6x6 finally finished the Eviction book. That was one tough read. As the LL I could see myself in those pages saying the exact same thing the LL's were saying about tenants and their decision making. I wasn't in Jamaica as the LL was but maybe on a cruise somewhere but made the same remarks as the LL's in the book. That was disheartening and I vowed to be more conscious of my thoughts and curtail that.

However I can't curtail how to deal with none payers. The company needs the income to pay its workers, make repairs, pay taxes and insurance. So that must continue.

The description of the rentals was nothing close to how we keep ours. We make no profit because we spend everything on salary's expense of normal nature and biggies like roofs and the like-- siding, painting, tree removal (just paid 9500.00 to remove 4 trees).

The caliber of the LL's tenants from what I could understand will not and hasn't changed in years. A revolving door rental business is similar to what we do but by OUR CHOICE.

As far as the tenants in the book. The third short story pretty much could have been the end of the book. The same bad decisions, drugs,pregnancy's,drugs, alcohol, drugs and more drugs. I'm not sure about total honesty here but here goes: these people were floating on a high of drugs all the time. Nothing mattered except the next drug-- how not to get displaced-- not to avoid eviction but so they wouldn't be separated by their next score. No one wanted to be finding a new dealer!

I've always said-- when you're poor-- there's nothing that says you have to be filthy. When faced with a decision on buying drugs or paying the rent-- seemed to be pretty simple choice.

As I said earlier this is a hard read if your really into LL'ing. I don't want my tenants facing this. Maybe our screening and higher prices keep this type of tenant at bay. I know one thing: I don't want my town faced with what these people are up against. (LL or tenants)

As far as the location. This would have been much better had the city's and towns changed. I mean we have dispo court here in our town and even though slow-- it does seem civil and when i look out at the court crowd LL's and Tenants APPEAR to be trying to follow the rules (Code)

Thank you for the update and review.

It appears that maybe it was worth the purchase and time to read as it gave you new perspective.

I had met a woman once who turned out to be a druggie and yet a decal across her car windshield said " Do Bugs Not Drugs". Maybe she thought it kept the cops at bay? The car was not a VW bug either. It is a shame too as she was a pretty woman. A leopard doesn't change it's spots though, or so I have been told.

What I really don't understand is how many people there are that are this way. I can see how some LL's get hardened and don't care about the actual tenant as the people that are tenants for decades just have a certain mindset and have a different outlook and attitude. Due to my personal experience as a kid growing up in a poor environment and a divorced and uneducated(6th grade drop out)mother I know how the thought process is of these poorer uneducated people. When I was a kid, of coarse, I didn't realize it but I watched my mother raise us on welfare and we moved all of the time. This type of lifestyle usually gets past down as the parents way of thinking and acting gets taught as the kids hear how there parents comment on things and observe there actions. My mother has a serious entitlement mentality as she feels that others owe her something. I didn't really realize all of this until a few years ago when my stepdad died. You see, I made a decision several years back to cut ties with my mother and stepdad as I didn't understand all of this and I was not able to get out and hang out with friends as a kid (before stepdad) and I lived a very isolated life and had no real life experiences. I grew angry and bitter toward my mother as I felt I was denied a normal life. Well, one day my half sister came to my house and begged me to go see her dad who was dying in the hospital and my mother was going to need help figuring things out as my half sister had no clue as to what to do ( as if I did, NOT). Before we got to the hospital my stepdad had died. I took my mother home(I am the only one in my immediate family who learned to drive) and during those first few hours I came to realize some of my mothers thought process. She had made a comment that my stepdad's sister, who lives in GA) could pay for the cremation as she is rich. That gave me a wake up call as to my mothers thought process and her entitlement mentality. I don't know why or what made me, as a young teen, want to make a change but, I decided that I did not want to live my life on welfare and so I set goals and I went after them as best that I could. I have maid a lot of mistakes along the way as I have had no real guidance. The only way that I knew to make that change happen was to get a job and work as many hours as I could and save, save, save. When I was 23 I bought my house that I still live in and is now payed for and I owned 2 used trucks that I loved and was proud of. This is why that I only have 1 rental as I do not like debt as I have had to earn things the hard way and do not want to put myself in that childhood position. This is also why I do not have kids as I know that life is rough and I do not have any real knowledge or life experience to teach them. I wanted to end the cycle and for me, this was how to do that. I also do not have a lot of patience. Unfortunately, certain aspects of this, stick with you for life and it is very difficult at times to navigate life as you are flying blind, so to speak. In the end though, I feel like that I am proof, although not a real good example, that you can abandon a rough life cycle and make at least a little change.

