Shortage Of Affordable Housing

Shortage Of Affordable Housing

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The following is a paid commercial programon ninety four three WSC. The views
expressed by the host of this programdo not necessarily reflect the views of iHeartMedia
and ninety four three WSC it's advertiser, sponsors or management. This is the
Real Estate Show with Rick Willis.I show about home sales, mortgage issues,
investing at everything about the American dreamand I mean to want that's someone

(00:23):
who enjoys radio and really enjoys yourprogram. And now the Real Estate Show
with Rick Willis on n four three. You're telling you sc Hello, Charleston,
Welcome, Welcome to the Rick WillisReal Estate Show. Well, folks,
we talk real estate here. Iguess you could figure that out from

(00:43):
the title. And when we sayreal estate, that could mean residential real
estate, it could be commercial realestate, it could be vacant land.
What is it that you have aninterest in? I try to spread around
the different messages each week, andif you want me to speak to something
that you have a particular interest in, just let me know. I'll give

(01:06):
you plenty of chances during the showto get my contact information. But we
always start off the show with whatis the status of the real estate market
locally here in Charleston. And forthose of you that have not heard the
show before, I am a localreal estate broker that helps people buy and

(01:30):
sell real estate here in the GreaterCharleston area. I've been in the Charleston
area now for about twenty five years. Are relocated here in nineteen ninety eight,
and i got into the real estatebusiness actively selling real estate here in
the fall of two thousand and one. And I'm still very active, having

(01:59):
listed in saw over a thousand properties, and I know the marketplace very well.
So what we're going to talk aboutright this minute is where are we
in the market cycle. Real estateis seldom steady, although it has been
steady for the past number of weeks, the last number of months. Actually,

(02:20):
as you all know that during thepandemic, there was a great rise
in the prices of real estate,there was a great decrease in the number
of active listings. I mean,if you go back to two thousand and
ten, we had over ten thousandactive residential listings for sale, and during

(02:43):
the time of the pandemic, theCOVID pandemic, we actually got to a
point of just less than one thousandactive residential listings. And since that time
period when things have slowed down becauseof the rise of the interest rates,

(03:04):
we now have a little over twothousand active listings as of this morning.
The exact number, there's two thousand, three hundred and eighty three active residential
listings. When I report it toyou last week there was two thousand,
three hundred and seventy one active residentiallisting. So we'll call that a push
and say that the market is steady. The market is really good. If

(03:29):
you're a seller, and if you'rea buyer, I'm also going to suggest
to you that the market is good. And when I say good, I'm
saying to you that there's a lotof people buying out there. Irrespective of
the fact that there's a six toseven percent interest rate out there today,

(03:51):
there's still a lot of activity andmultiple offers on properties, properties selling quickly,
et cetera, et cetera. Sothe question becomes, why are people
buying when there is six and ahalf to seven percent interest rates? Well,
let's examine that for a minute.If you're somebody that's relocating to the

(04:15):
Low Country from out of the area, you may have sold a home in
another part of the US, andyou're making the Low Country your new home.
Well, you're bringing with you severalhundred thousand dollars perhaps based on the
equity that you had from the saleof your home and New Jersey or Ohio

(04:39):
or Wisconsin or Maryland, who knows, but you know, and you've you've
owned a home for the last numberof decades, and you think in terms
of owning now close to about twentypercent of all of the sales taking place
are cash sales, so that percentof the market doesn't have to worry about

(05:01):
the interest rate. They come totown and they bring cash with them,
or they're coming and they've going tobe buying, and they sign a contract
contingent on the sale of their homeand somewhere else, and they're going to
be paying cash. And if they'renot going to be paying cash, they
have a certain amount of equity thatthey're going to be putting as a down

(05:23):
payment. So although they might bebuying a four hundred thousand dollar property here
in the Low Country, it mightbe that they're going to be bringing with
them two hundred and fifty thousand cashand the sale of their home, and
they won't have that large of amortgage and life goes on. The bottom
line is they know that they wantto own real estate here, they're not

(05:46):
going to rent. Then you've gotpeople relocating here that four jobs situations and
or retirement, if you will.And again they're used to owning wherever they're
living now. And once you decideyou're going to own, it's really difficult.

