The Observation Deck

Why does this always have to become a race issue?

Apathy, rudeness, and lack of courtesy and common sense are color-blind.

Unfortunately, I am seeing a lot of apathy, rudeness, and lack of courtesy on my street. This is a pattern that's been developing for the past 4 years and for the most part, it's occurring in the rental units surrounding my home.

The rental units around my home have had a great deal of turnover in the past 4 years AND the racial/ethnic makeup of the tenants has been about equal.

HOWEVER, the one thing that has remained consistent is apathy, rudeness, and lack of courtesy. The problem gets worse with every new batch of tenants.

Why? My guess is that the landlords are desparate to rent, have not been doing credit checks or requiring significant deposits and have been lowering their monthly rental fees.

In addition, the landlords are now allowing pets (that bark and scare people), are not enforcing parking or vehicle limits/restrictions, they no longer care how many people actually live in the home, and as long as they get their check every month, they don't care how long the grass is or what the exterior of the home looks like.

These problems will eventually trickle down to single-family homes. People are trying to move out - a lot of them for the reasons mentioned above.

I have made some observations in the past dozen years I have spent on Wyandotte. Some houses consistently have questionable tenants, and some houses constantly have pretty good tenants. Some of this can be attributed to the doubles that are owner-occupied being more selective about who lives upstairs from them. That does not account for all of it though. There seem to be some owners who are just better at picking tenants that others are.
My mother owned a 4-suite apartment building in Lakewood from the late 60s through the late 80s. I helped manage it as I came of age. We briefly had it managed by an attorney who did a bunch of things that did not need doing and failed to do a bunch of things that needed doing. We stepped back in with 3 vacant suites and one troublesome section-8 tenant.
Through dumb luck and out-right anger, we filled the suites with good tenants. The building suddenly became quite easy to run. Bad tenants will run-off of good tenants and good neighbors. They are also a real pain to get rid of. Good tenants will actively attract other good tenants.

Has there been, or could there be a forum on rental property management? Among other things, the feeling of desperation among rental property owners leads to the selection of bad tenants.