RENTAL HELL – My mother dreamed of retiring as a landlord of a 5 to 10-unit apartment building. She envisioned earning a decent retirement income while providing good housing for those wanting to live in the area. Sadly, my mother passed away before she could see that dream come true. If she were alive today, the hostility from the City, County, State, and tenants toward landlords would have pushed her into an early grave. What follows is a true story; only the name has been changed for privacy.
Raivo never imagined that the American dream of property ownership would become his worst and continuing nightmare. An immigrant who worked his way through the University of California system with a double major, married his school sweetheart, and built a portfolio of 68 rental units, he embodied the success story that California once promised. Today, he can’t wait to leave California.
A prime example of the gauntlet landlords face began with a phone call from a real estate broker friend. There was a house in the Valley—a distressed sale from an owner drowning in unpaid rent and mounting expenses. Ravio found out that the owner had been bleeding money for months: $80,000 in back rent, plus property taxes, mortgage payments, insurance, and constant repair requests from tenants who had stopped paying during the COVID moratorium…