(06:11):
And you have owned a home inthe past, or you are selling
a home to relocate here, whetheryou're a retiree or still working, it's
almost it goes against the grain togo from being an owner for decades to
renting. It's just like a foreignconcept. You know. People spend the

(06:32):
first number of years of their livesrenting an apartment, renting a house.
Then they are fortunate enough to buy, and they moved to another house,
and they moved to another house,and they end up in the low Country,
and irrespective of the interest rates,they're going to buy period. And

(06:56):
they chalk up whatever their mortgage paymenthappens to be to a living expense.
And better it is to own somethingthat's yours. You can fix it up
the way you want. And reallyand truly, when you take out the
calculator and you look at what themonthly payment looks like compared to renting.

(07:17):
I mean, the person that wouldnormally be buying the four hundred thousand dollar
house, do you have any ideawhat the rent might be on that four
hundred thousand dollar house. Well,yeah, I mean that four hundred thousand
dollar house rental could be twenty fivehundred a month, could be three thousand

(07:38):
a month rent. And how muchequity do you get when you rent and
pay twenty five hundred and three thousanda month. They look at it like,
hey, I'm just taught throwing thatmoney away. And even if you
have to have a significantly higher paymentwith principal, interest, taxes, and

(08:00):
currence, at least a portion ofthat monthly payment is going to pay down
the principle. And you're going tohave appreciation. Based on history and based
on my personal prognosis and even theexperts nationwide, you're going to continue to

(08:22):
see appreciation. So if you're buyingthat four hundred thousand dollars home and the
appreciation is only three percent a year, well that's twelve thousand dollars a year,
and appreciation that's a thousand dollars amonth, and you combine that thousand
dollars a month with the principal partof your mortgage payment, what you'll discover

(08:48):
is it's not costing you any moremoney and probably even less money to own
than it is to rent. Andyou've got your own place. You can
do what you want with it.And just a financial decision, it's a
psychological decision. This is my house. I mean, I know people that
relocate, they rent, and theydidn't intend to buy, but they rent,

(09:11):
and then all of a sudden they'rerenting, and the person that they're
renting from says, I think I'mgoing to sell my house. And these
folks never would be interested in buyingthe house they're renting. It's not the
right neighborhood, not the right partof town, but now they have to
move. And again, you wantto be a homeowner. If you're a
first time buyer and you're renting,now, well look at what you're paying

(09:37):
in rent. Again, look atthe fact that you're not building any equity.
So every monthly payment is paying themortgage of the person that owns the
house or the mortgage of the personthat owns the apartment complex, and you're
not getting any appreciation and if youdid take the calculator out, what you'll

(09:58):
probably discover is that you're better offowning than renting. But again, that
high mortgage payment kind of frightened shilla little bit. If you're that first
time buyer, you know what betteroff to turn the faucet off or turn
it down on, putting money ina retirement account and put some money into
your house. Well, folks,I am Rick Willis and I do this

(10:24):
show one hour a week. WhenI'm not doing the show, I help
people buy sell in real estate,investment property, commercial property, vacant land,
primary homes. I do the entiremarketplace. So if I can help
you in any way, if Ican answer any questions, reach out to
me call me please. I'd loveto meet with you to love to chat

(10:46):
with you, and if you're lookingto buy, I'd like to have you
consider me to be your buyer's agent. If you're looking to sell, let
me come over to your property,look at it and give you an idea
of what I think it might sellfor and what you could do to make
it sell for a higher Email meR Willis Team the letter R Willis W
I L L I S Team atgmail dot com. Go to my website,

(11:09):
Rickwillis dot com, and you welcometo communicate with me by way of
my website. Read my bio,access multiple listing from that website Rickwillis dot
com. Folks will be right backafter this break. If you have real
estate questions or if you need amarket analysis on your property, call Rick

(11:30):
right now at eight four three threetwo seven three zero one seven, or
you can email them at Rick atRickwillis dot com. Check out Rick's bio
and access all properties on the MLSat Rickwillis dot com. Welcome back,
Welcome back, Johnston. Welcome backto the second segment of today's Rick Willis

(11:50):
Real Estate Show. Well, folks, we talked about the status of the
housing market in the first segment,and I want to expand on that a
little bit. This is an articlefrom the Post and Courier, and the

