All Forum Posts by: Austin Lazanowski

email address for the entire commission or individual commissioners can be found here: https://www.lakelandgov.net/city-government/city-commissioners

Here is my email i wrote to them:

To my city comissioners,

I have been a resident of Lakeland, FL nearly all my life. It is my home and it is my passion. I appreciate everything that this commission and past commissions have done in order to keep Lakeland moving forward.

Because of my presence here and the position that I have with a large IT consulting firm, I have brought over 3 full time positions making salaries ranging from 45k-75k (not including myself) to Lakeland, a position in valrico with a salary at 110k and am continuing to expand even further in this next year doubling those positions and increasing overall salaries. As an initial investment partner, I have helped create a successful business with Mike Dodge with Lakeland's Beer Revolution bringing an even stronger presence of craft and local beverages as well as providing jobs. I am 30 years old and decided to spend more of my investment money becoming a residential investor. In fact, I picked up a dilapidated property that had been a foreclosure for some time from a previous slum landlord at 1301 Josephine street, Lakeland, FL 33815 and have already dropped over 35k in critical repairs and improvements (where slumlords would put maybe 1-2k in) including a brand new roof (the previous having major leaks and water/mold damage), new drywall, fully new electrical replacement to meet code standards, brand new full plumbing to meet code standards, new HVAC instead of window units, new soffit/fascia, new water heaters, cabinetry, appliances, broken windows getting replaced, etc. I have taken what was a horrible sight in the community where a past "slumlord" ruined the place and have made it habitable and a massive improvement for the area. I strongly believe that if you take care of the property and the tenants inside, that (usually) they return the favor back.

So this is why this proposed resolution (even in draft form) bothers me so much. I could have been a jerk and just done the minimum to get by. I would have made a MUCH larger cash on cash return. However, I wanted to provide a better place for my tenants to live. I'm sure you're all thinking "Thats great! We wish all our landlords in the community were like you" and i get that. For every good landlord there is one cheating the system. But instead of finding ways as a community to encourage good investors like myself and providing positive incentives, this resolution does the exact opposite. It costs me significant money & time (and in my line of work and specialty of IT consulting, that directly translates to $250.00/hr that I could be doing instead) because some other crappy landlords haven't been doing what they should. This means that i am less inclined now to want to ever acquire additional properties in Lakeland and instead take my investment and rehabilitation money elsewhere. It also means, that in order to meet my same profit margins that i had been willing to come down to in order to improve the property that i have to raise my rents on tenants. Affordable housing is already a big issue - why make this worse?

So here are my thoughts after reading the entire draft; I know its easier to see list forms of things instead:

1. You specifically target residential (4 units or less) in housing. There are apartment complexes that have significantly worse conditions and yet they are not being addressed. If you are going to target residential investors, then you are choosing sides.

2. For all of the reasons that have been brought up of why this resolution should happen, we already have solutions in place:

• We already have code enforcement officers. If the issue is that they are overworked, then that should be addressed as a city in their budget and shared amongst ALL owners (not just landlords) as part of a property tax assessment.
• The issues of "noise", "parking", and other civil complaints can and should be enforced by our law enforcement officers. Laws exist, enforce them. If the issue is brought up, the landlord /property manager should be contacted and informed - and then they can bring it up with the tenant in a respectful manner or determine next steps.
• The above issues are also almost always caused by troublesome tenants. Because of tenant friendly laws, there are many who abuse their rights because the only option that exists to the landlord is termination of contract and the procedure to try to evict costing the landlord thousands of dollars in legal fees, more in lost rent, and even more in the likely damage that occurs when tenants are mad about being evicted. These funds are almost never recouped because by the time any court lien is in place, the tenant has no assets to pay for these and moves on to the next "sucker" landlord.
• If things are overgrown, I suggest the city instead have a partnered lawn service company that will mow/maintain to standards, and bill the landlord for it in direct special assessments on their property tax so they cannot avoid paying it. Charge whatever you want there - they'll get the point quickly. Then you're creating jobs still in the lawn service company.
• Laws already exist in place where a tenant can choose to pay a licensed person to perform the necessary repairs and withhold it from rent when a landlord refuses to perform their duties. If Lakeland wanted to improve this process, they could again, partner with related companies from Lakeland (roofers/plumbing/electrical/etc.) and help a tenant get what they need and defend the tenant's rights there.

3. Putting a requirement of 24/7 communication requirements on a landlord (or designated property manager) is outright absurd. I should not have to be available Sunday at 3am for a call from a code enforcement officer. I should be able to disconnect and turn off my phone for a good night sleep. We have 911 for emergencies, and there are 24/7 electrical/plumbing/locksmith/etc. services that exist out there. I specifically leave only certain business hours for tenants to contact me because I do NOT want to be barraged with requests at 1 am at night for when a tenant clogs a toilet.

4. Even worse, you designate that a property manager must be a named individual AND located in Polk or Hillsborough county. Apparently Osceola, Sumter, Pasco, and orange are just too much even though they border us. Why does this location requirement even exist? You are making local property managers a coercive monopoly. I cannot imagine even one scenario where I couldn't perform these duties remotely even when i was in Virginia. If i need to have my property showed i can call a realtor. If there is a damage or other landlord manageable issue, i can call the right authorities or the right service resource to come out and do the repairs. I can have handymen do walk throughs and make sure the tenants are keeping the place appropriate. I'd be interested in seeing the reasoning behind this idea.

5. providing a list of all tenants could be construed as an invasion of privacy. If and when a search/arrest warrant is issued, Landlords already comply with law enforcement.

6. Using words like "reasonable" in a legal document can always have repercussions. What is a reasonable timeframe for one person is not always the same as the other.

