Lack of City businesses

Having moved back to South St. Louis a year ago, after a long hiatus in the suburbs, I have really enjoyed being back. While I recognize that “city life” isn’t for everybody, I think that St. Louis has made some real strides in terms of winning back people lost during the mass exodus era of the 80’s and 90’s. Both commercial and residential sectors that had long been neglected, are seeing new life. Even North City is starting to see a significant turnaround in areas such as Old North St. Louis. Read more

Time to take out the trash

This is a piece of trash. Intimidating isn’t it. Well don’t worry. If the St. Louis Board of Alderman has it’s way you won’t have to see this stuff anymore. According to an article recently published in the South Side Journal (Business owners want trash bill canned), Alderman Steve Conway, D-8th Ward, has sponsored a bill requiring convenience stores and carryout restaurants to pick up all trash originating from their place of business within a 300 foot radius at least once a day. Read more

St. Louis earning tax

Some days of the year are cherished. These holidays allow us to relax and enjoy ourselves. Then there are days like April 15th: Tax Day. For those of you getting money back, this might be considered among those cherished days. For others it is as bad as it gets. Read more

Hideous roadside landscaping

Not to be too repetitive in my rants (see Ugly roadside trashcans), but the landscaping around the interstate highways in St. Louis City is just god awful. Whether you’re on Interstate 44, 55, 70 or 64-40, there is so much missed potential. For example, the picture above shows the state of Highway 44 between Jefferson and Grand. Those aren’t planted trees and shrubs, they are overgrow weeds and brush. And you don’t want to see what the fence looks like. This is the heart of our urban area here; can’t we do more?

Obviously, the roadsides can’t be a lush garden from one end of the metro area to another. Grass with an occasional tree or flower bed is and should remain the norm. Costs would just be too prohibitive to do too much more. We should also address the fencing that borders the highway system. Bent, buckled and rusted chain-link fencing overgrown with weeds doesn’t really give people a sense of pride in the area. It just seems like there is no effort to beautify the area. Just maintain the inadequate current infrastructure.

With clever planning and a slightly increased budget, eyesores link the highway stretch displayed above could become assets. If the goals were modest and improvements were gradually made over a 10-year period, I see no reason why things couldn’t realistically be improved. Is anyone aware of any current efforts on this front?

A contract is a contract is a contract

They say that without order their is chaos. Then I guess the world of real estate is one of chaos. Or at least it feels like it at times. I have noticed a recurring theme in the real estate world that is becoming impossible to ignore: Nobody pays attention to contracts anymore!

Contracts seem to have gone from being legally binding agreements to mere pieces of paper. Have no contingencies left and decide you don’t like the deal anymore just days before closing? Just walk away from the contract. Pass your inspection contingency and decide a week later that you want to bail by fraudulently claiming that you can’t get financing? Just walk away from the contract. Decide that you want to sell your property to someone after you already have it under with someone else? Just walk away from the contract. Nobody seems to pay attention to these things anymore. Deadlines come and go and agents, lenders, buyers and sellers take no notice.

There was a time when businessmen, shady as many of them were, had a strong enough sense of follow-through that a mere handshake agreement was sufficient. Nowadays, I can have a legally binding agreement put down in writing only to have one of the parties spit on it as if it were meaningless. I don’t know if this is a sign of the world we live in today or something isolated to the world of real estate.

I am probably making the situation sound worse than it really is, but I often find myself quite frustrated during transactions. I often think we have come to this state due to the influx of unqualified or uninterested buyers that popped into the market over the last few years during the era of 100% financing and questionable appraisals. Hopefully with those days gone this trend will begin to dissipate. Hopefully.

Or maybe if more people would sue buyers or sellers that violate contracts we could curb this issue. Perhaps people are becoming emboldened due to the fact that it is very unlikely that they will face any repercussions from breaking a contract. I’m not advocating that everyone in the real estate world become sue-happy, but it’s a perfectly acceptable recourse in certain situations.

These issues probably play a role in the lack of respect shown to contracts, but in the end there is probably something less tangible at work. We all just need to remember that a contract is a contract is contract. Once you sign on the dotted line, you can’t just change your mind and walk away if there are no loopholes or contingencies. There is an endless amount of money to be made in this business if we all just learn to keep our heads. A well-written document protects the interests of all parties to our mutual benefit, but only if we can all have enough integrity to show these documents the respect they deserve.

The St. Louis media

Apparently Post Dispatch writer Paul Hampel really likes his parking spaces. At least that’s what his article in today’s paper leads me to believe. One would think that Montgomery Bank building a 120,000 sq ft mixed-use development in downtown Clayton would be a positive thing. But all Mr. Hampel seems to care about is that the project will displace his favorite parking lot. That’s all his 596 word, joke of an article, focuses on. Am I the only one that find such short-sighted blabber ridiculous? I wish we had a true alternative newspaper in this town. Its thinking like this that’s going to keep our area from ever making real progress.

Ugly roadside trashcans

There are just so many little things that I come across in the City that bug me. Individually these things aren’t major issues, but when they start adding up, their impact can really be felt.

One of those “little things” that always gets on my nerves is the trashcans found at the on and off ramps of the interstates in the City. Every time I am sitting at a stoplight getting on or off the highways I see these monstrosities and can’t help but be disgusted. Many times they are overflowing with trash laying all over the ground, but thats not my biggest problem with them.

My issue with these trashcans is their design. Just look at this thing. I don’t think you could build a more unsightly, utilitarian refuse container if you tried. What ever happened to beautification? I’m not asking for a $10,000 trashcan; just something that doesn’t look like it was put together by a local boyscout troop from donated materials.

