Springfield: rentals and other issues

[ChriswUfGator]

Sounds like some great properties you had there Chris.

LOL. For the neighborhood, they actually were very nice. I would always go with central HVAC, put in new electrical service, etc. etc. Compared to 99% of the apartment buildings in Springfield, mine were much nicer. And especially West of Main and South of 8th, I really tried to make those super-nice. 1719 Perry Street was one I renovated, and sold to a doctor from Georgia. Dunno if he still owns it or not, but go look at it and you will see what I mean...nicest thing for 4 blocks around. And believe it or not, code enforcement hassled me CONSTANTLY about that property, and it's really nice.

Even the stuff I had over on E. 1st by A. Phillip Randolph, and the North end of Hubbard Street, 16th St., 14th St., etc., I even made them really nice, especially when I first started. Eventually, after the 435,576th time I had to re-do it all 6 months later because the tenants trashed the place, I "got the picture", and started putting in the $150 used fridge/stove combo from Jerry's Appliances, and the indoor/outdoor carpet, etc., but they were still nicer than anything else around there in the early 2000's.

And I guess I should make it clear, I was into buying apartment buildings, I never saw the single family houses as being a particularly good investment, because the rent in that area can't sustain the carrying costs for the 10 years you'll have to hold onto it to make any money in Springfield, unless there are multiple units. And apartments are really a whole different ballgame, especially in that area, so you have to keep that in mind. For whatever reason, the tenants get bitter when you evict them for nonpayment, and the first thing they usually do is go down to legal aid to try and stall the summary eviction, and then they call code enforcement to see if they can't trump up some stuff to either give them a witholding defense, or to get their security deposit back. The judges know this scam well, and don't pay any attention to it if the tenants miss the deadline for depositing the back rent into the clerk's registry, but code enforcement actually takes that B.S. seriously.

I've had tenants put holes in walls, tear up carpet, break smoke detectors, and then call code enforcement and tell them it was already that way when they moved in. Meanwhile, I still have all the receipts for the installation of all this stuff brand new, from a few months before that. You'd think code enforcement would say "gee, this guy has the paid invoices for installing smoke detectors, and now they're missing, and the tenants are the only ones with access to the unit, and they're pissed because they're getting evicted...hmmm...is anything adding up here??? Nawwwwwww, I'll just fine the owner anyway."

And the whole thing REALLY heated up when I got into a pretty nasty argument with David Roe, who was the code enforcement officer in Springfield at the time, and after that COJ just hounded me incessantly. The City knew where I lived, knew my phone numbers, etc., but would always send violation notices for silly stuff (trash in the yard from vagrants, broken windows that someone had just broken a day before, smoke detectors, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum) to vacant properties, or rentals, and then go to the hearings I never got notice of and get these ridiculous $250/day fines running. Then I would find out about it like 6 months or a year later, and have to file suit against the city for Declaratory Judgment and have them overturned. Wash, rinse, repeat. You'd think they'd learn after the umpteenth time they got smacked down in court, especially because I never had to pay them a single dime for any of it, it was all just B.S. and got tossed the minute a judge looked at it. Now I just found out two weeks ago about one they filed in 2007, for a property I hadn't owned for months, and then they apparently mailed the notice to a property I sold in June of 2004. So here we go again.

I mean, it's their money, I guess they can spend it however they like. Sure doesn't cost me anything, I'm a 3rd year law student and do most of it myself, and all of my family are lawyers, so what I can't do myself I still get done for free. I think this time, I'm going to attach David Roe personally, and argue abuse of process and that he isn't acting within the scope of his employment, and then demand attorneys fees and costs under 57.105. Let's see how he likes being screwed with the same way he does to others...

But anyway, look, the point is the City is ridiculous. Code Enforcement, JFRD, and that giant violation of procedural due process rights that everyone calls the "DART" program, all just loooooove to hassle you, even when they don't have a leg to stand on. The owner of this club needs to fight back. Hell, if this is still going on after I take the bar in February, I'll be glad do it for free just to screw with them. COJ is utterly ridiculous.

[RiversideGator]

Wow.  That is awful.  I was considering buying investment property in Springfield but that really gives me pause.  I have never had such problems in Riverside.  I would sue Roe personally as you suggested and report him to his supervisors including the Mayor.

BTW, are good tenants that hard to find in Springfield?

[downtownparks]

RSG, I have lived her for 5 years, I have never had a code notification, fine, or any other action from the city. I also didn't when I owned my rental in Arlington.

[RiversideGator]

I got you.  Perhaps all is not as it seems then.

