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Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti
Are you talking about investing on Long Island?
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Many absentee landlords claim to "invest" in the community. They allow their "investment" to look rundown by failing to repair broken gutters, missing shingles, broken storm doors, peeling paint, snapped off vinyl siding, etc.; their tenants amass garbage which blows into the street, sits on the lawn, or festers creating an odor; lawns go unmowed, bushes untrimmed, leaves unraked; yards paved over and cars are still parked all over the street; there's a constant flow of cars zipping up and down the streets exceeding speed limits. That drives down the value of neighboring owner-occupied homes -- you know the places where people have invested time and money to create a comfortable living environment for themselves -- much like the absentee landlord has at his own home.
Student rentals bring unique problems to communities. The absentee landlord doesn't vet the tenants, turns a blind eye to housing code and building code violations. Our Brookhaven politicians are listening to us now that we've had a student rental partially subletted to a non student whose in-house meth lab started a fire, a student rental with an adult non student tenant who was found inside dead of an overdose, and a huge party which (thanks to social media) had hundreds upon hundreds of students and nonnstudents descend upon a student rental house. Kids traveled from upstate and NJ for this. They blocked up roads, walked through people's yards, were caught on security cameras urinating on other people's yards, littered everywhere and ultimately required the police. This resulted in the arrest of 3 non students who traveled from Nassau and the city for the party. Did I mention that this took place in broad daylight?
Years ago I had considered doing this and spoke with a family member who owned rental buildings in lower Manhattan. He told me what I would need to do to operate legally as well as protect myself from any liabilities. For me (your mileage may vary) it wasn't worth it. Shortly after that, my in-laws (who had a legal rental house) had to evict tenants who were allegedly background checked by the real estate agent my in-laws worked with. They destroyed the inside of the house and even went so far as to smear feces on walls, floors, rugs....everywhere. The repair and cleaning cost, added to the legal fees and unpaid rent came out of my in-law's savings. By then my in-laws were older, retired and disabled: this was the final straw. That completely cured me of ever wanting to become a landlord.
An alternative which some of my friends have done is to buy condos where they vacation or wish to retire. They rent them on a weekly/monthly/seasonal basis. This I am considering.
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