(12:13):
headline from the Post and Courier saidhome sales drop in the first half of
the year as prices rise. Homesales across South Carolina dip nearly twenty percent
during the first half of the year, while the median price rose three point

(12:33):
six percent and set a new recordin June. So isn't that interesting?
Home sales declining and we set arecord for median price in the month of
June. Now this is for thestate of South Carolina, and I might

(12:56):
add that things are doing very wellhere in the Greater Low Country. So
if you're a potential buyer or seller, you really don't want to be concerned
about how many sales there are.What you want to be concerned about is
for my individual home, is thisa good time to sell? Where If

(13:20):
you're a buyer, is this agood time to buy? Focus on yourself,
look at your situation and ask thequestion and price wise, the median
cost climbed to three hundred and twentythree thousand, nine hundred during the first
half of the year. This isaccording to the South Carolina Reilders Association.

(13:43):
Now remember this is not the localCharleston area. This is the state of
South Carolina, and that would representan eleven four hundred dollars higher price than
the same time last year. InJune, market except Buford and Spartanburg reported
lower volume. June marked the fifthconsecutive month the cost of a home has

(14:11):
risen in the state of South Carolina. A South Carolina home now costs forty
four percent more than in March oftwenty twenty. Isn't that incredible? Almost
a fifty percent increase since March oftwenty twenty. That's three and a half

(14:35):
years, just a little over threeyears, folks. Real estate is where
you want to invest your money,either as a homeowner, occupant or as
an investor. Remember something, thebubble is not going to pop. We've

(14:58):
now had interest rates go from twoand a half and three percent up to
six and a half and seven andprices are rising now. There's a big
number of people, a large numberof people that want to buy that are
not buying. I believe that thepent up demand is incredible right now for

(15:24):
people to buy. You see whatcaused the drop in number of sales has
nothing to do with demand. Ithad to do and has to do with
interest rates. There's still a shortageof housing, which is why the prices
are continuing to rise. And Ibelieve that sometime in the next twelve to

(15:52):
eighteen months we're going to see interestrates decline, but the prices between now
and then are still going to berising. Now, you have to pick
what you think is going to betrue. Either decide you're never ever going
to buy another house, or ifyou believe that prices really really will decline,

(16:15):
I want you to call me,email me, text me, and
tell me why you think that,because you see, real estate is pure
and it's driven by a law,the law of supply and demand. I
mean, not only is there ashortage of housing here in the Greater Charleston
area, there's a shortage of housingthroughout the United States, millions of houses

(16:42):
short. According to the expert,these are the economists, not me,
that builders cannot build fast enough forthe demand, and builders have a magic
price point that they can not buildbelow. And a builder, when they

(17:03):
have a choice, and they do. If they build a five hundred thousand
dollars home, they make more profitthan if they build a four hundred thousand
dollars home. And they make moreprofit at a four hundred thousand dollars home
than they do a three hundred thousanddollar home. And you can barely build
one, if at all, formost builders, at a price below three

(17:29):
hundred thousand. So if you can'tbuild it anymore because the cost of sticks,
bricks, land, impact, fees, profit, etc. And there's
a demand for it, a personought to look into owning some of that.
Buy something that can never be builtagain, that's in high demand and

(17:55):
will always be in high demand,food, clothing, and shelter. It's
not like cryptocurrency. It's not likegold or silver. You don't have to
own silver. You do have tolive somewhere, and your choice is to
rent or your choice is to own. If you own, you're going to

(18:19):
be buying something. If you're renting, you're going to be renting from someone
else who owns something, and therents will continue to increase. And if
you don't buy something, you're goingto look back, however, many years
down the road and say, youknow what, even though interest rates were
high and prices were high, Ireally should have bought something, because now

(18:41):
I'm paying the same rent that Iwould have paid had I bought something umpty
ump years ago. Folks, youcan't win by continuing to be a renter
unless you choose to move to asmall town an hour to two hour to

(19:02):
drive away from the Charleston area,which means you're going to be commuting to
the Charleston area and you're spending yourmoney in gasoline instead of housing. Anyway,
let me go on with this,because there's some more interesting statistics here.

