Skip to content
General Landlording & Rental Properties

User Stats

7
Posts
1
Votes
Jennifer Hamon
  • Cambridge, MA
1
Votes |
7
Posts

Bad landlord from my past has me reconsidering RE investing

Jennifer Hamon
  • Cambridge, MA
Posted Jul 16 2019, 20:50

For the last 6 weeks or so I've been studying RE investing intensely and trying to settle on my medium term strategy. I have about a year before I'm in a strong financial position to buy my first property and I want to be ready when the right opportunity presents itself. RE excites me because it seems like there's a lot of rewards available for those who are good at analyzing the numbers and thinking creatively.

So today I came home and opened my mail to find a demand letter from the real estate company I rented from back in 2015. It alleges an unpaid balance of $200 (no details about what this charge actually is for) and says if I do not pay within 10 days they will report the delinquency to credit reporting agencies and turn the debt over to collections. I feel blindsided as this is the first communication I have received about this matter; I always pay early or on time and they even returned my deposit after I concluded an 18 month tenancy in 2016. My partner called the leasing office while I was at work and confirmed the letter is not a scam but they did not provide detailed information about the charges over the phone.

The building is owned and managed by Tod Speiker who has built an empire by buying up all the B and C class units in Silicon Valley, evicting long-term residents, putting in a couple stainless appliances and jacking up rents 50% or more while providing basically no service to tenants on issues of pest control, in-unit maintenance, noise, etc. I paid $2100/month for a 500 square ft unit that, despite the shiny appliances, was overrun with german cockroaches that the management refused to acknowledge. This is a very profitable way to operate in the context of the Bay Area where there is a severe housing shortage and people have few alternatives. You can read a puff piece about this dude's company here: http://www.siliconvalleymultifamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Tod-Spieker-Profile.pdf

The $200 is no big deal for me, but the prospect of having a bogus delinquency from this scammy property management company show up on my credit report right as I'm gearing up to buy into this game is conjuring a lot of negative emotions. On the one hand there is fear, helplessness, and anger -- because if this doesn't get resolved correctly how will it impact my ability to get good financing terms next year? But beyond that, really it's making me feel shame that I wanted to get into this landlord business at all. 2000+ multifamily units is what success looks like in real estate, but I don't want to make my fortune by stepping on little people like this guy.

Right now I'm thinking about the hundreds of tenants that got kicked out of their homes so Mr. Speiker could quickly ratchet up his NOI. I'm thinking about how I would feel if I were the kind of person for whom an unexpected $200 charge represented an existential financial crisis.

Do any of you ever struggle with the morality of landlording? Does it impact your sense of self-worth in a negative way?

Loading replies...