To the SFH landlord "investor" in AU Park

[Anonymous]

Is that a realistic rent for a small 3 BR, 2.5 BA house? Seriously?
- Someone who lives just over the MD border from AU park, and has thought about renting out our house.

[Anonymous]

It's an ugly house anyway.

But you could have bought it, OP, and didn't. Don't blame "investors".

[Anonymous]

I just can't get over how they painted the shower tile and stopped at the wall outside the shower. Even left paint all over the bottom of that wall. What a s t renovation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You suck for taking a beautiful AUP home, ripping out all the landscaping, blandly renovating, and renting it out for eternity.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4524-Verplanck-Pl-NW-Washington-DC-20016/438952_zpid/

Let someone who wants to build a family there buy it... or simply someone who will love it like a home.

ps - you also suck at investing.

I agree with you Op. We now have several of these investor owned homes in our neighborhood and they are unkempt with the renters bringing in new house buddies every week. Back in the day I rented a home in Chevy Chase and the landlord had no idea until we scheduled our walk thru that his tenant had rented every single space in that house (including the outside porch) to individuals not on the lease. Coming to a neighborhood near you soon too.

[Anonymous]

There are two things. There is renovating a house to make it look bland and unappealing. That’s always a bummer, Especially when part of AU Park’s character is that most of the houses look the same. Then there is the separate issue of whether it becomes a rental and rental families live there I used to rent with my family in AU Park. I am willing to bet we paid more in rent than you are paying on your mortgage, OP. We were good, quiet neighbors with solid jobs. We were there for several years. I have sympathy with the idea of living in a neighborhood where everybody is transient, but there are plenty of long-term rentals in that area, and DC in general is kind of transient anyway. Hopefully there are enough settled families in that neighborhood for OP’s comfort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if someone can "make it their own," though? Someone can rent it and live there. It's unfortunate that they stripped out original features, but as someone who lives in the neighborhood, I don't think we should be complaining that renters are living in homes rather than owners. They're neighbors regardless.

I agree. I don't care if someone is renting or owning. I also live in AU Park and many of the houses around me are rented to families for years. I can only think of one 'frat house' near me and it doesn't look nearly as nice as this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's an ugly house anyway.

But you could have bought it, OP, and didn't. Don't blame "investors".

Yes this is always one of my favorite complaints. If you don't like something someone has done to their property, feel free to make an offer to buy it and do what you think is best for it. Otherwise, STFU. Maybe I think your refusal to build out your basement and rent it out to a family is improperly reducing the housing supply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two things. There is renovating a house to make it look bland and unappealing. That’s always a bummer, Especially when part of AU Park’s character is that most of the houses look the same. Then there is the separate issue of whether it becomes a rental and rental families live there I used to rent with my family in AU Park. I am willing to bet we paid more in rent than you are paying on your mortgage, OP. We were good, quiet neighbors with solid jobs. We were there for several years. I have sympathy with the idea of living in a neighborhood where everybody is transient, but there are plenty of long-term rentals in that area, and DC in general is kind of transient anyway. Hopefully there are enough settled families in that neighborhood for OP’s comfort.

I am not OP but who cares if you paid more in rent than OP did in a mortgage (that creates equity). I rented tiny places for years so that I could save enough to own a home and glad I did!

I own my home but when I rented, always respected the property and the neighbors, but that is not always the case. When I rented years ago a home was rented down the road but their landlord lived out of state. The tenants were meant to mow the lawn, etc and hardly ever did. Their mail came to my unit once so I brought it over and when they opened the door the home smelled of something awful. It was disgusting. Currently, around the corner a family is renting a home and take better care of it than the owners (who are on assignment overseas for 2-3 years) and are very cordial and friendly.

I don't think it matters if someone rents or buys, but with investors buying up property it raises prices for everyone else. That to me is the main issue here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two things. There is renovating a house to make it look bland and unappealing. That’s always a bummer, Especially when part of AU Park’s character is that most of the houses look the same. Then there is the separate issue of whether it becomes a rental and rental families live there I used to rent with my family in AU Park. I am willing to bet we paid more in rent than you are paying on your mortgage, OP. We were good, quiet neighbors with solid jobs. We were there for several years. I have sympathy with the idea of living in a neighborhood where everybody is transient, but there are plenty of long-term rentals in that area, and DC in general is kind of transient anyway. Hopefully there are enough settled families in that neighborhood for OP’s comfort.