I apologize for the long reply but I guess this is why that I do not understand the druggies to an extent because it is not necessary. On a side note, this is also why that i do not like BK.

I agree with Still Learning.

And you ARE proof (as you said at the end) that you can break the cycle.

I think you also may be a better landlord due to understanding more things from a different perspective.

When you say you "had no real life experiences" I think you are mistaken. Consider it this way: You (we all) have had lots of experiences in life. Maybe not the ones you wish you had (me, too), but experience non the less. All that we experience now affects the way we live in the future, and educates us (if we want to learn).

The whole total of it all - and your RESPONSE to it all - has made you the man you are. And that's pretty GOOD!

Thanks for sharing 6x6! Your incredible story of courage is inspiring. You are proof that where there is a will there is a way. I wish there were seminars and workshops across the country to teach those who want to break the cycle, especially the youth. Taught by those able to break the cycle to have the most impact, proof it can be done.

Advanced seminars and workshops could teach skills.

For those unemployed, there are jobs out there. I understand not wanting some of those jobs, but how many do you know that love their jobs? Those who work choose to do so to further themselves, as you did, to make a better life in the future...that has to be imparted to the youth.

Thank you Still Learning and DJ. I do need a better outlook on that. A little self confidence wouldn't hurt.

Thank you Dee Ann.

It probably wouldn't make any difference to the type of tenants that were mentioned in this book but I can't help but wonder what might happen if they read the book.

I think that the way these tenants act and talk and make excuses are the reasons that LL's feel the way they do and make the remarks that they make so, it is very understandable to have those thoughts and make those remarks myob.

I due have my own thoughts and remarks that I catch myself in as I am sure that we all do because we have a different way of looking at things and doing things.

The one thing that does make a difference in most cases is respect. I think that if you respect them then most will respect you for that and be a little less of a problem. There are those that I have let in my house in the past, for not screening properly, that tried my patience and I had to be a bigger pain to them then they were to me, grins....When I have screened better to start with respect works well.

6 bye--- we all respect you as you can see. You can never tell what life lesson will wake us up. So glad you got moved into ACTION.

Maybe this is off a little but let me give this a try. My mother (who was Irish) would tell us WHY the people in Africa and the Far east and NYC (America) had so many kids. Her explanation was that it was the one joy poor people had (s e x) They knew they might get preg but they also needed the FUN/Pleasure of it. Of course this was well before birth control. Family sizes were 6 to 10 kids.

Drugs to me have taken over that Pleasure need. The rush lasts all day.

She was born in 1911 in Hells Kitchen and believe me there was no subject this women wouldn't broach. During the depression she told us she would go to the food line and she would be told "send your father". All the other men were in line and they weren't letting her father get off the hook by sending her.

6x6, I think you have a LOT of experience and knowledge to pass on to the next generation. You shouldn't sell yourself short.

6 x 6, way to go!

So many people who grew up in “richer” circumstances have not achieved what you have.

What a blessing you are to your immediate and extended family! They might not yet be ready to emulate you, but know that they are watching you and when they are ready, they will start asking questions and you will be able to give them such an education!

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination and hard work.” Colin Powell

All the best!

Renne

6X6 WOW WOW Count your self as a winner - proof that a CHANGE in attitude can make any one overcome shortcomings in life.

Please consider having children - God gives us everything - and children for most parents is probably the most important. There is no better feeling to watch the child grow and become a successful adult.

Thank you Renne and PG.

6x6, I could see from the first time I saw you post that you are a serious and dedicated person, and that showed up in your post above. You've done great and I really admire you for not using debt. I'm the same way and now have multiple properties...all paid for. I started like you with 1, but once you get 3-4 of them all paid for, the next one comes fast!! When you have no mortgage, the cash flow is great and you don't sweat things when one is vacant for a few weeks or a month.

Sometimes I disagree with the advice given on this forum...we each have our own unique styles and ideas. Each person must choose the best path forward for them and ignore the others...I applaud you for that.

I thought the author's perspective was very interesting. He explains in the "About This Project" chapter that he had grown up under similar circumstances. His father was a preacher, and his mother had grown up in poverty in Georgia and San Francisco. Sometimes their utilities got shut off. I presume meals were not always as varied or as filling as the author would have liked. But between parents who drilled into him the importance of education, and scholarships, he was able to go to a four-year college (Arizona), and eventually got into a doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin. And that's where this book came from.