(19:22):
During the year's first half, allsixteen sub markets in the state registered
declining sales. Charleston, the state'slargest volume region, slipped twenty two point
five percent in number of sales.Myrtle Beach, the second largest market by
volume, dipped almost twenty percent.Columbia declined almost twenty percent, hilton Head

(19:52):
declined fifteen percent, rock Hill wasdown more than twenty percent. Floor Orrence
based PDE region saw nearly a fifteenpercent drop in number of sales. Hilton
Head maintained the most expensive homes inthe state, at an average price of

(20:17):
five hundred and five thousand in hiltonHead up six point one percent. View
for jump nine point five percent toslightly more than three hundred ninety five thousand
median price. Myrtle Beach prices rosesix point seven percent, Spartanburg prices rose

(20:40):
seven point eight percent, and onlyfive markets reported housing costs under two hundred
and fifty thousand. Florence, Gaffney, Greenberg, excuse me, Greenwood,
Orangeburg, and Sumpter wants some lowerpriced housing, Go to Orangeburg. Go

(21:00):
to Sumpter. I think the qualityof your life might change a little bit
if you live in Sumter or Orangeburg. At the end of the day,
real estate is your safest place toinvest your money. And again, for
those first time buyers listening, ifyou normally have money subtracted from your paycheck

(21:22):
for a four oh one K orother retirement account, turn the faucet off,
turn the fawcet down. You're goingto be safer and have a better
investment in a real estate than somethinginvested in a mutual fund in the stock
market. Well, folks, Ihope you're benefiting from this. I've been
on the air here in Charleston nowfor twenty years doing this radio show and

(21:47):
you're either hearing the show on Saturdayfrom noon to one or you're hearing the
replay of the show on Sunday morningfrom nine to ten. So, if
you have a son, you havea daughter, you have somebody that you
care about that is thinking of buying, thinking of selling, you might want

(22:07):
to say, why don't you givethis guy Rick Willis a call and chat
with him about your personal situation.He might be a good buyer agent for
you. And by the way,when you buy property, you want your
own agent and you don't pay forthe agent. The seller pays for the
listing agent, and a portion ofthat commission pays the buyer agent. If

(22:30):
you're going to be selling your property, I promise you you want me to
look at your house, or yourland or your commercial property and give you
an idea of what I think it'llsell for, what's involved, and things
that you might be able to tweakthat will get you more money for the
property. Reach out to me,folks. I am Rick Willis and you
can reach me at eight four threethree two seven three zero one seven,

(22:56):
email me the letter R R WillisTeam. I'm at gmail dot com.
R Willis Team at gmail dot com, or please visit my website, Rickwillis
dot com. Rickwillis dot com.Folks will be right back after this break.
If you have real estate questions,or if you need a market analysis
on your property, call Rick rightnow at eight four three three two seven

(23:18):
three zero one seven, or youcan email limitt Rick at Rickwillis dot com.
Check out Rick's bio and access allproperties on the MLS at Rickwillis dot
com. Welcome back, Welcome back, Charleston, Welcome back to the third
segment of today's Rick Willis Real EstateShow. Well, we talk real estate

(23:41):
here, and I've been in thereal estate business since the nineteen seventies.
I started in the real estate businesswhen I finished the University of Maryland.
I grew up almost walking distance fromthe University of Maryland. I walked from

(24:02):
the same house that I grew upinto elementary school, junior high school,
high school, and occasionally the CollegePark campus of the University of Maryland.
And the first job I ever hadthat was quote a full time job was
real estate. And I've done everythingfrom selling recreational property behind Ocean City,

(24:27):
Maryland lots and a place called OceanPines, to new construction condominium conversion in
northern Virginia Arlington, resale property inthe Interrundal County, Maryland area near Annapolis,

(24:49):
as well as the Baltimore area outof an office in Catonsville on the
southwest side of Baltimore. Then Iraised my family in Ellicott City, Maryland,
then did some sales in Howard County. In Baltimore County, managed a
real estate office, and I firststarted investing in real estate. My first

(25:14):
property that I ever bought was nota house to live in, but an
investment property. And I've been involvedin the buying and selling and representing other
people in the buying and selling ofinvestment property for decades. And if you
go back to the nineteen eighties andyou look at what was happening in the

