Landlord Licensing AGAIN!
We've seen it all before, the same old song and dance! "We just want to make sure that the rental housing in our town is safe"! BS! Every time I hear that tripe I just want to gag, what nincompoops do they think we are.
Now granted there are some sheeple dumb enough to believe that crap, but like everything else government does it is about the MONEY!
They always toss around pejoratives like "absentee landlord" a term designed to make you think of some rich fat cigar smoking guy living in a penthouse in New York who just picks up hovels and runs them like a tenement. When in reality anyone who owns stock or mutual funds is an absentee investor, as most people invest in stocks from companies other than where they live.
If I own stock in PepsiCo and it is based in New York, does that mean that I don't give a rats a$$ what happens to my investment because I don't live there. No; and real estate is no different, If Joe from Seattle invests in real property in the Midwest, he cares just as much about that investment as you do your stock!
In this current climate of punishing success and penalizing achievers Raytown is jumping on the band wagon looking to fill the tax void left by the fact that the Chevy dealer, the Dodge dealer and the Jeep Dealer are all folding.
Some times I really think that anyone who is elected to office should be required to play Sim City before they open their big mouths and let the stupid ideas come out!
If you penalize investment in your city then investors will go elsewhere!
So Joe Creamer a Raytown, MO Alderman has proposed yet again a landlord tax, as a way to "separate ourselves from Kansas City and make Raytown a more desirable place to live,"
Quote: www.theraytownpost.com
Here are the problems with that uninformed statement:
1. Kansas City already has a landlord registry program, it is a dismal failure and was only a scheme to extract money from investors. It is underfunded, undermanned and it led to the city deciding to enact a new system of attacking home-owners with fines instead of working with them to correct deficiencies.
2. Raytown has a GREAT school system, that is well respected and highly acclaimed. Kansas City has a miserable failure of a school system that is rife with crime and even rape.
3. Kansas City is one of the most crime infested, rat holes in the Nation. Raytown has very little violent crime and whats more Raytown has a much better track record of solving crime and punishing the criminals.
4. Kansas City is a blighted mess of corruption, crime, ram-shackled houses, declining property values and thousands of vacant, dilapidated houses. Raytown has a strong codes enforcement department that has done much to clean up the city and make it much more attractive and desirable.
So what is the answer if it is not punishing real estate investors for investing in your city.
1. How about enforcing the building codes uniformly, not focusing on owner or non-owner occupied property but focusing on making all the homes in your city clean, maintained and attractive.
2. How about going after homes where there are repeated calls for service from the police department, or residents who are posing problems for their neighbors. Not targeting property based on whether it is owner occupied or not.
3. How about imposing fines on people who tax the system, and cause repeat calls to the police department or other government services, instead of trying to discourage investment in your city.
PUNISH THE PERPETRATORS NOT THE INVESTORS!
I read a post on the newspapers website from a concerned citizen of Raytown who was upset about a rental property down the street from her home. I can relate, my neighborhood has recently had several homes picked up by real estate investors. But like most sheeple in the obamanation she wanted to punish the achievers, she wanted to attack the investors instead of addressing the problem tenants.
Her post stated that the renters urinated outside, and they drove too fast on the street. Well, my dear, those things are already illegal, there are laws in place to address urinating in public and speeding. Taxing the guy who owns the house will not solve those problems, being a good neighbor might! she also lamented that the house needed paint, well, my dear there are already codes on the books to address that too, whether it is your owner occupied house or the rental down the street, we already have laws about that!
So stop looking to government to solve all your little whiny, sniveling complaints and do something about your neighborhood yourself. When the house up the street from me went vacant in foreclosure, I mowed the lawn. When my disabled neighbor can't clean up the tree limbs that fall, I help her out, when the snow covers the street and the city hasn't gotten to it, I plow the snow. Remember what the world was like when people had porch swings and knew their neighbors, remember what the world was like when you actually helped one another instead of waiting on the all powerful big government to come and bail you out.
What the hell has happened to America that we all sit shaking in our houses waiting for some government entity to come and solve our problems? Get off you couch and take back your neighborhood, start by meeting your neighbors and maybe helping them a little!
D. Ben Edsall
Broker - Accredited Residential Manager
Turn-Key Properties LLC
www.turnkeyproperties.org
www.batescountyrealestate.com
