I was out doing some work in one of the ritzier areas of our fair city today when I spied a guy wearing this sign, standing on a street corner. When you see a guy with a cause, wearing a sandwich board, standing in the hot sun, you have to stop. So I did.
I wandered over to where he was standing and smoothly asked, "So what did they do to piss you off?" Nice ice breaker, eh? Well, what has him ticked off is that a big company bought his apartment complex and converted it to condos. He and his wife have lived in the complex for about 20 years. That in and of itself is amazing to me. Now he is in a pay up or get out situation; become the accidental homeowner or move on, Buster.
What really chaps him is that this out-of-town company swooped in, overpaid for the property, disrupted everyone's life and had hoped to skip town with a bag of cash. That was, of course, before the unfortunately housing slowdown.
This gentleman questions the basic fairness of making long-term residents choose between buying their apartment or moving out. He said that many of the tenants were long-term renters who were forced out because they simply didn't have the resources to buy into the project. Others reluctantly made the decision to buy because uprooting themselves too difficult at their age.
He also feels the new owners have been dishonest with those, like him, who do want to buy their units.
It seems that the existing tenants were offered a lower purchase price for their than new buyers (not former renters) would get. For instance, his unit price was $250K. The same unit, he was told, would be advertised for sale at $300K. Not a bad deal if you are inclined to stay.
Apparently things began to go wrong when the seller discovered that not many buyers were that interested in their property at these prices. The price started to drop, until a unit like his was sold for $205K. Plus the seller started to offer incentives to outside buyers that were not available to the existing residents. He had to fight with the seller to get equal incentives extended to current residents.
To add insult to injury,the owners have begun to rent vacant units because of low sales. He said one of the long-term residents who bought her unit now has 4 college students renting next door. A unit in a project where a subtantial number of units are rentals, has a diminished value. No wonder he is ticked off.
My take on this is that these condo conversion guys bought the building fair and square and can do with it what they wish. But they have to live with the consequences. More and more cities are acting to make the playing field a little more level for the displaced tenants through regulation. They will only have themselves to blame when the regulation is so onerous that condo conversions are impossible to do. It can't come soon enough for my friend here.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong and sometimes just full of it.
Tag:
Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor
What really chaps him is that this out-of-town company swooped in, overpaid for the property, disrupted everyone's life and had hoped to skip town with a bag of cash. That was, of course, before the unfortunately housing slowdown.
This gentleman questions the basic fairness of making long-term residents choose between buying their apartment or moving out. He said that many of the tenants were long-term renters who were forced out because they simply didn't have the resources to buy into the project. Others reluctantly made the decision to buy because uprooting themselves too difficult at their age.
He also feels the new owners have been dishonest with those, like him, who do want to buy their units.
It seems that the existing tenants were offered a lower purchase price for their than new buyers (not former renters) would get. For instance, his unit price was $250K. The same unit, he was told, would be advertised for sale at $300K. Not a bad deal if you are inclined to stay.
Apparently things began to go wrong when the seller discovered that not many buyers were that interested in their property at these prices. The price started to drop, until a unit like his was sold for $205K. Plus the seller started to offer incentives to outside buyers that were not available to the existing residents. He had to fight with the seller to get equal incentives extended to current residents.
To add insult to injury,the owners have begun to rent vacant units because of low sales. He said one of the long-term residents who bought her unit now has 4 college students renting next door. A unit in a project where a subtantial number of units are rentals, has a diminished value. No wonder he is ticked off.
My take on this is that these condo conversion guys bought the building fair and square and can do with it what they wish. But they have to live with the consequences. More and more cities are acting to make the playing field a little more level for the displaced tenants through regulation. They will only have themselves to blame when the regulation is so onerous that condo conversions are impossible to do. It can't come soon enough for my friend here.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong and sometimes just full of it.
Tag: Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor
1 comment:
I have no illusions; I will definitely be retiring in a mobile home.
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