(25:37):
economy and in the interest rates,we actually had interest rates seventeen percent plus
seventeen percent, yes, and therewere people buying homes to live in and
buying investment property when interest rates wereseventeen percent. So I want to make

(26:00):
sure you're clear that this is nota new thing to have interest rates at
in the sixes and sevenths. Thatreal estate is so resilient. You see,
if I told you that my firstresidence, my first house that I
lived in, was purchased in NorthernVirginia, which today, by the way,

(26:26):
is one of the more expensive placesin the United States to live.
But we purchased a property, athree bedroom, two bath townhouse in northern
Virginia for forty seven thousand dollars.Forty seven thousand dollars, and I believe

(26:47):
we had a nine percent interest rateon that property. Might say, well,
yeah, but only forty seven thousand. Well, you know, wages
and incomes were. Accordingly, thingshave changed quite a bit. But the
bottom line of the bottom line isthat for people that understand real estate keyword,

(27:10):
that understand it experientially, they've experiencedit, that's where they want their
money. But what's so interesting isthere's people that are listening right now that
are fifty years old, sixty yearsold, seventy years old, and probably
eighty plus listening that have stories oftheir own where they can see over the

(27:33):
decades what's happened to their own realestate, and yet they have money in
the stock market by way of mutualfunds four oh one k's iras, and
they don't have that same money inreal estate, even though they've experienced a
tremendous, tremendous benefit over their lifetimeof real estate. Well, I'm here

(28:00):
to remind you that it's still agood investment. And I have a I
have an article in front of methat says institutional investors are buying up affordable
housing in droves. Are they ontosomething, well, affordable housing, Yeah,

(28:22):
that's really where there's a shortage rightnow, the entry level affordable housing.
There isn't a shortage of million dollarhomes. There isn't a shortage of
eight hundred thousand dollar properties. Butthere's a tremendous shortage for the person who
doesn't own a home, who's neverowned a home, or has been renting

(28:48):
for quite a while and haven't doesn'thave all that equity from the sale of
a previous property that they may havesold a while ago. And I want
to quote you some things from thisarticle. There's Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association

(29:10):
of America. Teachers Insurance and AnnuityAssociation of America made headlines with an acquisition
of a substantial twelve thousand unit housingportfolio, predominantly located in the Mid Atlantic
region. And this particular company,Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association. You see,

(29:41):
teachers get pensions. Teachers have aretirement and the money that is subtracted
from the teachers paychecks deferred compensation ifyou will, or contributed by the school
system goes into a fund where theyhave millions and millions and hundreds of millions

(30:07):
of dollars, maybe even billions.And in order to offer a retirement income
to these respective teachers, they haveto take the money and invest it somewhere
to afford to pay the pensions ofthe teachers. Now, if you read

(30:32):
the headlines around America, there isa great shortage of people. Not shortage
of people, there's a shortage ofmoney and retirement accounts for teachers, for
public servants. In every different area, there's a shortage. You know,

(30:56):
when used to be there was apension that a company would for and then
it became a four oh one kin an ira. But there's still you
know, people that work in thepublic sector, teachers, firemen, police,
etc. That have a retirement builtinto their job. And of course

(31:18):
there's a contribution made by the individualand a contribution made by the employer.
But what does the fund that hasall that money do with it? In
this case, they're buying entry levelaffordable housing. Well, if they're buying

(31:41):
housing, if they're buying real estate, why don't you consider that? What
do they know that you don't know? Goldman Sachs ever heard the company,
along with the Michael's Organization, purchasedone point to billion worth of affordable housing

(32:02):
across the United States this year.These investments reflect a growing trend among large
investors who recognize the advantages of affordablehousing. And then it says we're going
to delve into the top four reasons. What's driving this expansion and explain why

(32:22):
smaller investors should consider participating in thisresilient market. Well, here's the first
increased nationwide demand. Demand for affordablehousing in the United States has reached critical
levels and is continuing to rise.The nation faces a shortage of seven point

(32:50):
three million rental homes that are bothaffordable and available, a shortage. Now,
folks, you don't have to goto a financial advisor or study too
hard to understand that if there's agreat shortage of housing for the lower income