In any event, if the bankers ever start coming off the money, I would like to buy something in Springfield.  I have always liked the neighborhood, even in its worst condition in the late 70s and early 80s, and would like to help be a part of the resurgence.  My main regret is that I could not buy my grandparent's old home a few years back before the "developers" bought it and had it torn down by neglect.

[downtownparks]

Its too bad it was torn down. We tried to reach out to the folks that own my wife's great grand parents home over on W 7th, and they had no interest in talking about selling it. Its a bummer. Classic Springfield story. 2000 Sqft single family is now being used as a triplex.

From what I have seen Code and Dart do not act arbitrarily, and think they are typically used well, with the notable exception of all of the recent night club actions. I think a good tool in the fight against crime and blight is being misused.

[RiversideGator]

It was just torn down a few months ago too.  I called the clowns who owned it repeatedly (they lived in Kentucky yet owned land in Springfield for some reason - probably some stupid get rich quick scheme for which they were woefully unprepared) and they acted like they might sell but would never get back to me on a price.  Then, the City condemned it and it was torn down shortly thereafter.  It was very sad for everyone.  Even though they had not lived there for 30 years, the family had resided in that block of Springfield for about 60 years before that. 

I could have bought it a few years back for just $40,000 but I passed on it to buy a multi-family elsewhere.  Had I known it would have been torn down, I would have bought the home instead.

[RiversideGator]

It is ridiculous that the City lets these buffoons sit on these homes so long and do absolutely nothing to maintain them and then comes along and demands that they be torn down all the sudden.  Where were they 3-5 years ago when things might have been different?  Heck, judging by the looks of the outside, this structure was not even properly condemned.

This also reminds me of the Lampru Court Apartments debacle.  What a waste and a shame!

[RiversideGator]

Preservation clearly is not a priority for our City "leaders".  There are strong grass roots movements for preservation in Jacksonville but they unfortunately have not yet been able to exert much political influence or gain much power with the possible exception of the Delaney administration.

[ChriswUfGator]

BTW, are good tenants that hard to find in Springfield?

Honestly, I'd say the tenants in Springfield are like 50/50, whereas San Marco or Riverside would be 99/1. Some Springfield tenants are good hard working families, and you will find some people who have lived in a building 10 years before you bought it, and will be there 10 years after you sell it. Those are keepers.

But then you run into a lot of wanna-be-scam-artists too, and you also run into a lot of people with good references etc., who still wind up defaulting on the rent anyway. At the end of the day, despite other people in this thread who want to argue with me and make veiled references otherwise, the bottom line is that this IS a very low-income neighborhood (when have you heard Riverside or S.M. called the "Fried Chicken District"?), and those are the kind of people you're going to be dealing with as renters. You will become very familiar with evictions.

And the thing that threw me for a loop was, when they don't pay the rent and you file for an eviction, they get really bitter and angry about it, and trash the place, call code enforcement, take your appliances with them when they leave, etc. etc. That reaction is pretty common over there, and I never understood it. That's the equivalent of me not paying my amex bill, and then when they cut off my card I go trash their office. It's ridiculous, and is just a whole other culture that I don't understand.

I also had some properties in Murray Hill, and had a MUCH MUCH MUCH better experience there. I never had a single eviction, nobody trashed anything, nobody stole anything, never had any code enforcement issues, etc. I definitely will never own anything in Springfield again, at least until this cleanup/gentrification that everyone has been talking about for the last 30 years finally happens.

[downtownparks]

When you rent to the bottom of the barrel, you get bottom of the barrel issues. Nobody is saying Springfield is easy, but you were doing things in a manner that is the same ole, same ole of the last 30 years, and you were upset when you will got the results of the last 30 years.

[strider]

Code enforcement is complaint driven.  They do not throw darts at a map and then go out and inspect.  They answer complaints.  Code enforcement is most definitely used by organizations and private citizens to try to accomplish certain goals. Haven't paid rent for a while and want to avoid being thrown out?  Call code enforcement. Don’t like what someone is doing with their house?  Rather than ask them, just call out code enforcement.  Don’t like a certain business? Make a call and see what happens. Want that empty house gone so you can get the lot cheap?  Go ahead and call code enforcement.  It may take some time, but it will work.  

It is hard not to see that once an organization within Springfield decided to put the condemned houses into the cities system and push that “something be done” the results…well the result speaks for itself.  It isn’t the mayor’s office, it isn’t written somewhere that the historic buildings must be demolished, it is just how the laws, how the system works.

The same works for businesses.  Once the business is in the system, it is hard to get it out unless the right person speaks up for you. This comment:

When the officer arrived he asked me where the graffiti was located.  The next question was "Do you think the kids at The Pearl did it"?  We politely told the officer we go to The Pearl and the people that frequent them aren't gangbangers.

