  Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 212 Registered: 04-2004 |
Are there really detroit slum lords? Or is it that the rental market in certain areas of detroit (residential or commercial) is so poor that these owners are barly hanging on and have little money if any to make major repairs once they have paid all the major bills. (gas, water, taxes ect..) | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 2262 Registered: 10-2003 |
All I know is, if you are going to call someone a slumlord, you had better as hell be taking good care of your own property, whether you own or rent. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10080 Registered: 10-2003 |
Both situations apply in most places and certainly apply here. As a landlord one has the reponsibility to keep up the property. If they get in over their head I don't have a lot of sympathy. The city, however allows them to get away with it. the city needs to step up their enforcement of slumlords, irresponsible landlords or landlords that can't maintain their property. | ||
Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 213 Registered: 04-2004 |
Jt1, how do you maintain your property if you have no money to do it? dose that mean they are over their head? or is it the market is so poor they can't find renters? | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10082 Registered: 10-2003 |
Monahan - You have to find a awy or face the fines as far as I am concerned. Sell, re-finance, etc. I have little sympathy for people whose poor investment decisions add to the blight of the city. Right now is probably going to be a great time for landlords since homes are being foreclosed and people are looking for places to rent. I've dealt with the landlord game and you shouldn't get into it if you can't afford a patch of rough times. I would prefer that the city seize the properties and auction them off if the landlords are struggling that badly. | ||
Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 214 Registered: 04-2004 |
Jt1, in our great city of detroit people have not been able to find a way that is way we have so many vacant buildings. not just the high rises but the hundreds of multi family homes in the neighborhoods. i think your idea of find away or else is not right because the "way" people find is to close up the building | ||
Amy_p Member Username: Amy_p Post Number: 840 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Ha ha ha ha, good one. (I do hear what you're saying, though, seriously.) | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 1030 Registered: 10-2003 |
Would not the guy who owns the "Burgess for Mayor" and "stop privatization/People Press buildings" on East Jefferson properly be called a slumlord?....well not really because he would have to have one of those buildings in good enough shape to rent something out...thereby gaining the Lord part of the title. He just owns a slum. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10085 Registered: 10-2003 |
Good point Amy. Monahan - What are your solutions? I wonder how many people own properties that they 'can't afford' to maintain but manage to maintain a lifestyle that isn't screaming bankruptcy. Sorry, I have little sympathy for those that make bad choices and have a negative effect on the lives/neighborhoods of others. If they are so broke maybe they should (If they have one) sell their own house and move into their property. I wonder how many takers we would have for that idea. I am sure that there are some honest landlords out there that are struggling but many of them claim poverty for their rentals but live a life beyond those in their rentals. The city needs to enforce code harshly and go after assets of those that let properties rot while living above the standard of their rentals. | ||
Frumoasa Member Username: Frumoasa Post Number: 54 Registered: 03-2007 |
I know many individuals who rent homes out, or who are renters themselves that still manage to keep the home safe and operable. This does not mean french doors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances however. I am speaking of a home that has intact windows and roofing material, a working heating system and a stable foundation. If you can't manage that, you should not own property, especially property that other people will live in other than yourself. Although I think that the city's ACR is a load of garbage for private homeowners (one of my house's violations was that someone REPAIRED the cement front steps, but it wasn't smooth enough), landlords should be required to keep their houses in livable shape, if not for their tenant's interests, for the sake of not getting sued. The real problem however is large companies with a portfolio of properties (anyone remember the mess RIMCO caused when they went belly up?). They should be responsible for taking care of their properties, not dumping them on the city when they are asked to make a repair. Responsible homeownership should not be an expensive proposition, but it does require effort and hard work on the part of the property owner...an ounce of prevention/maintenance is worth a pound of cure/repair. | ||
Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 215 Registered: 04-2004 |
People buy rental properties as an investment. the property should be able to support it self. no one wants to bring money to a property. in many detroit locations they can't sell these properties or even refi them. my solution is to ask these people what is their biggest challenge and see how the city can help them improve. but many people in the city have the attitude that these people should be put in jail and taken to court ect.. no one wants to own a slum or shitty property but if the market sucks, high crime, bad schools, no shopping it is almost impossible to find good tenants and be able to keep up the property | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10088 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: I would like to see the city work with slumlords but this is just an easy way to absolve them of their poor choices/track record. The city should offer core services to its citizens, not bail out people whose speculative ideas caused the city to decline further. quote: I do feel they should be taken to court and forced to repair their property. I have little sympathy for the people who contribute to the city's decline. I think the city should go one step further and go after their other assets if they are unwilling to bring their rentals up to par. How many people have rentals in disarray but live in a decent place on their own? quote: Many people buy the properties as speculators. you are a little too optimistic about investors sincerity. The issues you cite have been issues for 30-40 years. Why didn't they see that before they bought. If you list 4-5 slums in your neighborhood I will happily pay the $2 per search to find the person/location of the owner. My money says that at least 3 of 5 aren't living in conditions equivalent to their properties in your area. | ||
Spiritofdetroit Member Username: Spiritofdetroit Post Number: 572 Registered: 11-2006 |
i think the city itself and a sad majority of homeowner's are "slum lords" in detroit | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10090 Registered: 10-2003 |
True. And to Monahan's point - If the city is willing to help anyone maintain their property let's look at the people that live in homes they live in the city, not someone trying to make money with their investments. I am all for investing but I have no sympathy for people that buy investment properties then fail to maintain them. | ||
Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 216 Registered: 04-2004 |
great idea instead of trying to work with land lords lets fine them and take their assets. so they get so pissed off that they finely board the building up, but that would never happen in detroit. no i can't think of any boarded up buildings in detroit. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10091 Registered: 10-2003 |
So what do you suggest? Any other city fines people that don't maintain their buildings but you suggest a city that is broke and struggling to supply services bend over backwards for people that made bad investments. How do you suggest the city work with them? If they board up the building they better still maintain the outside and the property or they should get fined. Want to take me up on the offer of looking up the owners of the worst buildings in your neighborhood (assuming that you lie in Detroit) | ||
Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 217 Registered: 04-2004 |
"How do you suggest the city work with them" 1. better police more patrols 2. get rid of the crackheads, hookers, drug dealers, 3. bring some kind of jobs back into the city 4. stop using them as piggy banks new this year if you own commercial property in the city you have to pay the garbage inspection fee as well as a pick up fee this dose not include bulk. 5. make sure the street lights work 6. maybe a fire hydrent that works also i already know the owners of the worst buildings in my neighborhood its the city of detroit but hey your right maybe we should take Kwame's navigator | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 394 Registered: 05-2004 |
I'm sure it's just an urban legend especially if you're talking about Detroit. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10093 Registered: 10-2003 |
1. better police more patrols - What does this have to do with landlords. This should be done for all residents regardless of home ownership or not. Kind of silly to consider this helping the landlords when it is a service they should deliver. 2. get rid of the crackheads, hookers, drug dealers, - See comment to number 1. 3. bring some kind of jobs back into the city - See comment to number 1. 4. stop using them as piggy banks new this year if you own commercial property in the city you have to pay the garbage inspection fee as well as a pick up fee this dose not include bulk. - All homeowners now pay this fee. It was on my tax bill that I just paid. Seems like a non-issue. 5. make sure the street lights work - See my comments to 1. 