Donna Frye seems to believe
that landlords are witches and should be burned at the stake.
Councilwoman Frye honestly thinks rents in San Diego are too high. She also
believes property owners should be required to give a reason when asking someone
to vacate an apartment when their tenancy ends and claims too many people are
getting evicted for "no reason" at all.
My first week in real estate, I was admonished, "Fred, nothing is more dangerous
than an honest but ignorant salesman. You can be persuasive because you
speak with conviction. You can be dangerous because honesty is no substitute for
knowledge." Honest, ill-informed politicians are even more dangerous because
they control the coercive reins government (their awesome power can be used for
good or bad).
An article in the Harvard Business Review titled Freedom,
Authority and Decentralization suggests that, "The chief characteristic
of 'any group in our society is not knowledge but ignorance.' Consider that any
one person can know only a fraction of what is going on around him. Much of what
that person knows or believes will be false rather than true. And, at any given
time, vastly more is not known than is known -- It seems possible, then, that in
organizing ourselves into a hierarchy of authority, we may really be
institutionalizing ignorance."
Pulitzer Prize author Barbara Tuchman says one reason government has such a
poorer performance record than that of almost any other human activity is,
"Schedules are broken down into15 minutes appointments ...policy makers never
have time to think. This leaves a rather important vacuum." Petitioners
may spend fifteen months analyzing and developing a project, go before the
city council and be dispatched in 15-minutes. Can informed opinions be
derived from a 15-minute presentation? Can elected officials render wise
decisions after even hearing 15-minutes In Favor and 15-minutes
Against an issue?
Those of us who believe that the Constitution's guarantee of life, liberty,
and property are inalienable rights and that to take these rights away, even by
majority vote, is morally wrong -- have a duty to stand up and prove we are
not witches.
First and foremost, without apartment owners, tenants would have four
choices, live with their parents as is the case in nearly all other countries,
live with friends or strangers (look at the want ads for roommates), buy a home
with twice the monthly payments of an apartment, or wait forever to get the 5%
of housing that's provided by government. Builders and rental owners have made
this the best-housed country (greatest square footage per capita) in the world.
Are rents unreasonable? Compared to what? In 1986 the average apartment unit in
San Diego sold for $48,303 or 8.1 times its monthly income. In 2001 the average
apartment sold for $69,400 or 8 times its monthly income. If rents had kept up
with other items in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) the average price should have
risen to $78,050 per apartment unit, 12% more than today's selling prices.
Clearly, rents have not kept pace with other items in the CPI and last year
rents were 12% lower, on average, than what would have been justified had
apartment owners kept up with inflation over the past 15 year. Compared to
the 37% increase in the San Diego City Council's office budget over the
past two years, rents are substantially lower!
Suffice to say, apartment
owners are in the business to make money. Whenever an apartment is vacant
they're not making money. They'll do just about anything to keep good
tenants, including taking them to the grocery store, baking cookies, and
babysitting. Contrary to the opinions of Councilwoman Frye, landlords do not
evict tenants lightly.
Many landlords prefer one-year leases. Tenants balk at one-year leases; they
want the freedom to leave on a moment's notice. Absent a lease, the most
common reasons for giving 30-day notices are: complaints by neighbors, suspicion
of drug use, loud playing of music or televisions that can be heard a block away
("my neighbors enjoy my music," one tenant said), keeping neighbors awake with
loud parties and domestic squabbles.
Complaining neighbors insist on anonymity. Anonymity tends to reduce fist
fights. Give a reason for evicting a tenant and you invite a lawsuit. Unruly
tenants, of course, always deny causing trouble. Landlords sometimes must act as
the neighborhood cop and the 30-day notice is their only weapon. The 30-day
notice is the most effective way to keep the peace and the only way to keep
unruly tenants in line. Since not every one chooses to abide by the rules should
the majority of responsible renters suffer because of the acts of a few
miscreants?
Evicting for cause is an altogether different thing but can still be a touchy
situation for property owners cognizant of lawsuit abuse. Things that discourage
people from investing in rentals are: Tenants who change their motorcycle oil or
re-build car engines on the living room carpet, saw the dining room table in
half while making a book case, punch out the drywall between apartments so
others won't see them visiting the lady or gentleman next door, kick an
air-conditioner completely out of the wall when it stops working, not emptying
the trash or garbage for weeks or months which surprise, surprise is where all
the cockroaches and rats come from (gee, you mean it's not the owners who put
them there?), let cats urinate in a particular corner, and not ever clean up dog
doo-doo (tiny doggy doo).
It's also disconcerting when tenants store black powder and live ammunition in
bedrooms, shoot holes through the roof, throw managers into the pool for not
allowing prostitutes to visit, let a 15 year-old back a car through the kitchen
wall, let children swing on kitchen cabinets and draperies until they fall, grow
marijuana in closets under grow lamps, let bathtubs overflow repeatedly, have
leaking waterbeds, dye the carpet multiple colors, heat gasoline on the kitchen
stove to better clean one's clothes (yes, there was a fire), have water fights
in your apartment with garden hoses (these two elderly women may have been
drinking), stamp on smelly acacia beans when vacating an apartment, put cement
down the drains and toilets, jam locks so they can't be opened, and at three
different properties shoot off the locks when locked out by wives or girlfriends
(some guys just can't understand why they would be locked out).
Instead of treating apartment owners as witches, I call on Councilwoman Donna
Frye to introduce a resolution declaring an
APARTMENT AND RENTAL
OWNERS DAY IN SAN DIEGO. This in recognition of the phenomenal job
they've done, according to the U.S. Census, in providing 95% of the affordable housing in San Diego. Apartment owners should be commended
for keeping rent increases below the rate of inflation for the past 16 years.
Permission granted to
forward to others and quote with or without credit
Fred Schnaubelt
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