All Forum Posts by: Michael Lyons

Those are very good points, especially for the potential for abuse. Some employers can draw the line but I’d imagine others wouldn’t. There will always be the “bad apples” (hate that term nowadays, but you get what I’m saying hopefully). 

As for the Bay Area, what I’ve seen when I lived out there is that the market started solving the problem organically through co-living (the term was only coined about 4 years ago, but it’s been formally and intentionally happening since before then - think “hacker houses”). Then, there have been a handful of startups that have come to do co-living as its own startup (Bungalow, Hubhaus, etc). Some have been successful, some belly up for various reasons.

I believe the missing piece of the recipe is formalized and intentional community managment in the “investment stack.” Today, we have investors > property managers > tenants. With companies becoming the investors, there needs to be another layer: investors > property managers > community managers <> tenants. The community managers focus on the relationships of those in the properties (between other tenants) as well as act as a “3rd party” buffer between the property managers/investors. Kind of like and HR for living in the property, but more tenant support/resources kind of HR vs the policing layoff type we’re familiar with in corporate America (and of course, I’m not saying the companies’ HR department would play this dual role - that’d be terrible). 

That’s a good point. I wasn’t thinking about the increased ability to hire employees from out of town. It definitely makes employees more likely to stick around. I think on the other edge of the sword, it’d be that much more important for the company to devote resources to community and property management since a difficult home life (especially one that can be more directly blamed on the employer) could lead to worse performance at work and potentially spread resentment quicker among employees. If the company does it right though, it could redefine how property managment is done by offering more support since more is at stake. 

I recently saw an article on Bloomberg that talks about the re-emergence of the "employer-landlord" model. I'm just curious about the community's thoughts - some initial questions in my head: With rents increasing and housing becoming unaffordable to blue-collar workers in tourist and other major metropolitan areas, I'm wondering if this is an opportunity in the market? Is anyone involved in this from the investment, development, or brokerage standpoint (or any others)?  Does anyone see pros/cons for tenants, business owners, or investors/developers that are supporting the businesses going down this route? Is it a threat to real estate markets long-term (i.e. the eventual dying of company towns)? 

I'm in! Looks like I missed the one yesterday, but looking forward to the next. 

Awesome article - I love the breakdown of all the numbers. Thanks for sharing!