6. maybe a fire hydrent that works - See my comments to 1. also i already know the owners of the worst buildings in my neighborhood its the city of detroit but hey your right maybe we should take Kwame's navigator ---- So in summation you are advocating the city doing things that would be beneficial for residents, landlords, etc. Why the concern over these issues for the sake of landlords and not residents in general. We seem to be in agreement that these items need to be addressed but I would prefer they are addressed for QOL for residents, not so investors properties become more valuable. Same end result but different customer base. Your Navigator comment is just pointless. Now if we are asking questions - What do you propose the city do with all of the homes/buildings that reveret back to them from non-payment of taxes? if you are going to villify the city for upkeep then offer up solutions of how they can address this. | ||
Monahan568 Member Username: Monahan568 Post Number: 218 Registered: 04-2004 |
"What does this have to do with landlords. This should be done for all residents regardless of home ownership or not. Kind of silly to consider this helping the landlords when it is a service they should deliver". It is a service they should deliver but they do not deliver it. and it makes it almost impossible for land lords to find renters thus causing a shortage of cash resulting in fewer repairs ect.. and eventually leading to the building being boarded up. the city first off needs to know what property it has in its inventory (just me they don't) next make the process simple i have seen it way to many times were a homeowner or business owner wants to but a city owned lot of house next to his or her property and the hoops they have jump through almost always makes them give up. | ||
Frumoasa Member Username: Frumoasa Post Number: 55 Registered: 03-2007 |
I think commercial slumlords/speculators should be pursued as fiercely as residential slumlords. I have a view of Greater Detroit Hospital, plus their laundry facility and accessory buildings from my front porch. There is no maintenance taking place at any of the buildings and the north end of the hospital got gutted for copper a few months ago while the laundry facility had a water main stolen and had water pouring out the window for weeks until enough furious calls to the water department were answered. I take very good care of my house, and so do most of my neighbors, but this bad commercial neighbor makes the border between Detroit and Hamtramck painfully visible. My area has a lot of good things going for it, but the view from Carpenter and JC makes people a little leery to see what we have going on. When the main street looks bad, it also affects the side streets, so that is one bad property owner that I have around me that isn't doing jack to that property than letting it get destroyed. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 152 Registered: 06-2007 |
For all rental property in Detroit, the city charges the landlords around $500 for an inspection.They have a lot of fees that add up and they want that money so theyre cracking down.Landlords are going to the poorhouse just by paying the city all this money for things like certificates of occupancy, etc. Hazel Park now requires landlords to have a license. Joe Blow can't just go out and buy a house there now and rent it out without facing huge fines.He has to actually have a landlord license. This is the citys attempt to cut down on the blight that has plagued the city for so long. Problem is, I suspect the most serious cases of blight are either from homeowners too lazy or too financially strapped to do anything to their homes, or elderly people.There are a few big-time slumlords, but I think oftentimes the worst houses on a block aren't even rentals. | ||
Softailrider Member Username: Softailrider Post Number: 64 Registered: 02-2007 |
Not a vocation for the squeemish , I've done business with dozens of landlords over the past 30 years .I've owned more then a dozen rental houses over the years . Too many people watch too much late night TV and think it's a business you can slip into with no prior experience . Nothing could be further from the truth , you better be prepared to chase your tennants as soon as the first months rent and security deposit are used up . Trust me , the majority aren't going to pay . Tennants make playing the system into a art form . Tryning to be Mr. Nice Guy and provide decent low cost housing is a pipe dream . Don't tell me I'm getting into racial issues because I'm not . White tennants and Black tennants are the same . Most are a bunch of dead beats . Give them a decent place to live and they'll leave it trashed . | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 4143 Registered: 10-2003 |