Completely. Back when we rented, we took excellent care of our places. I always updated the paint (with permission) -- and I had spent summers working as a painter for a contractor, so always a professional job and an appropriate color. I am handy, so often small repaired issues without ever bothering the owner. I have treated all my homes the same, whether I owned or rented. I would hope most professionals renting in AU Park would as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting. We are in the market for a rental and this is exactly the location I was hoping for!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about the interior of a boring, kind of ugly colonial on some soulless street in DC?

As for their investing prowess, they bought it for $1.2 in 2021, so I would call that an investing win.

Look, I hate real estate "investors" also, but they're playing the game that our local and federal governments allow. We could tax investment properties into oblivion but instead we give them favorable tax treatment. Why don't tax investment properties at triple or quadruple houses that are occupied by the owner? Why do we allow tons of federal income tax deductions for them?

People are allowed to have more than one residence. Weird thinking from DCUM crowd that constantly posts about their vacation homes or seeking to purchase a second home. If we tax non-primary residence to death none of you would afford your beach homes or mountain retreats, duh. What about those who want to have 3 residences, split households, multi-generational households, etc? Will you cap how many people can occupy, what family stays with them? Once usage of the property gets taxed to prohibit what people do with their personal property it's a slippery slope for everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two things. There is renovating a house to make it look bland and unappealing. That’s always a bummer, Especially when part of AU Park’s character is that most of the houses look the same. Then there is the separate issue of whether it becomes a rental and rental families live there I used to rent with my family in AU Park. I am willing to bet we paid more in rent than you are paying on your mortgage, OP. We were good, quiet neighbors with solid jobs. We were there for several years. I have sympathy with the idea of living in a neighborhood where everybody is transient, but there are plenty of long-term rentals in that area, and DC in general is kind of transient anyway. Hopefully there are enough settled families in that neighborhood for OP’s comfort.

I am not OP but who cares if you paid more in rent than OP did in a mortgage (that creates equity). I rented tiny places for years so that I could save enough to own a home and glad I did!

I own my home but when I rented, always respected the property and the neighbors, but that is not always the case. When I rented years ago a home was rented down the road but their landlord lived out of state. The tenants were meant to mow the lawn, etc and hardly ever did. Their mail came to my unit once so I brought it over and when they opened the door the home smelled of something awful. It was disgusting. Currently, around the corner a family is renting a home and take better care of it than the owners (who are on assignment overseas for 2-3 years) and are very cordial and friendly.

I don't think it matters if someone rents or buys, but with investors buying up property it raises prices for everyone else. That to me is the main issue here.

All of you complaining about the renters make no logical sense. An owner can be a slob too and even worse and who will you complain to? If they aren't violating any regulations and there is no HOA you are way more SOL than if it's a renter. You can at least contact and complain to the LL, which means your complaint will at least reach some 3rd party ears who communicates with the bad renter vs. you having to confront them personally (never a good idea). Will you personally confront an owner who doesn't mow the lawn or whose landscaping you don't like? They can tell you to take a hike and it's their property and they can do as they please a lot faster than tenants would do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two things. There is renovating a house to make it look bland and unappealing. That’s always a bummer, Especially when part of AU Park’s character is that most of the houses look the same. Then there is the separate issue of whether it becomes a rental and rental families live there I used to rent with my family in AU Park. I am willing to bet we paid more in rent than you are paying on your mortgage, OP. We were good, quiet neighbors with solid jobs. We were there for several years. I have sympathy with the idea of living in a neighborhood where everybody is transient, but there are plenty of long-term rentals in that area, and DC in general is kind of transient anyway. Hopefully there are enough settled families in that neighborhood for OP’s comfort.

I am not OP but who cares if you paid more in rent than OP did in a mortgage (that creates equity). I rented tiny places for years so that I could save enough to own a home and glad I did!

