Do you carry a gun when visiting your C-F class properties?

[Wy Kay]

Would like to hear from others on this one.

Often, when I tell someone about an apartment building located in a class C neighborhood in NYC, the first question they ask is whether I carry a gun when visiting the property. The building isn't the safest and I have had gangs/drug dealers make threats in the past but I don't carry a gun or any other type of weapon when visiting the property.

Not just because it's extremely difficult to obtain a permit in NYC but more so because I believe carrying a gun would make me come off as more threatening which in turn can cause others to be more aggressive as well. In addition, don't think someone who isn't highly trained (situational and response training) will necessarily use a gun properly if it actually came down to it.

Some people insist that carrying a gun will cause trouble makers to have more respect.

For those actively managing C-F class properties, do you carry any sort of weapon when visiting a given property?

Why or why not?

[Felicia Hamilton]

@Melissa Uppelschoten I’m so sorry that happened to you! Can you share where in metro Atlanta this happened?

[Linda D.]

@Melissa Uppelschoten

Sorry that happened to you. Glad you are ok.

[Brandon Temples]

@Jermell Shavers

I agree with this.

I carry a gun everywhere I’m legally allowed to, including church. People are crazy these days, and it isn’t the “low income” people you need to look out for. If you’re responsible, there’s just no reason not to take a gun with you.

Also, don’t be an idiot if you decide to carry a gun.

[Jermell Shavers]

@Brandon Temples Exactly I’ll

Be staying the night in one of my rentals when I go back to Saint Louis and I’ll keep my gun with me while I stay you never know I don’t go looking for trouble either

[Darrin Taylor]

@Wy Kay As a concealed carry permit holder, I carry everywhere it's legal except at work due to company policy. So that means the grocery store, dinner and movie with my wife, looking at houses, whatever. It's a part of me, so obviously I would carry at those properties you mentioned. I also go to the range to practice at least weekly and at least a couple hundred rounds per session. I would not carry if I couldn't practice consistently like that.

Having said that, it's concealed and I hope to never have to use it. Open carry is legal in my state, but I've never done it. If I were in a place I thought I had to show a gun to feel safe, I would get the heck out of there. I would suggest if the investments are the only reason you've ever thought about carrying, it's probably best to find another place to invest.

[Tom Matousek]

When I was a foreclosure property preservation supervisor I used to be the only one who carried. It later became an unspoken mandatory for all supervisors.

[Zack Howard]

@Wy Kay where I am I will Carry because we have stand your ground laws. Where you are I would be willing to loose a months rent rather than a life in prison. Move to a logical state or don't even consider it.... You could be getting beat half to death and if you used it you would go to prison not them. It's not worth the risk in a democratic ********.

[Matt P.]

@Bill Plymouth If your letting someone get that close to you you need to find some type of spatial awareness training that fits your fitness level and get involved. Obviously if you're already in a grappling match you don't go for your gun, you control the attacker. Anyone with some training would know that. As for me, I think it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Stay safe out there people.

[Bill Plymouth]

@Matt P. I agree with you. As someone with a lot of training and experience, I can tell you that most confrontations start within conversation distance 1-5 feet tops. If you attack anyone just because they walk into conversational distance, then you’ll be in jail before your would be attacker. I don’t know about your experiences, but I’ve never had someone try to fight me from 15 feet away, where I have ample time to pull my weapon out and control the situation.  Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in my first post, the attacker would most likely go go for your gun in a grappling situation.  I’m not saying you, the defender, would.  

[Joe Chirdon]

Sometimes, yes. If you are going to carry a gun: 1) make sure you're doing it legally (i.e. have a carry permit), 2) bring a friend or associate with you, so if you have to use it you have a witness to testify that it was justified. 

[James Galla]

I guess I'm fortunate enough to have never rented to anyone I feel unsafe around, or purchase anywhere I feel unsafe, even in the F class neighborhoods.

If someone doesn't want to pay rent, just evict them? That seems like the simple solution rather than escalating by simply carrying a gun.

Call it the cost of business. They get an eviction and you get your place destroyed. Possibly deal with an emotional crisis. Fix it up, re-rent it. Repeat.

[Matt A.]

I live in Pennsylvania and currently invest here. Guns are almost unnoticed outside of Filthadelphia and Pittsburgh and obtaining a license is relatively easy if you have a CLEAN background. Ive been carrying for decades and often "open carry", in fact many people who dont know me assume Im law enforcement as Im dressed business casual with an openly carried pistol.

That said, its not a choice the "if im visiting a property" as I believe a gun is very much like your seatbelt... you don't try to snap it on right before an accident - do you? (or a fire extinguisher....)

Id rather have it and never need it than need it and not have it.

[John Hickey]

@Alex K. I’m with you. I know some of the landlords in my area that carry.

It might be that I don’t see all the landlords that carry but I know 4. 3 of those are on my streets...the rough drug/prostitute areas. And all three of them are slumlords.

There are a few that I know personally and while they might have a gun I’m pretty sure they don’t carry every day. We’ve talked about it before and most of us feel we don’t need it.

The last guy that Does carry isn’t a slumlord and is ex LEO. That’s not why he carriers tho. He collects rent for a lot of other landlords and so feels like he’s a bigger target then others. We spoke about that and his main reason was he’s going to a lot of properties on one particular my bad street and collects rent door to door.

[Steven Clevenger]

I carry when I am out and about period.

Two reasons

1)My normal day job involved working with mentally unstable people, I do see them outside from time to time. My work often involves involuntarily confining them and enforcing mandated treatment. People don't always respond well to that. 

2)It never hurts to have an ace card up your sleeve. 

That being said I am with what the cop stated earlier, you better know how to use that gun, you better keep it concealed and you better pretend like you don't have one(don't let it get to your head). Know your laws well, places like NYC are NOT gun friendly. There are plenty of local DA's with a stick up their behind waiting to roast an otherwise law-biding citizen in this regard. Also keep a criminal defense attorney on retainer and say nothing to the police without them present if you end up in some sort of incident.