A sincere question:

As an aging landlord who once loved and took pride in this business, is there any hope that the crazy liberal state of Massachusetts will ever realize that public housing will inevitably and ultimately result in much higher REAL costs to renters than what a truly FREE, FAIR and BALANCED competitive market can provide?

I don't think so. The Massachusetts bureaucracy is just too deeply entrenched!

I left in the 80's - my Delaware registered yacht was in a marina for work one winter. A racing yacht rarely has a home as it is always on the move from regatta to regatta

They sent me a tax bill for sales tax because it was there for more than 3 months

It was a long fight with the govt but I won and left forever

Taxachusetts also has a excise tax where they annually tax the value of things you own. Cars in Taxachusetts pay $25 per $1000 value each year

I don't know anything about MA specifically, but in general I think it's going to have to get a lot worse before it has the chance to get better. I can't fix the world or our country, as much as I'd like to.

My goal is to do the best job I can to provide safe, clean, functional, and affordable housing to people who take care of the place, abide by the law, act like good neighbors, and pay rent in full on time, and by doing so I earn a good profit. Every day I accomplish that, I am content. I will continue to do my best to elect public representatives that facilitate my goals and those of other businessmen/women in my community and state. To me, that is the heart of stewardship.

BRADFORD MA

This is one time when you don't look at the big picture. Work in your immediate area--- Sid has the right idea. Work to avoid the problems. Plan to avoid court situations. You are right the cost to the renters will and does increase. I have property in a free market and in a rent control area. Harder and frustrating to make money in the control area, but increases in rents lack of rentals, is working for you. I make more money in the controlled area .In the free area we have vacancies for weeks and months, this is not a problem in rent control areas

Sid, I love that business statement.

Give up. Public housing isn't about fixing the housing issue, it's about creating a dependency class of voters that have no choice but to vote for you. If conditions get worse, that's even better because the public housing dependent voters will vote for politicians promising to improve the situation, even if they're the same politicians who screwed it up in the first place.

Seriously, the smartest thing the politicians ever did to preserve their own self-interests was dumbing down the voters by taking over education. The second greatest was to create a dependency class through government spending programs.

We need term limits. I'm thinking 2 terms max for house and senate. Works for president.

I can tell you are burned out.

You might want to consider starting to sell and even carrying some paper. You are able to enjoy the real estate investment without being a LL. Fixed income coming from your investment is never a bad idea if properly structured.

A major goal for LLs should be to get the utilities out of your name. Much less stress for me since I had separate water meters installed. How to get the tenants to pay for their own trash pick up is what I,d like to know. If tenants don't pay, the trash builds up at the property...