Rental Registration ? - City of Jackson MS

Jackson, Mississippi
General Real Estate Investing
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Rental Registration ? - City of Jackson MS

David B.
Investor · Worcester County, MA · Member since 2016 · 122 posts · 72 votes

Hello

i just received a notice from the City of Jackson, MS that there is a new city ordinance that says rentals need to be registered annually and inspected.

Any insight, guidance or info from other owners ?   The deadline is soon.

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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
3y

It will be interesting to see how the city of Jackson implements this. Given that about 50% of all housing is rentals.. there are not enough PM's and how the heck are they going to have enough staff for yearly inspections.. Not to mention the old housing stock .. depending on how the inspector is this could cause landlords lots of dough annually..  A lot of Jackson is section 8 so those get inspected annually. So that will take some of the burden of inspection off the city I would think. I doubt they will have to inspect the home after section 8 has done their inspections.

And how do they figure out annually is it based on lease term ?  or time of year etc.

A good local PM will know whats up.. 

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  • David B.
    OP
    Investor · Worcester County, MA · Member since 2016 · 122 posts · 72 votes
    3y
    Quote from @David B.:

    Hello

    i just received a notice from the City of Jackson, MS that there is a new city ordinance that says rentals need to be registered annually and inspected.

    Any insight, guidance or info from other owners ?   The deadline is soon.


     I just wanted to add:

    The new Ordinance from City of Jackson Mississippi requires registration of all rental units, the payment of an annual fee of $50 per rental unit, annual inspection by the city, fixing any inspection issues, a fine for late or non compliance.

    And, it requires out of area owners to have a local PM or agent.

    I believe the fines can run to be high dollars.

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    3y

    It will be interesting to see how the city of Jackson implements this. Given that about 50% of all housing is rentals.. there are not enough PM's and how the heck are they going to have enough staff for yearly inspections.. Not to mention the old housing stock .. depending on how the inspector is this could cause landlords lots of dough annually..  A lot of Jackson is section 8 so those get inspected annually. So that will take some of the burden of inspection off the city I would think. I doubt they will have to inspect the home after section 8 has done their inspections.

    And how do they figure out annually is it based on lease term ?  or time of year etc.

    A good local PM will know whats up.. 

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  • David B.
    OP
    Investor · Worcester County, MA · Member since 2016 · 122 posts · 72 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

    It will be interesting to see how the city of Jackson implements this. Given that about 50% of all housing is rentals.. there are not enough PM's and how the heck are they going to have enough staff for yearly inspections.. Not to mention the old housing stock .. depending on how the inspector is this could cause landlords lots of dough annually..  A lot of Jackson is section 8 so those get inspected annually. So that will take some of the burden of inspection off the city I would think. I doubt they will have to inspect the home after section 8 has done their inspections.

    And how do they figure out annually is it based on lease term ?  or time of year etc.

    A good local PM will know whats up.. 

    @Jay Hinrichs

    I spoke with my PM in Jackson, who is a smallish local real estate management and sales outfit , located in South Jackson. The PM is filing the paperwork with the city for all the houses they manage, and then will bill owners for the inspection fee, through their normal monthly rent/ expense system.  

          My PM said they are taking a wait and see approach.  The requirements that the city has for the condition of properties are mostly common sense safety type stuff.  He said property managers and owners are not happy with the way this has been implemented as he said they didn't have a real opportunity to give input. He also said their has been some sort of legal action taken by the Mississippi Apartment Owners Association, but not sure where that stands. 

        I agree that logistically it is going to be hard for the city to carry this out , with the large number of rentals and their probably limited staffing.  I guess wait and see.

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  • Ashley C.
    International · Member since 2023 · 120 posts · 20 votes
    3y

    Hi David, we are a family owned Property Management Company and we have plenty of experience with the City of Jackson.

    We've been dealing with this since it was announced a few months ago. It's due to new city people changing processes. 

    We can help you with this and cut through the red tape of this easily for you.

     Let's connect so we can be of service!

    Thank You,

    Ashley

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  • Mel F.
    Lender · Chicago · Member since 2015 · 66 posts · 25 votes
    2y

    This link helps explain the structure: https://www.jacksonms.gov/documents/ordinance-of-the-city-co...

    I'm looking into Jackson and a Property Manager gave me a heads up that I might want to wait and see how this plays out before heavily investing.

    -Mel

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Mel F.:

    This link helps explain the structure: https://www.jacksonms.gov/documents/ordinance-of-the-city-co...

    I'm looking into Jackson and a Property Manager gave me a heads up that I might want to wait and see how this plays out before heavily investing.

    -Mel


    be very careful in Jackson I have extensive experience in that market both as a lender and a section 8 landlord..  if you cut the city into 4 quadrants  you ONLY want to buy IMHO in the north east quadrant.  Unless your going to live there and self manage and can really pick and choose and stay right on top of the tenants.    IE East of 55 and North of Lakeland BLVD.  other areas to consider is Rankin county Madison County and Pearl can be OK>
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  • Ashley C.
    International · Member since 2023 · 120 posts · 20 votes
    2y

    @Jay Hinrichs, from someone that is in the area, there are pockets of areas aside from there that are a great ROI. Additionally if you have a good PM Company, then you don't have to worry about that being an issue. That's part of the reason why we advise investors from prepurchase through to management, you are 100% correct in that you can get into a very bad situation if you don't know what or where to buy.

