----- Original Message -----
From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, May 29, 2000 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: A moment of silence...
> > > At the end of last month, Haltek Electronics, Mountain View,
> > > CA closed their doors. Not because they wanted to, nor because
> > > they didn't have a loyal following, but purely because of greed on
> > > the part of their jackass of a landlord.
>
> > > It seems that their lease was up for renewal. Their landlord,
> > > decided to get greedy, and wanted to at least double what they'd
> > > been paying for rent (maybe even 2.5 or triple... I'm not certain).
> >
> > Bruce. You don't live in the area here. You don't understand the
reality
> > of the situation. In case you hadn't noticed, there is an economic boom
> > going on here unparalleled in the history of man (or so the economists
> > say, but at any rate, it's huge). The market for real estate in the
> > Silicon Valley, for better or worse, is skyrocketing. Property values
> > have shot up, along with rents.
>
> I still don't get the idea - Silicon Valey (Contra Coast, Alameda and
> Santa Clara), an area 4 times larger than Munich (City of Munich and
> Munich county) and just roughly the same population, and you're talking
> about skyrocketing prices ? maybe they should start to build something
> (preferable something other than highways).
>
> Well, anyway, beside all this there's still a question what impact
> this may have for our hobby, and future geek generations. Without
> some scrap dealer next door, it's hard to get in touch with usefull
> devices....
>
> > Now, in a communist state, this landlord would indeed be a greedy
jackass,
> > or worse! But here in the good old U.S. of A., he's a capitalist. Why
> > should he be expected to operate as a charity?
>
> Hmm - I'd rather prefer a constitutional state where everybody
> receives some protection by law ....
>
Protection??? Protection from what? Protection from having the opportunity
to own real estate (which fewer Germans than Americans do) as a hedge
against inflation? It's no secret that when housing prices double, it's
likely everything else doubles along the way as well, so that's just
inflation. The fact that real estate rises in price as the population
rises, is no mystery. Will Rogers said that it's always a good investment
to buy a piece of the rock ... they don't make it any more.
My last rental property, a 10-acre rural property, was continuously rented
to the same tenants for 14 years, by my late ex-wife, BTW, but no matter.
When I finally got them out of there, it cost me $13K to have the trash
hauled off, the dirt hauled out of the house, and the premises, e.g.
outbuildings, fences, etc, repaired and cleaned, aside from which I spent
dozens of weekends on the premises making not-so-minor repairs to the house,
barn, and lesser outbuildings, not to mention the seriously damaged water
system(ruptured reservoir bladder, damaged wiring, worn-out pump) , which
cost another $4K to repair. The rent had remained the same for 12 of the 13
years these tenants had occupied the place. I did have offers to rent it at
a higher price, but felt it was not worth making the change by that time.
The lesson: if you don't charge enough rent, the tenants will treat the
property as though it's not worth anything. Corrolary: always charge the
"going rate" regardless of what you need to get out the property.
We had held the property as a "break-even" investment, planning to take our
profit as long-term capital gain. As it turned out, though regional
property values had more than doubled since we bought the property, the poor
condition and obvious repairs, not to mention poorly maintained landscaping,
made the property sell at a full 50% off the typical price of comparables in
the area.
I'm acquainted with a number of residential and commercial landlords and
have yet to meet one who's making the kind of money that people seem to
think landlords make. Most of them spend the little profit they make on
their rental holdings on aspirin, antacids, whiskey, and prune juice, all
the while hoping that the building's still standing when the lease expires.
If I'm ever in the position to become a landlord, (God forbid!) I'll set the
rent based on the market, the damage/security deposit at 2/3 the combined
gross annual income of the tenants and demand both that plus first and last
months' rent in cash on the date of signing of the lease.
Now, what, exactly is it that you believe renters need to be protected from,
Hans?
> :))
>
> Gruss
> H.
>
> --
> VCF Europa 2.0 am 28./29. April 2001 in Muenchen
> http://www.vintage.org/vcfe
> http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe
>
Received on Mon May 29 2000 - 15:28:26 BST