Do-It-Yourself Landlord's Blog

Over all, the implosion of the subprime loan market is a disaster to everyone. The large-scale failure of any leading investment vehicle is bound to have reverberations throughout the economy as a whole.

And with the mortgage/loan industry, as previously seen/experienced in the Savings & Loan debacle of the 80s, the resulting mess eventually gets cleaned up by those of us who thought we were smart enough to avoid getting involved in the first place.

Awesome.

I would enjoy the opportunity to wax philosophic about the basis for this implosion (why isn’t THIS issue a “bursting bubble" instead of an “imploding market"? Has the “bubble" cliché gone passé?)

But here’s where I believe there’s something of a sweet-spot for the value investor, who is also likely to be amongst the majority who will eventually be covering that loan default gap produced by the recent spate of reckless lending/borrowing.

Soon, all those ARMs, “teaser" loans, and other exotics are going to explode all over the borrowers, and those properties will wind up in the lender’s lap. None of those lenders (or more than likely: the lenders who loaned to the subprimes, or their syndicated lenders, or on up the chain) are interested in dealing in the disposal of physical real estate. They sell returns on principal, not dirt.

Come late 2008, I’m expecting some DEALS to hit the market. My only hope is that the good multi-units aren’t snatched up in poorly advertised, vaguely mentioned “auctions". I never seem to get notice of those in time…

I've been out of pocket for a while here, cooking up some things involving BED BUGS. It's totally crazy how out of control the issue seems to be. But before I get into that...

Okay, I’ve been angry at Tenants before. I admit it. I’m human. And there’s never a time more typical for a Landlord/Tenant relationship to bubble-over with vitriol then right at the moment where it all ends, and it’s time to settle up. That’s when all the building irritation comes to light, and my, oh my is it unpleasant to look at.

I’ve never been so angry as to pursue any of my Tenants after the end of their lease, to date, as I’ve done my best to maintain a pleasant relationship with them through the course of our business together. But that doesn’t mean that everyone else has such healthy contractual relationships.

Gone Feral’s ex-Landlord is speculated to have gone to some rather creepy extremes to express their displeasure at some of the Feral’s previous slights. Something about their cat, the male half of the Landlord-set, and some sort of stay in a medical facility. Sounds pretty messed up. But then things apparently spiraled further out of control, involving harassing emails, and perhaps even the dispatching of a computer virus. Intrigue indeed!

Speaking of intrigue, what the hell is up with Detroit? Is that economy ever going to pick up in any measurable way? Will Ford ever matter again? At least one decent Landlord there made an effort to be kind to the Breakfast at Gigi’s couple, who were renting in some neighborhood plagued by crackheads and car theft. They requested that they be able to break their lease early to avoid certain tragedy, and the Landlord not only granted their wish without charging a break-lease fee, but even transferred their deposit to another of his properties in another, decidedly safer part of town.

It is a shame that their car didn’t make it out, though.