    Do you self manage all of your properties here?

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ashley C.:

    @Jay Hinrichs, from someone that is in the area, there are pockets of areas aside from there that are a great ROI. Additionally if you have a good PM Company, then you don't have to worry about that being an issue. That's part of the reason why we advise investors from prepurchase through to management, you are 100% correct in that you can get into a very bad situation if you don't know what or where to buy.

    Do you self manage all of your properties here?


    I had 200 doors and loaned on well over 1000 doors in Jackson.. I sold them all and no longer will loan in Jackson..  I also lived there for 1 year .. ( REunion up in Madison).  the issues in Jackson are complex and unfortunately if you have a home in an area that starts to turn it turns for the worse not the better and now your stuck. Risking buying in a pocket to me is just a crap shoot. I get why folks want to try they get blinded by the numbers on the low end props. And they think PM is going to save the day.. But when your tenants move as often as these folks do and walk away from their security deposits your left with turn over after turn over and very high maintenance costs along with getting your condensers stolen or your house stripped when its vacant a week or so.

    Of Course this is my opinion and experience but anything south of hwy 20 or West of downtown in my mind is to be avoided.. the other areas I mentioned are where investors want to go and not risk their financial life on a pocket or just because a property makes 50 or 100 more a month on PAPER.

    And I am not picking on Jackson I just have a ton of experience there and know most of the big players. EVERY city has their bad areas .. Jackson is no different.  But you have guys coming on BP talking huge cap rates and when i see the website i see those props are all SOJac and well there you go.. RISK with little reward.
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  • Ashley C.
    International · Member since 2023 · 120 posts · 20 votes
    2y

    @Jay Hinrichs Great insight. That can be an issue in the wrong area and the ROI really has to make sense.

    There are some good neighborhoods where those things won't happen but you really have to know your way around Jackson and have a good, honest, trustworthy PM that's willing to keep up on everything to be sure that doesn't happen.

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  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ashley C.:

    @Jay Hinrichs Great insight. That can be an issue in the wrong area and the ROI really has to make sense.

    There are some good neighborhoods where those things won't happen but you really have to know your way around Jackson and have a good, honest, trustworthy PM that's willing to keep up on everything to be sure that doesn't happen.


    I understand the PM role but they cant be everywhere all the time.  And keep in mind a lot of times your owners are their own worse enemies and cause problems for themselves by not wanting or able to put money into the houses when they should.. they get sold a house that is suppose to be turnkey or recently renovated and bang Yazoo clay moves the foundation and your talking a 5 to 15k fix. or the house next to them burns down and now non one wants to rent this one because the house just sits there blighted..  these are real risks that can only be mitigated by purchasing in the Solid REAL B areas of Jackson.  I think of this one street i had about 6 houses on Greenwood in sojack one burns then things change now you drive down it and no one wants to live on that street at all.. Sucks if  your caught in that.

    I have on numerous occasions made loans on the same houses in South Jackson. I start lending there in 2002.. stopped in2014.  But the cycle was out of area buyer house gets trashed by tenant ( nothing the PM can do when tenants trash a house )  then the local kids get in it and trash it now it becomes wholesaler fodder you know out of area owner vacant house .. wholesaler ties it up for half or less than the owner has in it.. new rehabber / Turnkey reseller buys its rehabs it sells it for full market value or above and cycle repeats..  I suspect if one ran titles on all those houses i loaned on for rehabbers 20 maybe 30% of them failed and got trashed and the cycle repeated.  And you know I am right if you live and work there its exactly how the market works.  And again not unique to Jackson by any means.
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  • Ashley C.
    International · Member since 2023 · 120 posts · 20 votes
    2y

    Excellent point Jay. Your insight is much appreciated.

    0Reply
  • Philip Cranford
    Member since 2022 · 1 post · 0 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ashley C.:

    Hi David, we are a family owned Property Management Company and we have plenty of experience with the City of Jackson.

    We've been dealing with this since it was announced a few months ago. It's due to new city people changing processes. 

    We can help you with this and cut through the red tape of this easily for you.

     Let's connect so we can be of service!

    Thank You,

    Ashley


    Ashley,

    We are a Jackson city investment property owner group. Do you know where any of the law suites the Mississippi Apartment Owners Association stands? We have been stalling paying the initial registration fee, trying to see where the dust settles. The city of Jackson just sent me a notice that we are out of compliance. Are yall paying the dues, or waiting to see what happens?
    Thanks!

    Philip
    0Reply
  • Ashley C.
    International · Member since 2023 · 120 posts · 20 votes
    2y

    Hi Philip,

    I would love to discuss this more with you. I'm going to send you a message.

    Thanks,

    Ashley

    0Reply
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