A Seattle, Washington, landlord was in the news again for his "slumlording" but this time it appears the city has had enough of his negligent Land- Lording with public health and safety violations and is set to seize a portion of his rental portfolio, bulldoze the houses and turn it into a city park.
The landlord owes the city $3.3 million in legal judgments, fines and interest related to housing-code violations. I can't help but wonder why they are in the rental business if they obviously don't like the job and now are going to lose their investment?
I work with a lot of landlords at Rentec Direct and I can't imagine any of them have homes like these! Most likely not, especially since they go to the effort to professionally manage their investment with software that tracks maintenance issues and expenses! But dang, these properties the Seattle couple owns are worth a chunk of change. Why not just sell them and be done with it? You have to wonder what motivates people!
I think about all the dilapidated houses I've seen in my life - some that were certainly more awful than these - and it seems many cities could benefit by offering to buy these places and do the same thing Seattle has done. Why just ignore the elephant in the room?
Do you have any eyesores in your neck of the woods or around the properties you care for that are bringing down the neighborhood and property values?
Janell is a member of Rentec Direct, a web-based property management program designed to help streamline tenant screening and the day-to-day operations of landlords and property managers.
Comments(1)