When County residents or out-of-towners pay a visit to St. Louis, this is the welcome mat they see. It leaves a bad first impression. If we want to bring residents back to the City to fill our apartments or buy our rehabs, things like this have to be addressed. City officials are always looking for big high-dollar projects to transform the landscape. If only they would put as much emphasis on the small, affordable touches. We might might get more bang for our buck.

If anyone knows who to contact to comlain about this issue I would love to hear from you.

St. Louis traffic light nightmares

Oh how I hate sitting at traffic lights. I understand why they exist and can’t think of any better way to manage traffic, but I still hate them. And traffic lights in the City of St. Louis are some of the worst you’ll ever come across.

I live in Benton Park and workout at the Fitness Factory on Washington Avenue Downtown. My rage just increases every time I make that trip. My route takes me down Tucker Avenue and I swear that there are times that I hit ever light on a red. That half mile run from Chouteau to Washington can take forever under those conditions. Long enough to open even the most patient person’s eyes to this horrendous problem facing St. Louis: non-synchronized traffic lights!

Obviously, you feel the impact of this problem most significantly in areas with many intersections such as Downtown, but the problem is city-wide. The City has been talking up and “studying” plans for improved synchronization for years, but there has been little action. In early January, the Downtown St. Louis Partnership claimed that traffic signals Downtown, east of Tucker, will be synced by this April. That’s great, if true, but what about the rest of the City?

Just another one of those little things that leaves people with a bad impression of our fair city. How is it that virtually every county in the metropolitan area can have sensors in the ground to detect if a car is waiting at an intersection, but St. Louis can’t even sync the traffic lights of major transportation corridors without studying the problem for ten years? Unfortunately, nobody in City Hall seems to have a good answer to that question.

To be fair, I’m probably being overly dramatic about the situation, but there is not doubt that there is a problem. Feel free to share your displeasure with your local alderman if you feel particularly passionate. If there is a particular light you have had problems with, the City actually has a special website to report the issue. Let the complaints begin: light synchronization complaints.

St. Louis City Inspections: So what exactly is a violation?

*NOTE - This article was originally written in March of 2007 for the newsletter. It was written with the help of, then intern, Will Roestel.

Being new to the investment world, I don’t know a whole lot about the inspection process. In an attempt to learn more, as well as see what resources are currently available on the subject, I assumed the role of a prospective rental property buyer and paid a visit to the St. Louis City Inspections Department in City Hall, Room 407.

Upon my arrival, the receptionist politely asked if she could help. I told her that I found several rental properties I was interested in purchasing, but wanted to get a general idea of the codes and regulations inspectors would be looking at so that I might identify problems and calculate their costs. I explained that I was trying to minimize my headaches, by being proactive about addressing violations.

She asked if I had the exact addresses so she could look to see if there were any current violations. I told her that while it might give me part of what I was looking for, I really needed a resource that would allow me to cover all my bases, not just for specific properties.

She appeared baffled. The widely distributed Landlord handbook, InfoRent, was out of stock, but they had a brochure that might be of some help in my quest for knowledge. It was a Missouri Landlord-Tenant Law booklet. Not exactly what I had hoped for. Asking if there was any other office I might visit with helpful information, I was told to try “next door” in Room 406, the Housing Conservancy Office, or at 418, the Neighborhood Stabilization Team. She also stated that if I had specific questions I could make an appointment to talk to one of the inspectors. I noted that if I couldn’t even get guidelines for inspection expectations, it surely would be difficult to ask pointed questions.

Next door at the Conservancy I waited at the front of an entry area unfolding into a large office area. After a few moments of staring at the housing and community preservation brochure, a woman leaned backed from her desk and asked if she could help. Repeating my previous request, I was quickly informed that the brochure I was holding was all the available literature they had. So it was across the beautiful atrium to room 418, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Team office.

This group’s mission is to: “To empower constituents to sustain a quality environment within their neighborhood through assistance, education, intervention and organization.” Sounded like a place that may provide some much needed assistance in proper property management. Unfortunately, all the young receptionist could provide was a typical 8.5” x 11” piece of paper with the general concepts surrounding the Team and its officers. She told me, as I had been told before, to look at the InfoRent booklet, but she added that it was available online.

She pointed to a link listed at the bottom of the page. I skimmed the document, and noted the bulleted item outlining “problems” the Team addresses listed “physical violation of health, safety, and/or property maintenance codes.” This seemed as good a lead as any, and I asked if they had any documentation on the codes/regulations that governed these problem issues. I was told that all their information could be found on the website, and was given a brief tutorial on how to find their page through the City’s homepage.

I thanked her for her time and left City Hall after almost an hour of searching with only a Landlord-Tenant law booklet, an outline of the responsibilities of a Neighborhood Stabilization Officer and a Housing Conservation brochure to show for my time.

The latter came closest to answering my query with a small section at the bottom of its interior middle tri-fold. It read:

“More commonly cited items include:

• Smoke Detectors
• Overcrowding
• Unsanitary Conditions
• Doors and Locks
• Falling or Cracked Plaster
• Defective Electrical or Plumbing Systems”

That’s all well and good, but what specs need to be followed when addressing these issues? How can I be expected to fix something if nobody can tell me what I need to fix?

The City’s inspection process seems to reward neither initiative nor forward thinking. The overworked inspectors, and the property owners that deal with them, would both greatly benefit from a readily accessible and comprehensive information source outlining the responsibilities and expectations of each, and from one to the other. Not so dissimilar from the Landlord-Tenant guide I received in their department, just a bit more on target.