David Cruise

Since the Great Recession, I've bought and rented  30 units, mostly SF, one duplex, a number of condos with a number of the condos in the same building.   I've been on 3 condo boards, President of two.  I was active in Florida and Connecticut, but mostly Worcester County. I only bought units with better than average school systems, based on MCAS or similar testing.  I retain four units having sold the rest.

I'm proud of providing homes to over 100 customers.  My actions brought whole families out of their parents' basements, provided better than average schools to children, and facilitated a refuge from violence and crime, since my units were located in low reported crime areas.

I was good but not perfect in my tenant selection process.  I don't know my annual eviction rate but I started legal filings against three of my 100 customers.  I only achieved an actual eviction order once.  I am proud of these three legal evictions: a drug dealer son who moved back in with Mom after prison and set up in the garage to sell drugs to neighbor children, a tenant that refused to live safely and continually endangered her neighbors and herself, and a Dad who could not afford to live in my big 4 BR home after his spouse left him with the kids.

I am proud of my turnaround condo association work.  I bought a condo in an association that was insolvent, unable to pay its plowing contractor, unable to maintain its property and with massive condo fee delinquency.  When sold, I had accumulated 6 units, it was mostly well maintained, with condo fee delinquencies pursued and on the path to resolution.  When I sold, the Association had about $65k in the bank for needed future repairs.

I am ashamed about the outcome of the Eviction Moratorium. For my good tenants, I gladly accepted their rent They struggled to pay during COVID.  They took risks with their health, they kept working and earning, and they paid their rent.  They did everything right, yet they ended up short.  They did not get their long drink of taxpayer money.  Yet, my rent cancellers, my abusers, on the other hand, lived RENT FREE during all of COVID.  I took over $30,000 in government money to cure the complete rent arrears of tenants who hid their rent money. No government representative asked the tenant where the tenant's rent money went.  Also, during COVID, I threatened to own the Harley of a tenant.  He chose a Harley summer on the open road over taking an essential job and paying rent.  Later, with his rent arrears completely covered by the government, I had no cause of action against him or his Harley.  I learned later that my threat could have subjected me to arrest and imprisonment by my own state.  Further, the eviction moratorium eliminated my landlord power to enforce safety rules since I had no practical recourse.  Tenants knew that any eviction effort would be assumed to be for money by the kangaroo housing courts.

On the whole, I think I played an small but useful role in providing housing and fixing the housing, mortgage, and banking problems of the Great Recession.  The recent eviction moratorium was my government's "no confidence" vote in me and all landlords.  It exposed the widely-held Dickensian view that all landlords are like Scrooge.  We are only greedy takers who provide no value.  My private view is that Landlords bailed this country out of its failed housing policy by buying, rehabbing and providing housing to people victimized by foreclosure.  I personally rejected the wisdom of exclusive use of credit scores to rate tenants who had been foreclosed upon.  Credit scores are backward looking.  When evaluating tenant applications, I searched hard for FORWARD LOOKING mutually beneficial lease situations.

That being said, I see Massachusetts rental housing investment as having a high risk of governmental interference that depresses investment returns and harms investment recovery.  Unlevered operating income from rents alone are insufficient to compete with even debt instrument investment returns.  The floor has fallen out of levered returns due to interest rate increases.  A material tail risk is that rent control will make Massachusetts residential investment real estate illiquid and again trap investors for decades.  Hence my liquidation path.

I have high respect for fellow housing providers that invest their own money, risk their credibility, and bust their ass to offer safe, affordable housing. Governments are a flighty, unreliable and greedy partner in this effort.  I'm looking for a way to pay a little of my success forward to support the real housing providers here.