The great news is that I am out of the moving business. The good news is that the rent of the kid's new apartment is $400 a month less than the rent of the old apartment which saw the rents go up 20% over 2024.
The kid was not the only tenant moving out. Six of the 48 tenants in the building were also moving out this weekend.
The not-such-great-news is that the kid lost about 300 square-feet of usable floor space and now has too much stuff. He also lost the in-apartment laundry. We also had one "unsecured load" incident which can happen when you have three people loading cargo.
The cost of hiring professional movers would have been $250/hour.
I had 10 hours on-task moving. Two hours on two separate days and six hours today. The kid twisted some arms of other kids and they (probably) contribute another ten...plus the twenty hours he contributed.
I annoy kids
While moving cargo into the kid's new apartment, I happened to glance at a tub of a family that was moving out. I saw the words "Lee Auto Primer" and knew what exactly what that was.
So the next time I saw the gentleman of the family that was moving out I asked "Do you reload?".
He replied "Why yes I do! I reload for .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum" with a huge smile on his face. Then he said "I love shooting, and I grew up in Illinois and...well...you know...Michigan is a lot more firearm friendly than where I came from."
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| Metropolitan Tower "The Bee-hive Building" |
He was stunned to learn that I actually knew where DeKalb, Illinois is (Go Northern Illinois!!!) and said he got his degree from there and that his first job had been near Chicago's Metropolitan Tower.
The kid I was helping to move was rolling his eyes. He thinks being able to start conversations with random strangers is A: A super-power not available to mere mortals and B: Borderline rude to do so.
Okemos, Michigan isn't my cup of tea, but if vanity license plates are any guide, there are people who love fishing for steelhead and are fans of Vortex scopes in the town. It is a trendy, "desirable" place to live with lots of amenities and eye-candy...but $1600/month rent for a two-bedroom apartment is the highest in the area.
What I don't understand is that the pressure on the housing market is deflating and prices will stagnate or collapse. I think the management running the old apartments is looking in the rear-view mirror if they are raising rates.
I suspect that they have one of the following reasons:
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b. They are raising rents because they want to look good to sell the building.
c. They know the current market and assume it doesn't apply to them.
When I had rentals, I never raised rates. My last rental I actually lowered the rate because they had been such good tenants.
At this point, as a landlord I'd be looking for ways to keep units full over raising rates - empty units quickly eat away at the profit from raising rents.
Around here the market isn't dropping, but it has definitely slowed.
Jonathan
If the Fed doesn't lower the interest rates soon there is going to be large number houses on the market with no takers. Recession could be on the horizon soon. Hope for the best, prepare for worst.
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