Once the business is in the system, you can plan for more of the same.  Also, any way to see if the officer that made the comment has worked through the security fund as well? The money behind "private security funds" often sets the tone for the officers who work it. (No, I do not mean SPAR Council itself in this case.)

[jbm32206]

I don't know what area of Springfield you're referring to, but overall, this area has changed 10fold in the past 10 years. True, there's still a few pockets of the low-end...but generally, this is NOT the case here. I'm also not sure where your rental properties were...but if they were in the low-end, then that's what you'll get as renters. There is a need for decent rental properties for the middle to high end of the scale...and that's where you'll find the renters that are more likely to take care of the place and to pay their rent on time.

[ChriswUfGator]

RSG, I have lived her for 5 years, I have never had a code notification, fine, or any other action from the city. I also didn't when I owned my rental in Arlington.

Arlington is a whole different ballgame, you're renting to middle-income families and J.U. students over there, you can't compare that in any way to Springfield. And what type of property do you own in Springfield, it's probably one single family house, right? And if you live there, then of course you have no code issues...LOL...you're not going to call code enforcement on yourself, right? That's a little different than when you have 30 apartment units, none of which you live at, and you're dealing with Springfield renters.

I swear, there's this patented 4-step bag of tricks they pull out when you have to evict them, 1: They go to Three Rivers and get them to send you nasty letters about how the tenant never got a 3-day notice or whatever when you know you sent it (just ignore these), 2: They call code enforcement in retaliation (which sucks, because you can't ignore them, and everything they're complaining about is normally stuff the tenants themselves broke), 3: They write these ridiculous 12-page handwritten sob-stories to the judge saying why they shouldn't be kicked out (which is fine, because the judges ignore these for you), and 4: When the Writ is finally issued, they steal your appliances and anything not bolted down on the way out. Almost every eviction I did, the tenants pulled at least 3 of these 4 things on me, and usually all 4. I think there must be some kind of "how to screw your landlord" school that they all go to, that or they teach it to each other.

Anyway, RiversideGator is talking about buying rentals there, and he needs to get opinions from other landlords. I can tell you it's a whole different experience than just buying a single-family house, putting up a fence around it, and living there. If I was going to do it over again, I'd just get one or two nice buildings in Riverside, or maybe a bunch of bungalows in Murray Hill, and avoid all the hassles.

[ChriswUfGator]

When you rent to the bottom of the barrel, you get bottom of the barrel issues. Nobody is saying Springfield is easy, but you were doing things in a manner that is the same ole, same ole of the last 30 years, and you were upset when you will got the results of the last 30 years.

That's not true at all. If I were doing "same old same old", there would have been no appliances, air handlers, condensors, etc. for the tenants to steal all the time, since I would just buy a piece of crap building for $40k, let it stay derelict, and rent the units out for $250/mo to any drug dealer who can pay in cash. Instead, I came in and really tried to improve things and make the places nice, and got a pile of headaches in return.

I got a newsflash for you: Despite your obvious sense of denial, ITS A LOW INCOME NEIGHBORHOOD and those are the types of people you're dealing with. You can build the friggin' Taj Mahal over there with 10 a/c units and 47 plasma TV's, and guess what? You're STILL going to wind up with crappy tenants, you're still going to have to do evictions, you're still going to have to combat theft and vagrancy, etc. etc. etc.

It's not my fault Springfield is what it is, hey, I came in and gave it ole' college try and tried to make it better. Quit shooting the messenger, I'm just telling RiversideGator what he's in for, and I'm being honest about it. You've got some rose-colored glasses on about this issue, which is natural because you live there, but still...he needs to know what he's in for with renters in that kind of neighborhood.

[ChriswUfGator]

Code enforcement is complaint driven.

You hit the nail SQUARELY on the head. Code enforcement only comes out when someone calls them. In my case, I was running into the "Springfield two-step" with the crappy tenants you wind up with in neighborhoods like that, and pulling stunts like taking down the smoke detectors, breaking windows, and then calling code enforcement on you is one of the first things they do in retaliation when they get served.

In the Pearl's case, someone keeps calling in complaints as well, although they don't have tenants that they're evicting, so I can't imagine who would be making the calls. A competitor?

In any event, my problem with code-enforcement is that the office is staffed with people who you can just tell they always wanted to be Cops, or be in the Marines or something, but they couldn't make the cut, and so now being a code enforcement officer was the only thing they could swing to get a power trip. I found it entertaining when it turned out that Dennis Rader was a code enforcement officer...I coulda seen that one coming. Bottom line is, they are not well-qualified people, they get ZERO training in the law, they are on major power-trips, and they take complaints that are obviously B.S. way too seriously.