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:
ReplyDeletea. They are raising rates because they always have. (This includes being owned or managed by a group that requires it, even when it doesn't make sense locally)
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
I bet on B. Had it happen when I was renting. Was a catalyst to finally buy a place.
DeleteIf 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.
ReplyDeleteTheres something fishy afoot with housing that doesn't add up.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people got very comfortable with the idea that they could sell their house for $300 per square-foot.
DeleteWhen the market softens, they get desperate because they had become addicted to living-large. Maybe they took out home equity loans.
I just heard about a 1960 vintage house that was listed for $260 a square-foot. The sneaky thing they did is that they listed the square-footage of the ROOF. Between losing the two-car garage and the overhang, the house lost 700 square-feet of actual, living space. They made it LOOK like a bargain by lying and were asking for 40% more than what the market might actually support.
Let me clarify.
DeleteThe house was listed at 2000 square-feet with an asking price of $300k. Actual, livable square-footage was about 1300 square-feet.
I have a landlord who jacked my rent for a big rent increase the first year but for the last several years has only increased rent by how much his costs went up. So....his insurance goes up, rent goes up. Property tax up, rent up. However, he fights every property tax increase . Result is my rent often goes up by "only" 5% or less most years. He let's me have pets, hang pictures where I want to etc. I have asked for a couple of improvements some he picks up, some we split the cost ( since it was my idea and not something he thought was important to do). I asked him about the rent once. He said a realtor he trusted had advised him that a tenant that stays year after year, paid the rent, and didnt trash the place was Gold! They talked about avg costs of getting the place back in shape between rentals, maybe being empty for a few months etc. Plus, before I had even moved in he knew how much he wanted to make as profit from the house. He still makes money on the rental but since he is good to me and doesnt go crazy on rate increases he knows Im not likely to move. ( Few bargains out there. If I move and it's cheaper is it because the neighborhood isn't as good? Plus the hassle of moving. Nope...Im staying where I am .)
ReplyDeleteOK, you know Dekalb...................
ReplyDeleteYou know Sycamore and Maple Park?
Nosir. I do not. The name DeKalb stuck in my head because there was a brand of hybrid corn named DeKalb and I saw a lot of signs beside cornfields advertising that fact.
DeleteIf I had known your real name, I would have asked him if he knew you. Small world. You never know.
Oh, the world is small, but not so small that anyone would know me...........
DeleteMy dad maybe, but not me.
ERJ, as a member of the renting class currently, our expenses are probably less here with what folks are paying for a "typical" 30 year fixed mortgage with a 20% down payment. Our rent did not go up from last year to this year and, given the amount of turnaround that seems to be in this complex, I suspect we might be good for another couple years or so.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with the loss of space; even with cleaning out before we moved here and storing some things we are still "at capacity". The loss of the the in-apartment washing machine would be a real inconvenience.
I am thinking ahead to what moving would be like too. Watching the movers get things up these stairs, we might have to do what we can and "farm out" the big stuff.
DeleteLive out in the desert in Phoenix. I bought my place for $120,000 in 2016. Two of the same models just sold in the last year, one for $235,000 and the other for $245,000. Market has slowed lately, a lot more inventory. Not as much ICE activity as Southern California, but enough to thin some of the herd.
ReplyDelete