Alameda county (Oakland) : first in America to restrict landlords to do background checks

I’m investing in multi-family and that’s why I stay the hell away from places like Oakland and California.
This is great news for me though, more refugees from California will be housed in my properties soon. Lol

 

It's always the assholes with the least amount of empathy who make personas about being landlords or are landlords

Seems like a pattern. Reason why people think landlords are talentless hacks benefiting from a near feudal like system.

 

Either we need to completely overhaul our criminal justice and rehabilitation system or it's fine and we trust that former felons did their deserved time and therefore should not face any more repercussions in life after serving their time that effect their lives based on what they served time for.


That is supposed to be goal of prison sentences. When someone served their time they should be able to fully integrate back to society. Obviously this isn't the case. Former felons who served their time have difficulty finding a place to stay and employment because employers and property owners are allowed to do their own punishment by extending their sentences by punishing their opportunities to live a normal life after.


If we can't trust the system to where employers and landlords still feel the need to deny people who served their sentences, then it needs an overhaul.

 

I think the ideology split between people who are for and against this ordinance will come down to whether a person believes the criminal justice system's primary purpose is rehabilitation versus punishment. Though it could also be risk mitigation, but is there any study saying that tenants that had been formally incarcerated are more likely to be bad tenants? It might just be a gut feeling that some people think is true, but with no real data behind it.

I served on a jury for the first time a few month ago and during voir dire, the defense attorney asked everyone in the jury selection room that question. I was shocked that about about half of the 70 people in the room though that its main purpose is punishment.

 

I likely would. I've never done a criminal background check on my tenant, only credit checks.

 

Ehhhh...whats the big deal. Just ask for their complete history of where they have lived.

 

Someone called me an ******* here but they will change their tune quickly, if the felon they rented their property to stabbing another tenant in the parking lot over a drug deal.

 

There is no rehabilitation.

Well it's definitely not rehabilitation. People come out worse on the other end of it. Not sure you can overhaul the system other than decriminalizing drugs, which is something I'm for. It's pretty Orwellian to lock people up because of the possibility they will commit actual crimes than to actually just prosecute actual crimes. Anyone else caught up in there and the repercussions that follow, I really don't care. Tough ****.

 

If you're not prepared for **** tenants you ain't landlordt material

 

As someone who has multiple rental properties, this kinda hits close to home ....

You hit on something with the bold - Risk mitigation.

These rental properties are our income - our jobs, our kid's college funds, our futures. We have to protect our investments and the first step in doing that is doing all we can to ensure that we have "Good tenants".

Good tenants aren't just nice people but people who don't destroy your property and are able to pay and do so on time - the bank won't wait for my mortgage payment & there really isn't a hell of a lot of immediate profit in the industry as a single property may net you a couple hundred bucks a month in positive cash flow.
The rest of the $$$ ends up spent on mortgages, repairs, insurance and taxes ..... Taxes are ridiculous.

You get a bad tenant and it's an absolute nightmare, you can't get rid of them, and they destroy your investment .... it can destroy you financially in short order because tenants are protected from eviction by courts and in the mean time the owner is still having to pay their lenders .... and then you have to pay for repairs after the fact when they knock holes in your walls & break stuff intentionally on their way out.

That potential tenant's history, credit and ability to pay are critical information.

 

This is why housing shouldn't be a capitalist endeavor.

Anyways it's a industry where no one is producing anything. You aren't making anything or contributing. You just own space. That's it.

People who who finish their sentences should be fully integrated back in society. That's the point of serving a sentence.

 

Spoken like someone who has never owned a home.

I contribute my time, my cash and my credit.
I maintain it in good working order.
I pay the taxes & insurance.

Sorry, No.

Once people prove to us who they are .... we should always be wary of them going forward.

I'd go so far as to decriminalize drugs and expunge any drug related offenses but murderers, rapists & thieves should be held to a different standard.

 

This just isn't true at all.