All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

Link to the actual bill:

https://phila.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=9171210&GUID=DF959729-F4E5-44BA-8E45-D753FFE998BE

Diversified Investors Group

https://digonline.org/

In SE PA, DIG is the REIA to consider. @Josh Caldwell and @David Krulac both are familiar with DIG, and I think they would concur.

Zillow sold comps are helpful.

The Zestimate has value as a quick and dirty aid to assess whether more in depth evaluation makes sense. Some offerings are priced at Zestimate, and when you add in repairs and other costs, you quickly see it’s no deal and can move on. 

If you can find something in 19130 that would be closer, and in your price range. Whether there is any inventory there is what you should look into.

Almost all areas in proximity to center city Philadelphia will be C+ or better; the price point is the factor that will eliminate zip codes, but I suggest you get a list of zip codes close enough for you, then look at the MLS and let the MLS show you available inventory in each zip code so that you can eliminate the too pricey ones. Then get a search set up for the remaining zip codes.

You didn’t mention anything about rent to price ratio, so if you don’t have that as a factor in your decision there will be more choices. Some of which will have a low rent to price ratio of course.

Gentrification in older urban areas with rundown housing stock might be the only thing that prevents all of that rundown housing from becoming unoccupied, and eventually being razed due to their unsafe conditions as they continue to deteriorate while unoccupied. With gentrification, some of that older housing gets rehabbed and thus preserving some of those older architectural elements; of course, some will want to raze these older properties to have a fresh start from the ground up. When these rundown areas don't experience some of that gentrification, you can get entire city blocks that have mostly vacant houses, with some boarded up, and some showing the accompanying "missing teeth" look.

The bed bug rules ... suck if the tenant knowingly goes someplace that has bedbugs and they come back with the tenant; this actually happened with a former tenant of mine. My lease with that tenant has/had a very specialized bed bug addendum, that has an educational component similar to the requirements under the new Philadelphia law, so the tenant was made aware of bed bug behavior, and that they are hitch hiking bugs. Under that lease addendum with that tenant, the tenant was on the hook for paying to treat their residence; I allowed them to shop for a treatment subject to my approval, I paid up front but they did reimburse me in installments - given those circumstances, that was and still should be appropriate. Under this new Philadelphia law, I will have to share the costs of the treatment, even though the unit was bed bug free at move in and the tenant knowingly brought them in; this is the part of the Philadelphia law that is unfair.

IMO, there should be a way to certify a unit as bed bug free before move in (say by using bed bug sniffing dogs) so that all costs of bed bug treatment are on the tenant after move in. Heck, lots of people move because they are living in a bed bug infested building and want to escape, not realizing that they are bringing the bed bugs with them when they move; this is another aspect that the Philadelphia law fails to recognize.

And not a single location in California made that list, despite the prevalence of technology companies there!

In PA, it's only an eviction when it involves a tenant that is supposed to be paying rent (reason for evicting a tenant does not have to be non-payment). After foreclosure, tenants have rights under the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which is a federal law; that has nothing to do with COVID and was in place before COVID was even known. COVID restrictions offer protections too that can go beyond what the PTFA offers.

But most foreclosures are of owner occupants, and those people are not removed by eviction actions; instead, an ejectment must be performed. Ejectments are more expensive than evictions.

You are asking for some specific answers that are just uncertain at this time, due to COVID restrictions.

This is the link I referred to earlier, that lists things required of a landlord in Philadelphia.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/742/topics/508114-documents-you-have-to-provide-to-your-tenants-in-philadelphia