7. This type of resolution pushes the city of Lakeland to be more inbetween the tenant and the Landlord instead of letting a tenant resolve with the Landlord first. By providing them with all of the brochures and notices seems like a good thing, it will end up having the tenant contact the city code enforcement before actually contacting the Landlord and letting them resolve the issue first. After all - we are not owner occupied - how could we know that the A/C isnt working unless the tenant tells us first?

8. These seemingly random and frequent investigations by code enforcement who's sole job is to "find something wrong" is going to create astronomical costs that people who are owner occupied in their homes would not even think is an issue. You want to cause investors who bring affordable housing to run away? That will do it.

9. You are penalizing me for doing good. This is like hiring law enforcement officers to focus on solely drivers who forget to use a turn signal instead of dealing with those driving drunk/running red lights/selling drugs/etc and making me pay for that cop to sit and watch me and make sure that i use my turn signal (or else).

10. Your open language could construe also putting these same laws/rules on people who rent out their second home on a vacation home/airbnb style status. You can guarantee that burden is going to greatly impact the many people who help provide housing during critical events such as sun n' fun fly in that our hotel industry cannot meet the demand of today.

11. While you do have an option to appeal an enforcement penalty, you're also opening up massive headaches for property managers and landlords when dealing with a troublesome tenant that they are already evicting. We aren't their parents - we cannot sit outside and make sure they arent throwing trash on the ground, or destroying the inside of the property, or causing noise/parking violations, or ignoring their requirement to mow the lawn if its a single family property. Tenants getting evicted are normally mad - and these enforcements would be causing us even more headache during an already tumultuous time.

12. Instead of passing a law punishing everyone for the bad behavior of the few, lets make sure to ramp up the laws against the few and prevent them from getting to stay landlords in Lakeland, FL. I'm open to suggestions about repeat offenders being banned from acquiring non-owner occupied property in the city.

I plan to attend whatever city commission meeting(s) that exist about this resolution. If you pass this resolution, I do not know how much longer I will choose to invest my time or money in Lakeland. I will however, fight this all the way, and for those who choose to vote I will work hard to campaign against you on the next election. Not because I have anything against you personally, but I believe in keeping Lakeland, FL a place for someone to want to call home and where businessmen and investors want to keep their money in. We can't do that when we start passing laws that punish everyone for the ignorance of the few.

Sincerely,

Austin Lazanowski

Gotta be careful with dodd frank these days. I hear alot of people are creating LLCs and doing a business to business loan to work around, but people can lose their shirt if they're not following the laws on private lending. Not trying to be a downer, just letting you know.

im not sure on ohio real estate law but in florida assistants who are not real estate agents cannot perform showings. Since he is just a buying agent for you, you can use as many agents as you want, you usually only sign a contract once you put an offer in place. If you havent signed anything with a real estate agent, then go ahead and leave them. You owe them nothing if they havent been dutiful to their client (you). 

@Dustin Beam - Yea, that type of damage i assume is probably their responsibility and reasonable tenants moving in would have most likely mentioned something. Harder to say on the carpet, but the door jams i would definitely say is highly likely their fault.

well, this is why move in checklists and condition sign off reports are important - without proof of what it was like prior to them moving in, then you're just opening yourself up to the situation. If you have multiple tenants sharing, you also have to make sure to indicate that any damage to the common areas would be considered a joint responsibility, otherwise again you're hurting yourself. If they seemed responsible, then you need to give them a break - just go after the others for overages and make it stick (even if they cant pay you back, you can prevent them from doing it again if people do background checks). 

Hi all,

As i'm sure you all are readily aware it seems like rent prices are just driving up and up these days. Obviously great news for us landlords, but I was curious if anyone in the Lakeland area has done any recent rent pricing in the 33815 zip code (east of wabash).

About the property:

I've got a duplex that we've been doing a massive amount of repairs to (new cabinet/countertops, new drywall on part of it, removing window units and putting in mini duct splits, full house electrical rewire, brand new plumbing, new roof/soffit/fascia, new bathroom tiling, new paint, etc.) and now is the time to start really nailing down rent rates. I wouldn't say the property is beautiful, but its definitely going to be up to the latest code and clean. I own it outright with no loan so its not a matter of making a minimum, but obviously i don't want to undercut myself (or price it too high).  One side is a 2/1 and the other one is a studio but it might as well be a 1/1 (just no formal living room). The 2/1 has access to a washer/dryer. water would be included in rent. no garage, but behind the fence parking is available. My plan is to look for someone with decent credit, no evictions, no backlog of liens/child support, no felonies, minimum of 3x verifiable income, and employment for at least the last 2 years. 

I just haven't decided on rent and security deposit #'s. Any help would be great!

Thanks Ben! i'll connect and send you a PM with my contact information. Next time im up there we can grab coffee but would love to call and pick your brain.

I am looking to move up to Front Royal, VA (and/or the surrounding area) in the next year. I am an investor down in Florida, but my main job has me go into D.C. at least twice a month and i'd like to avoid flying in each time. With that being said, I am looking to buy an initial flip property that I am able to work on in the evening hours for a year as i get situated and know the area better to determine where i'd like to live more permanently. Of course, i want to invest around me in general so looking for a crew to work with.

I am also open to a rent with option to buy (obviously priced at before we perform improvements) and all repairs performed/owned by me as the tenant. 

out of curiosity, you say you want turn key because you're out of state. That makes me think that when you say rehab you're talking about doing some of the heavy lifting yourself versus paying handymen/contractors to do the work in rehabbing for you. Am i right?

Turn keys may have cash flow but never really have "equity" because at that point you're most likely buying something in competition with the normal housing market (unless of course you're buying more than 2 doors at a time).

bump?