.6%
March 1, 1995 - June 30, 2002: 3% per year
July 1, 2016: 2.0%
July 1, 2015: 1.7%
July 1, 2014: 1.9%
July 1, 2013: 2.1%
July 1, 2012: 3.0%
July 1, 2011: 2.0%
July 1, 2010: 2.7%
July 1, 2009: 0.7%
July 1, 2008: 3.2%
July 1, 2007: 3.3%
May 1, 2006: 3.3%
May 1, 2005: 1.9%
May 1, 2004: 0.7%
May 1, 2003: 3.6%
July 1, 2002: 0.6%
March 1, 1995 - June 30, 2002: 3% per year
wow and that's not enough, that's why everyone hates land lords. 3.3% is a pretty healthy increase.
I would cringe to see what the "free market" increase would be.
wow and that's not enough, that's why everyone hates land lords. 3.3% is a pretty healthy increase.
I would cringe to see what the "free market" increase would be.
It is tied to the government CPI... and if you notice the number is different each year.
The last 4 years the CPI range is from 1.7 to 2.1%.
The city fathers also concluded tenants do not pay for garbage service so the city made it mandatory and bill the property owner of record and garbage, water and sewer rates greatly surpass the CPI and owners of residential property are mostly on the hook...
For decades an owner was allowed to Bank increases... in other words not put through an increase but reserve the right to do it later... this too has come under attack as some operators like myself do not raise rents each year knowing we had the option to if needed...
Like you said... everyone hates Landlords from your perspective and really no way to change that.
Property taxes increases have been huge... just about every voter initiative on the ballot passes... citizens of Oakland just approved a 48 year property tax for BART... we have also funded the Coliseum expansion for the Raiders and now the talk is to level the place and leave 80 million still owed by property owners...
I realize many will choose to ignore this as property owners are rich... just like they were circa 2008-12 when every block in my city had at least one foreclosed property if not multiple ones... it gets to be really amusing.
July 1, 2016: 2.0%
July 1, 2015: 1.7%
July 1, 2014: 1.9%
July 1, 2013: 2.1%
July 1, 2012: 3.0%
July 1, 2011: 2.0%
July 1, 2010: 2.7%
July 1, 2009: 0.7%
July 1, 2008: 3.2%
July 1, 2007: 3.3%
May 1, 2006: 3.3%
May 1, 2005: 1.9%
May 1, 2004: 0.7%
May 1, 2003: 3.6%
July 1, 2002: 0.6%
March 1, 1995 - June 30, 2002: 3% per year
I haven't yet dived into the Oakland rent control laws and I know very little about them. However I know what is typical around the country. Would you say be willing to trade the current state of rent control there for something without any exemptions (also known as loopholes) but which would allow up to a 15% increase per year but also severely restrict no-cause evictions (used to get around rent control)?
This is what I mean by compromise. For a tenant even a limit of a 15% increase per year can be a big help over what we currently have all over the country. That is how bad things are.
It is tied to the government CPI... and if you notice the number is different each year.
The last 4 years the CPI range is from 1.7 to 2.1%.
The city fathers also concluded tenants do not pay for garbage service so the city made it mandatory and bill the property owner of record and garbage, water and sewer rates greatly surpass the CPI and owners of residential property are mostly on the hook...
For decades an owner was allowed to Bank increases... in other words not put through an increase but reserve the right to do it later... this too has come under attack as some operators like myself do not raise rents each year knowing we had the option to if needed...
Like you said... everyone hates Landlords from your perspective and really no way to change that.
Property taxes increases have been huge... just about every voter initiative on the ballot passes... citizens of Oakland just approved a 48 year property tax for BART... we have also funded the Coliseum expansion for the Raiders and now the talk is to level the place and leave 80 million still owed by property owners...
I realize many will choose to ignore this as property owners are rich... just like they were circa 2008-12 when every block in my city had at least one foreclosed property if not multiple ones... it gets to be really amusing.
Its not just the current real estate holders who are the issue but also the sellers who are listing at crazy prices. I don't know why any investor in their right mind would pay the asking prices for these rental properties and that is likely the true root cause in a capitalist system.
Who the he!! is paying these asking prices for multi unit properties that cause you to need to get every last cent out of renters just to make a few bucks. The only reason these crooks can make so much is because you all are engaging in a bid war against each other.
I figure I am going to get involved in real estate that interests me (specialty real estate like vacation rental chalets in the mts of an area that is not even up and coming yet) and then put the rest in index funds because in reality the buying opportunities are not there.
But at the end of the day its not a tenants fault that a land lord GROSSLY over paid for a property.
If buyers start putting the screws to sellers and refuse to buy for anything close to what they are asking and chose instead to invest in something totally different these greedy sellers will be forced to do something because the taxes and problems will eat them alive when they are trying to move to Hawaii and enjoy retirement.
I have even thought of business ventures where I hire seedy looking people to have fake fights and gun battles on the streets of the area a client is interested in, drive bys with blanks etc. Make the area look seedy as crap without actually doing anything strictly illegal.
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