(33:16):
brackets, starter homes, if youwill, there's a shortage of housing,
and there's people wanting to rent,and you have the ability to buy something
that there's a shortage of. Thelaw of supply and demand comes in and

(33:37):
the price increases, and the priceincreases because there's a shortage of it and
there's a demand for it, andhousing is a necessity of life, Folks.
A whole lot of you listening havea four oh one K or an
IRA in mutual funds, and thosemutual funds invest in stocks, and those

(34:05):
stocks have a volatility, and youdon't even control what stocks they buy.
You just blindly have money put intothis retirement account, and there's somebody with
their infinite wisdom that selects and chooseswhere your money is invested. And you're
with a pool of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other people

(34:30):
who are in that pool hoping,hoping that the stock market holds up,
and whoever selecting the stocks that arepart of that mutual fund are the stocks
that are going to grow and nottank when the market declines. So Number

(34:52):
one is there's a shortage. Numbertwo reason to consider entry level or affordable
housing favorable yield stability throughout the entireeconomic cycle, including a recession. Large
investors are drawn to affordable housing notonly due to its social impact, but

(35:17):
also because it offers favorable yield stabilityeven in challenging economic climates, including a
recession. Affordable housing entry level investmentscan provide investors with attractive returns and stability
even during market downturns. Folks,real estate brings in income regardless of the

(35:44):
economy, and when the economy isnot so good, the income is better.
By the way, we have nowa fifty three year record of men
of less people owning housing. Onlysixty three percent of the American population owns

(36:04):
a home that's allow in the lastfifty some years. It wasn't very long
ago. It was sixty five tosixty seven percent. A shortage of housing
and favorable yield meaning return on investment. Folks, reach out to me.

(36:27):
Let's talk about income producing real estatethat your retirement account can purchase and you
don't have to incur a penalty.You simply change custodians and it can go
out and pay cash for property thatbrings in income tax free into your account
until such time as you're of anage that you can withdraw it without any

(36:51):
penalty at all. Call me,folks, Rick Willis eight four three three
two seven three zero one seven emailtell me so we can chat. Our
Willis team at gmail dot com,the letter R Willis W I L L
I S Team at gmail dot com. Or visit my website Rickwillis dot com,

(37:15):
read my bio and reach out tome. Let's have a conversation about
how I can help you buy yourfirst home, your fifth home, or
some investment property that will keep youcomfortable in your retirement. Folks will be
right back for our final segment ofthe day. If you have real estate
questions or if you need a marketanalysis on your property, call Rick right

(37:37):
now at eight four three three twoseven three zero one seven, or you
can email limit Rick at Rickwillis dotcom. Check out Rick's bio and access
all properties on the MLS at Rickwillisdot com. Welcome back, Welcome back,
Charleston, Welcome back to the finalsegment of today's Rick Willis Realists State

(38:00):
Show. Well, folks. Beforewe took that last break, I was
reading some things from an article thatsays institutional investors are buying up affordable housing
in droves. Are they onto something? And we talked about the incredible nationwide

(38:20):
demand, and we talked about froman investor point of view, the favorable
stability of the rate of return,including during a recession. And another reason
that the large companies that are thathave your money primarily pension funds and institutions

(38:47):
that are insurance based and in thiscase a pension fund for the teachers.
The third reason is many of thethese low income properties are backed by government
subsidies. And when we talk aboutgovernment subsidies, if you went back to

(39:10):
the pandemic and you looked at howmany rental defaults there were in the very
entry level, lower price range ofproperties. There weren't many, and not
a whole lot of people are awareof this, But you may be aware

(39:30):
that there's apartment projects that are completelygovernment subsidized subsidized housing, if you will,
and if you drive around in differentparts of the Greater Charleston area,
if you drive around in some ruralareas, there are whole complexes, acres
and acres of affordable housing that aregovernment subsidies, whereby the tenant pays a

(39:57):
very small amount usually of the rent, and the government, be that federal,
state, or county or city,pays a bigger chunk usually than the
tenant. For example, you knowhere in the Greater Charleston area, there
was a whole affordable housing project thatended up being converted to private units up

