How do you JUSTIFY raising someone's rent by $300 a month in PHOENIX?? How??? (house, landlords)

[john3232]

Originally Posted by FirebirdCamaro1220

Why do you need that extra $550/month? It's not like your mortgage or your taxes increased, that's a 50% increase essentially.

Why? Because the upkeep on rentals is constant. Dishwashers, stoves and washer/dryers, paint, faucets need to be replaced every five years. A new roof cost an easy 7-8 grand. No matter how careful I maintain the AC units if something goes wrong during the summer months it's going to cost. Now repairs weren't too much of an issue in SF when I was getting 4 grand a month but not here where $1900 is top dollar. Yet, repair costs are almost on par with SF.

You're not going to find a good handyman for $30 an hour here. Someone who is good is going to charge 50 or more. Even landscapers expect to be paid more. Nothing is cheap compared with say 5 years ago.

[marinezac]

They raise it cause it is what the market will handle, it is that simple. If you want a cheaper place to live maybe move to Kingman

[Tall Traveler]

Originally Posted by john3232

Why? Because the upkeep on rentals is constant. Dishwashers, stoves and washer/dryers, paint, faucets need to be replaced every five years. A new roof cost an easy 7-8 grand. No matter how careful I maintain the AC units if something goes wrong during the summer months it's going to cost. Now repairs weren't too much of an issue in SF when I was getting 4 grand a month but not here where $1900 is top dollar. Yet, repair costs are almost on par with SF.

You're not going to find a good handyman for $30 an hour here. Someone who is good is going to charge 50 or more. Even landscapers expect to be paid more. Nothing is cheap compared with say 5 years ago.

Yep, I just spent $30K fixing up a rental that the tenant just never cleaned. I kept the monthly rental rate there low because the renter paid her rent every month on time for 7+ years and the current value is $500/month more than what I was charging her.

[john3232]

Originally Posted by MissMouse111

That point was made on another outrageous increase. Absolutely no renovations were made.

The owners can get only what the market dictates. If rents jumped from $900 to $1450 than the renter had been in the apartment awhile with little or no rent increase. Which is what happened with several of my rentals.

I didn't want to risk anyone leaving until I moved to AZ, got rid of my PM and started managing the homes myself.

So, two of my renters are paying basically the same rent as 2014-15 when they moved in.

[CAHLUV]

Definitely all over the country unless one can move to a mid-tier undesirable city. That's the only real answer.....this the reality of those that rent.

[SUPbud]

*%%^& Capitalism. They rent those apartments out for MONEY, not because they want to supply cushy places for people to LIVE.


You can check out what apartments are like in say, the former soviet union. There the govt says "one size fits all, concrete tower, shoddy construction, no maintenance" and you are required to live there by law. We have a lightweight version of it in the USA, they are called "Projects". As an alternative, you can check out "rent controlled apartments" in places like NYC, Santa Monica, or San Francisco, but I hear those are hard to get into, as in the waiting list is years-long, same as the Projects. Why in NYC, you have to win the "housing lottery" to get in one.


Your alternatives are:

1) you can move to another apartment. May your next landlord be a little more sleepy and kind.


2) you can buy your own house. As long as you pay the mortgage bank and property taxes and utilities, it's Yours Forever and nobody can take it away or raise the rent.



I myself had a really stellar apartment, built brand-stinking-new in the aftermath of the Northridge quake in LA. Pool, gym onsite, I swear they paid Cover Models to walk up and down the hallways when I toured the place. Had a unreal giant circular window I could watch the moonrise from my penthouse apartment. You could literally fly a DRONE inside the vaulted ceilings in that living room. THEN what happened? They opened the RedLine Metro subway stop walking distance away and raised the rent $3,600/yr. I cried and wrote a nasty letter and shook my fist at the Evil Property Mgmt Company. But they said nothing and I moved out on the 30th.

[Sno0909]

Just to be fair to the OP, she is not talking about SFH. I know she lives in an apartment. She is saying that the complex got sold to a CA company, and then out of nowhere they increased the rent by $300. Pretty sh*tty for the OP, but that's how our economy works. Like others said, might be time to look for a place in a less desirable area.

[SUPbud]

two more alternatives for the OP, or any renter:


1) write your left-ish congressional representative and put in a ballot proposal to introduce rent control, or at least tie/limit rent increases to something like the the cost-of-living or inflation index. Then spend all your Saturdays standing in front of the grocery store or Walmart gathering signatures from registered voters.




2) build more houses and apartments. If it is a supply-n-demand problem, then zoning commissions and environmental impact boards are your enemy, align yourself with the Real Estate Developers - nuke, grade, and BUILD. Screw those endangered species, we need more housing, because population is increasing and people wanna move to the cool towns.




3) leave your town. find employment and make a life elsewhere, where the cost of living/housing is cheaper. It may be little ways away or it may be state lines away. Nothing is promised to you in life.

[john3232]

Originally Posted by madison999

The valley will continue to be a renter's nightmare until the next economic collapse and perhaps throughout and we'll after that.

There is and will continue to be too much money coming in from California. The other side is many of the people from California are not bringing money, they are fleeing.

They bring little or no skills, only competition that depresses wages and increases housing costs.

So where is the next Phoenix? I've never heard so much talk about people getting out of the valley.

If you don't want to leave the Phx metro... West Mesa is still relatively cheap.

Not a great area but gentrification is taking place.

[madison999]

Originally Posted by john3232

If you don't want to leave the Phx metro... West Mesa is still relatively cheap.

Not a great area but gentrification is taking place.

Zillow doesn't really reflect that but I've wondered, there have to be cheaper homes in west mesa. I mean, I've been to those areas. But most of zillow, the times I've checked, are 1/4 million plus.