Letter from the Executive Director for December 2017

The year 2017 will be one to remember. Over the last twelve months our membership grew 26%, to approximately 1,500 members state-wide. And our revenue grew roughly 50%, as we enrolled new landlords and found ways to better help existing members.

Our mission is simple and worthwhile. We are a nonprofit trade association whose mission is to create better rental housing in Massachusetts. We help new, current, and prospective owners run profitable, compliant, and quality businesses. We organize opportunities for education and networking and advocate for appropriate changes to the laws.

Despite the simplicity and basic moral goodness of our mission, it has been a hard year for some who still don’t quite accept MassLandlords.

On the one hand, we in this Commonwealth have a few tenant advocates who take philosophical issue with private property ownership. They find it hard to believe that MassLandlords won’t, at the first opportunity, revert to the model of landlord groups of yore, rising up to strike at the heart of good and necessary renter protections.

On the other hand, we also have a few landlord advocates who take philosophical issue with renter protections. They find it hard to believe that MassLandlords won’t, at the first opportunity, turn coat to side with the tenants, obliterating in the name of “compromise” the last vestiges of private property ownership.

Such is the life of a landlord, to be disliked by left and right! We are used to it. We will keep doing our job as well as we can. The year 2017, like the year before and the year to come, will show our worth and see our mission move forward: “Better communities, Better policy, Better lives.“

Happy holidays. May you and yours enjoy the peace of a job well done, and the hope of progress yet to come. We’ll see you in 2018.

Sincerely,
Doug Quattrochi
hello@masslandlords.net