(40:25):
in North Charleston. And somebody mayhave paid as the rent. Somebody may
have paid one hundred dollars, andin this case, the city of North
Charleston or the Charleston County, ifyou will, may have paid eight hundred

(40:46):
of the total nine hundred dollars amonth rent. My wife and I,
going back about twenty years ago,we bought a property in North Charleston in
a low price range market called DorchesterTerrace, the intersection of I twenty six

(41:07):
in Dorchester Road. There's a oldsomeolder properties there, built in World War
Two in the nineteen forties, verysmall wood frame housing. A lot of
them are two bedroom units, afew occasionally your three bedroom. But we

(41:28):
bought a property there, and Irecall clearly we paid fifty thousand dollars for
the property back twenty years ago.And when we bought it, there was
an existing tenant in the property andshe was what you call a Section eight
tenant. She had been in theproperty for a number of years and it

(41:51):
was her and her adult daughter.We're living in the house. And what
a lot of people don't know isyou know, this affordable housing is available
on an individual property basis, andthere's a shortage of it. So theoretically

(42:13):
you could go out and purchase aproperty affordable housing and you could register your
property that you buy with in thisexample Charleston County, and for people that
are looking for affordable housing and arelooking to pay a very small amount of

(42:35):
money, you could be on thelist where people that are looking for this
would be contacting you directly saying Ihave a voucher Section eight voucher. And
since my wife and I are inthe property management business, it's not uncommon
when we're have properties for rent thata call comes in and the first thing

(43:00):
out of the mouth of the personthat's looking for a place to rent is
do you accept vouchers? Do youaccept Section eight? And I can tell
you that there's a lot of peopleout there that are calling with that question,
meaning they have difficulty finding a property, an individual property that they can

(43:24):
rent where the owner has the propertyinto the affordable housing program called Section eight.
You see, in order to havethe property Section eight acceptable, there
has to be it has to meetcertain criteria of conditions and somebody from in

(43:44):
this case the county would come outlook at the property to make sure it's
acceptable and if it's not acceptable,tell you the owner what has to happen
for you to make it acceptable forthe Section eight program and in turn,
the Section eight tenant. Well,there's a lot of controversy about whether it
is this a good or bad thing? Are you getting bad tenants with Section

(44:08):
eight? Are you getting people thatare going to mess up your property?
Well as somebody who has been involvedin the management of property with Section eight
owned property with Section eight. Ican tell you that it makes no difference
whether the property is Section eight ornot Section eight in terms of how people

(44:30):
treat the property. You see,you still have to do the due diligence.
You know with anybody, whether it'sthe fair market rent or subsidized housing.
You know, you check employment,you check with their previous landlords,
You verify their income. And ifyou find out that all the boxes are

(44:51):
checked, they do have a job, they have the amount of income needed
for their rent, and the Sectioneight will contribute a certain amount towards it.
It can be a good thing.I mean, we inherited a Section
eight tenant, my wife and I, and we kept them a certain I

(45:14):
don't know, kept the property fiveyears and resold it, and the person
who bought it kept them on asa Section eight tenant. In fact,
we actually approached the person when wewere going to sell it and said,
would you like to buy it?You've been paying our rent plus some,
you've been paying our mortgage payment plussome, and you could own this for

(45:37):
less than you're paying in rent.Well, I don't have good credit,
the tenant said. I said,we'll wait for you. You know,
we'll help you get your credit squaredaway and then you can buy it from
us. We liked her and shedid treat the property well. Long story
short, she never did take anyaction to improve her credit, so therefore

(45:59):
we sold it. Folks, thereare people that are lifetime tenants, have
never owned a home and probably willnever own a home. So no,
this is not about being a slumlandlord, just the opposite. You might
find a low income property, thatproperty might need some work, so instead
of you being the slum landlord,maybe you put some money in it and

(46:22):
improve the property. And maybe youhave one of the better properties in the
neighborhood and people want to stay thereand never leave. And the federal government,
the county, the city, thestate will make sure you get paid
your inn. Folks, reach outto me. I'm Rick Willis. Let's
have a conversation eight four three threetwo seven three zero one seven. Email

(46:47):
me R Willis team at gmail dotcom. Please visit my website Rickwillis dot
com. Rickwillis dot com. Havea great weekend and I'll look forward to
chatting with you.