He's a smart guy. He rose from poverty, and made something of himself--- probably the first PhD in his family on either side. Not only a published author, but he won a Pulitzer for this book. (As well as a Carnegie Medal, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and many other recognitions.)

And what's his solution? A universal housing voucher.

But a universal housing voucher wasn't what made his rise from poverty possible. Instead, he had two parents. With a preacher for a father, I presume he wasn't an out-of-wedlock kid. I also presume there wasn't a history of substance abuse in his family. His "industrious mother worked everywhere." And they emphasized the importance of education in giving him marketable skills that would allow him to rise above the lifestyle they were able to give him.

And those were the things that were missing from the case studies. The importance of family was downplayed-- in one case by outright saying that a baby didn't need a father, so let's move several states away. Historically, the family was the building block of society, with an emphasis on the benefit to the group; but in present-day America, the individual is the building block of society, with emphasis on following your own personal desires at the cost of all else. And if your own personal desires leave you alone and resource-less, well, there's a government program for that; and if there isn't, there should be; and if it's not enough, well, let's make it bigger.

Drugs were a huge problem in pretty much everyone's lives. They caused one guy to lose his legs and become a double-amputee. It's one thing to lose your legs due to illness, or to a car accident, or some other thing beyond your control... but losing them because of exposure because you broke into an abandoned house to do drugs, and then you couldn't get out again because of the drugs... yeah, no. On the plus side, he seems to have learned a very expensive lesson, but those around him didn't seem to have caught on.

None of them had pursued education, or seemed to prioritize it in their kids' lives as a path out of their lifestyle. So no one had marketable skills, or was anything like a role model. In one case, where a new tenant had let the evicted family stay for a few more months in exchange for the usage of the furniture and appliances she didn't own herself--- when the kid stole from her, the mom put the earrings on without any reprimand. I don't know about y'all, but that's not what my parents' reaction would have been. ;)

Those sorts of problems aren't the kind of problems that can be solved just by a housing voucher. Their poor choices are going to follow them, even in a nice house. I've seen it--- I'm sure anyone who's given a marginal prospect a chance and been burned by it has seen it, too.

It's his theory that--

"The idea is simple. Every family below a certain income level would be eligible for a housing voucher. They could use that voucher to live anywhere they wanted, just as families can use food stamps to buy groceries virtually anywhere, as long as their housing was neither too expensive, big, and luxurious, nor too shabby and run-down. Their home would need to be decent, modest, and fairly priced. Program administrators could develop fine-grained analyses, borrowing from algorithms and other tools commonly used in the private market, to prevent landlords from charging too much and families from selecting more housing than they need. The family would dedicate 30 percent of their income to housing costs, with the voucher paying the rest.

"A universal voucher program would change the face of poverty in this country. Evictions would plummet and become rare occurrences. Homelessness would almost disappear. Families would immediately feel the income gains and be able to buy enough food, invest in themselves and their children through schooling or job training, and start modest savings. They would find stability and have a sense of ownership over their home and community.

"Universal housing programs have been successfully implemented all over the developed world. In countries that have such programs, every single family with an income below a certain level who meets basic program requirements has a right to housing assistance...

"Landlords in most states are not obligated to accept families with housing vouchers, and many don't because they shun extra building code mandates or the administrative hassle. A universal voucher program would take their concerns seriously. Some building codes are critical to maintaining safe and decent housing; others are far less so. Enforcing a strict building code in apartments where voucher holders live can be an unnecessary burden on landlords and drive up costs. But even if code enforcement and program administrators were made much more reasonable and landlord-friendly, some property owners-- particularly those operating in prosperous areas-- would still turn away voucher holders. They simply don't want to house "those people." If we continue to permit this kind of discrimination, we consign voucher holders to certain landlords who own property in certain neighborhoods. Doing so denies low-income families the opportunity to move into economically healthy and safe neighborhoods and hobbles our ability to promote integration through social policy. Accordingly, a universal voucher program would not only strive to make participation attractive to landlords, it would mandate participation. Just as we have outlawed discrimination on the basis of race or religion, discrimination against voucher holders would be illegal under a universal voucher program.

"A well-designed program would ensure a reasonable rent that rose at the rate of inflation and include flexible provisions allowing landlords to receive a modest rate of return. It would also provide them with steadier rental income, less turnover, and fewer evictions..."

The part where the program determines whether the rent is reasonable, tells you how much you can raise your rent, telling you how much of a return on your investment dollars is reasonable, and mandates participation... there's a word for that.