I've done the landlord thing with reasonable success. I found that if I had a nice place for a reasonable sum, in a neighborhood where people want to live, I could do ok. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe I chose my tenants carefully, or maybe both. My landlord MO was inspired by my former landlady, an elderly and slightly eccentric Lithuanian Doctor, who rented me my first place in SWD 20 years ago, and gave "artist" types very reasonable rates. Because I felt like I was getting a good deal, I took good care of her property. I also became a community activist because my neighborhood was plagued by slumlord-owned housing. The golden age for these vermin was when code enforcement and the legal process to take property from those who refused to pay their property taxes went out the window during the Coleman years. The fact that people were pretty much giving away property didn't help. My involvement with a small, all volunteer group began when we carpooled out to Rochester Hills to picket the McMansion of a slumlord who repeatedly refused to make repairs on a ramshackle rental property. The MO of these people was based on short-sightedness. Milk the property, invest no money, don't pay the taxes, collect the rent, then walk away from or burn the property for insurance funds and let the taxpayers foot the bill for demolition. Our neighborhood had several serial slumlords who did this with impunity for years; Many of their properties ended up being owned by the city, and yet these folks continued collecting rent as the buildings gradually deteriorated. Often, these folks sought out low-lifes who sold drugs, as drug dealers are less likely to demand repairs. Slumlords come in all colors; some live in the city, others live in beautiful houses in the suburbs, but I think there are less of them around then in the 80's and 90's. Of course, property values in Southwest Detroit soared in the late 90s and I'd guess that many of these folks later regretted their short sightedness. | ||
Buddyinrichmond Member Username: Buddyinrichmond Post Number: 224 Registered: 02-2004 |
quote: Such trivial things like certifying the building is safe for habitation in this litigious society... | ||
Frumoasa Member Username: Frumoasa Post Number: 57 Registered: 03-2007 |
Buddy, the thing is that certificates of occupancy should stay with the house once it is sold. No house should have its C of O revoked just because it is sold, that is the type of thinking that makes people view the property as expendable. I agree that a rental safety certificate should be required, but certificates of occupancy should only be revoked in extreme cases because a house without a C of O is a surefire way to ask for bad property owners and poor quality tenants that will lower the neighborhood's value in the long run. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 157 Registered: 06-2007 |
My point was, why so expensive? If someone can gie me some insight into why its closer to $500 than $100 please do | ||
Softailrider Member Username: Softailrider Post Number: 65 Registered: 02-2007 |
I'll give you some insight , It's a money grab by the city . Only one of many . | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 118 Registered: 07-2007 |
as my former real estate teacher once said, "low income people need to live somewhere". Make the fix it up or move, if you move, the landlord then loses. | ||
Masterblaster Member Username: Masterblaster Post Number: 84 Registered: 03-2005 |
Jt1, where is this service where you can find the property owner for $2??? It costs $5 if you go to the Wayne County Treasurers office, with an additional $1 for each page of the report!!!! If you can, can you look up the owners of the two-family flats at 3277 Sturtevant and 3315 Sturtevant??? I think 3315 is owned by a bank. These houses have had ALL of their windows either stolen or ripped out. The front doors have been kicked in, and somebody stole all the bricks from the two sides and the back of both houses. In fact, there is another two-family flat in between these two houses that has had the same thing happen to it. It is so vandalized though that even when I went up to the porch, I couldn't figure out what the address for it was. I doubt all three of these houses are city-owned. I suspect they are owned by slumlords. Mr. Monahan, there are so many properties in Detroit where the slumlord don't even secure (board up) the property adequately. There are so many houses that ARE OPEN TO TRESPASS and have had the bricks stolen off of them!!! These slumlords only look to make money, not to maintain there property or beautify the neighborhood. There only motivation is PROFIT. Many do the bare minimum to make the property livable. IT SEEMS TO ME that they care nothing for the neighborhood in which they own the property and from which they profit. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10139 Registered: 10-2003 |
MB - The service is on the BSA website which I believe that the city contracts out: https://is.bsasoftware.com Setting up a profile is free but searching on properties that are not yours costs $2 per lookup. Let me know if you have issues signing up. if you do I will do the searches. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10140 Registered: 10-2003 |
Actually in looking at it you can find the name on the tax rolls. I searched but nothing came up for: 3277 Sturtevant (may be the city's) 3315 Sturtevant was listed as owned by a GARDNER, KENNETH J. I believe that paying the $2 gets the tax data but not the contact data. I guess I answered half of half of your question. |
