Category Archives: Real Estate
The Housing Assistance Apocalypse
Rental assistance programs in their current state are a nightmare for everyone who deals with them, landlords and tenants alike. Once you are approved for benefits, it is an uphill battle to get them. More than a quarter of tenants approved for rental assistance never get to use it because they cannot find a… Read More »
Twilight of the Starter Homes
This charade of Baby Boomers freaking out about the indifference of Millennials toward the various trappings of adulthood that Boomers once held dear has gone on for long enough. It isn’t about “kids these days” anymore, since the oldest millennials are fast approaching the horizon of the AARP mailing list. Every generation grows up… Read More »
Stuck: A Housing Affordability Crisis Story
No one likes to move from one apartment to another, but when people stay in their same apartments, they usually have plenty of complaints about their housing situation. Even rent-controlled apartments become unaffordable after a while. Under the current rent control laws in the District of Columbia, landlords can raise rents by up to… Read More »
How Landlords Can Cope With a Renters’ Market
After all these years, everyone is so fed up with financial long COVID that we have practically stopped talking about it. Renters have all but given up on their dreams of eventually owning a home; for as long as anyone can remember, the choice has been between taking on more buy now pay later… Read More »
You Catch More Tenants With Perks
“Reasonably priced” has always been a relative term. Even if you have designed a mathematical formula to decide how much is a reasonable amount to pay for a given purchase, your formula is unlike someone else’s, such that, by following the laws of mathematics, you will arrive at different amounts that you consider reasonable. … Read More »
Appraisal Management Companies: Friend or Foe?
When you buy a real estate property, it is easy to feel like you must jump through an endless series of hoops before you can close on the sale. You know that closing almost always ends up costing more than you expected, so you set aside some extra money for the purpose, even if… Read More »
A Farewell to Real Estate Love Letters
When you were young, older people probably told you that the best thing about being old is that you no longer care as much about what other people think, and therefore, you no longer have to try so hard to impress people. In your own life, you can probably be grateful for the ways… Read More »
Maryland’s New Rules About the Visibility of Eviction-Related Documents
Dating apps have never made anyone feel less lonely or more self-confident. An algorithm chooses someone that its robotic level of interpersonal intelligence thinks would be a good match for you. Both partners get their hopes up over the course of a text message, but when they meet in person, the only vibe that… Read More »
Tenant Screening Dos and Don’ts for Landlords
Housing discrimination is illegal, and landlords can protect themselves from liability simply by informing themselves about current legal protections for prospective tenants. For example, as of 2024, it is no longer legal for landlords to find out whether a prospective tenant has ever been party to eviction proceedings unless the proceedings resulted in an… Read More »
What the Foster House Settlement Means for D.C. Landlords
Comfortable, affordable housing is hard to find in almost all urban areas in the United States, but Washington, D.C. is one of the country’s most notoriously expensive housing markets, both for buyers and for tenants. Most of the rental units in the District are neither comfortable nor affordable. The desirable units are out of… Read More »