I own my home but when I rented, always respected the property and the neighbors, but that is not always the case. When I rented years ago a home was rented down the road but their landlord lived out of state. The tenants were meant to mow the lawn, etc and hardly ever did. Their mail came to my unit once so I brought it over and when they opened the door the home smelled of something awful. It was disgusting. Currently, around the corner a family is renting a home and take better care of it than the owners (who are on assignment overseas for 2-3 years) and are very cordial and friendly.

I don't think it matters if someone rents or buys, but with investors buying up property it raises prices for everyone else. That to me is the main issue here.

All of you complaining about the renters make no logical sense. An owner can be a slob too and even worse and who will you complain to? If they aren't violating any regulations and there is no HOA you are way more SOL than if it's a renter. You can at least contact and complain to the LL, which means your complaint will at least reach some 3rd party ears who communicates with the bad renter vs. you having to confront them personally (never a good idea). Will you personally confront an owner who doesn't mow the lawn or whose landscaping you don't like? They can tell you to take a hike and it's their property and they can do as they please a lot faster than tenants would do.

I don’t live in an HOA but we had to overseed our grass after needing a new water, gas, and sewer line all out in not at the same time and were told not to touch the grass for weeks. We own our home. I went around to all my direct neighbors and told them what was happening and if there was an issue to call my cell. No one did.

A neighbor a couple streets away who walks by my home complained to the town who sent us a letter about it saying we must mow our grass🤣. I would much rather the person have asked me and I would have explained (I don’t know why they didn’t see all the construction). We also take great care of our property and yard. You’ll always have busy bodies I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two things. There is renovating a house to make it look bland and unappealing. That’s always a bummer, Especially when part of AU Park’s character is that most of the houses look the same. Then there is the separate issue of whether it becomes a rental and rental families live there I used to rent with my family in AU Park. I am willing to bet we paid more in rent than you are paying on your mortgage, OP. We were good, quiet neighbors with solid jobs. We were there for several years. I have sympathy with the idea of living in a neighborhood where everybody is transient, but there are plenty of long-term rentals in that area, and DC in general is kind of transient anyway. Hopefully there are enough settled families in that neighborhood for OP’s comfort.

I am not OP but who cares if you paid more in rent than OP did in a mortgage (that creates equity). I rented tiny places for years so that I could save enough to own a home and glad I did!

I own my home but when I rented, always respected the property and the neighbors, but that is not always the case. When I rented years ago a home was rented down the road but their landlord lived out of state. The tenants were meant to mow the lawn, etc and hardly ever did. Their mail came to my unit once so I brought it over and when they opened the door the home smelled of something awful. It was disgusting. Currently, around the corner a family is renting a home and take better care of it than the owners (who are on assignment overseas for 2-3 years) and are very cordial and friendly.

I don't think it matters if someone rents or buys, but with investors buying up property it raises prices for everyone else. That to me is the main issue here.

All of you complaining about the renters make no logical sense. An owner can be a slob too and even worse and who will you complain to? If they aren't violating any regulations and there is no HOA you are way more SOL than if it's a renter. You can at least contact and complain to the LL, which means your complaint will at least reach some 3rd party ears who communicates with the bad renter vs. you having to confront them personally (never a good idea). Will you personally confront an owner who doesn't mow the lawn or whose landscaping you don't like? They can tell you to take a hike and it's their property and they can do as they please a lot faster than tenants would do.

I don’t live in an HOA but we had to overseed our grass after needing a new water, gas, and sewer line all out in not at the same time and were told not to touch the grass for weeks. We own our home. I went around to all my direct neighbors and told them what was happening and if there was an issue to call my cell. No one did.

A neighbor a couple streets away who walks by my home complained to the town who sent us a letter about it saying we must mow our grass🤣. I would much rather the person have asked me and I would have explained (I don’t know why they didn’t see all the construction). We also take great care of our property and yard. You’ll always have busy bodies I guess.

This just proves the point that people do not like to confront neighbors who bother them directly and would complain to someone else. Why does it matter, again, if the person who doesn't maintain their property up to your standards is a renter or an owner? If there is a county regulation you'll get stuff fixed either way, if not, you are SOL. The whole thread is pointless when people complain about subjective aesthetics of someone else's property unless there is enforcement possible.

[Anonymous]

OP - you sound very jealous.

$5,800 is not unreasonable for that size/neighborhood.

Why are you so butt hurt?