BiggerPockets

Disclaimer: I am not racist, but my dad may be.

I am marketing my first rental and have had a few calls. My dad advises me not to rent to colored people because he says the property value will drop, it will alienate the neighbors, homeboys will take over the property, etc.

This really makes my blood boil because he has never been a landlord and his advice seems highly unprofessional. My dad and others have been very helpful in fixing the place up and I think they just want to give me their honest advice, but I can't take it.

Here's how I see it. I treat all prospects the same, gather application info, and screen them based off legal criteria. If they make it, I rent to them and collect the rent. Simple right?

I know some have been in my shoes, and I need to hear from you. Thanks.

I'd be pissed at my dad for even saying that considering most of my family is black although I'm as white as white can be. I don't think anyone has as many black or halfbreed cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces as I do.

Besides all that, I wouldn't personally care what color a tenant is or what their primary language is, if they qualify, they qualify. I'm sure your dad cares about you but more so, I bet your smarter than to take his advice on particular matters like this.

We're not living in the 60's anymore. I can remember reading "for rent" ads in the newspaper back then using the term "Colored" to denote that the property in question is for black people. And this was in Ypsilanti Mich! (circa 1964).

It is a generational thing. I've had to try to overcome my own prejudices over the years having grown up in an all white suburb of Detroit in the 60's. I have bi-racial kids now (part asian).

It all boils down to the fact that people are people. The main criteria is do they have a good job, good credit history, are they responsible...etc.

TC

Who says "colored" anymore? Someone's been reading too much Uncle Reamus.

My advice - obviously you don't follow your dad's advice on renting. It's illegal.

Second piece of advice - don't talk about your dad like this on a public forum and don't reveal sensitive issues of a very private nature on a publicly read forum like this that can hurt your dad. The wrong people read this and his job, pension, membership at certain clubs, church, etc... can be very negatively impacted. Also, according to recently passed legislation, all he has to do is get in an altercation or disagreement with someone who is a minority and you've established a hate crime motive for your dad here for any attorney to google and see.

Think carefully before you post.

Tim

Tony,

Nobody on this board knows your father better than you do. YOU should certainly know whether he's a racist or not. Furthermore, I agree with Tim that skewering him on a public forum is not good.

While your father's advice (as stated by you) was certainly misguided and illegal as given, I would at least give him the benefit of the doubt if he were my father.

His advice certainly should have been to screen EVERYONE thoroughly because you don't want druggies, gang-bangers, or scumbags OF ANY RACE in your property. Druggies, gangbangers, or scumbags OF ANY RACE will hurt property values, alienate the neighbors, and fill the property with criminals (exactly as your father said). While it's not politically correct to say so, thanks to decades of entitlements being forced on them, young black men have a TERRIBLY HIGH CRIME RATE. That's a FACT and possibly what your father was trying to convey to you. Doing a proper screening of all applicants will eliminate the riff-raff regardless of their race.

Here are the (politically incorrect) facts in my own rental business. During the past 7 years, I have had probably 8 or 9 black male tenants (all of these were inherited when I took over the properties). Every single one was a drug dealer and all were legally evicted. One additional middle-aged black male tenant (one that I screened and accepted) was evicted when he failed to pay the rent because he used to rent money to bail out his drug-dealing son. Every other black male I have screened could not pass my WRITTEN criminal background check, which basically consists of no felonies in the past 5 years; no drugs in the past 3 years; and no more than 2 misdemeanors in the past 3 years. It's a very sad state of affairs and why I'm constantly railing about the socialists and their entitlement programs. I have MANY black female tenants and have not seen any difference in their performance as tenants compared to tenants of any other race. I would love to have black male tenants, but simply can't find any in my area that will pass the criminal background check that I outlined above. It's a shame, but that's the way it is.

The point is that maybe your father is aware of the ugly statistics and is trying to tell you that. That doesn't necessarily make him a racist. The bottom line is to simply have WRITTEN screening criteria and screen every tenant the same.

I've experienced this to be true as well and can't explain it. At the risk of making a race-based assumption - something else I can't explain is that african american males that I know are either the tenants Mike described that withdraw their applications when they hear I do a background check....or are extremely successful entrepreneurs and investors themselves.

I can explain it. Decades of entitlement have destroyed a large segment of the black commuinity (especially black males). A huge, disproportionate segment of the black male population is involved in illegal drugs and is constantly in and out of prison (that's a fact - doubters can look it up). At the same time, there is EVERY IMAGINABLE ADVANTAGE for minorities that are willing to put in a little effort. They get priority in just about everything (just look at the housing bubble - can you say quotas)? So, any African American who is willing to work hard and put forth the effort has a fast track to success (unfortunately, far too few are willing to work).

If you like this model of social engineering, then prepare to be THRILLED! The government has expanded their great social experiment to main street and is now in the process of destroying the white majority middle class using the same strategy. As evidence of that, I have a FAR greater number of female tenants than male tenants BECAUSE the white trash males only stop by for a quicky, so the white trash females can get pregnant with their 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th illegitimate child (and therefore get more government money and a bigger section 8 house). Gotta love socialism.

As Tim pointed out, there is essentially no middle class in the African American community. The white middle class is now being destroyed RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES! Our job as landlords is to figure out how that is going to affect us and to see if we can still make money under the new reality!!!