FROM THE PRESIDENT - Don Schmidt
 Our July 1997 meeting will be our first meeting of the organization's second year. The Carondelet/Holly Hills Landlord Association held its first official meeting with elected Board Members on July 17, 1996. We started with less than 20 members and we now have a membership of 50 and growing.
Looking over the subject material covered in the organization's first 6 meetings, I feel that we provided valuable information to the membership. Our guest speaker list was quite impressive. It included Sheila Livers from city hall discussing Project 87, Brian May, State Representative, lawyers Paul Dieckhoff, Carl Sestric, and Howard Smith discussing legal aspects that face landlords, Sue Bollegar on tenant screening, and Brian Wilson from the city liquor control office. We held a brainstorming session to identify the major concerns of the membership and we established a preferred contractor list. At our last meeting we had Matt Villa and Fred Wessels who are the alderman in our rental property area. Some of the items they discussed were the status of the Michigan Theater property and the old Schnucks store site on Grand Avenue by Carondelet Park. An update was given about the Probation Office proposal at Loughborough and Broadway.
Vacant properties in the area continue to be a major concern. The status of block grants for the 11th and 13th ward were addressed. Both Alderman stressed the need to report owners of properties that fail to cut their grass. Once the property is reported to the city, the city will notify the owner. If the owner does not respond, the city will cut the grass and bill the owner of the property. It became obvious that due to the cost, you do not want the city to cut your grass. Also, the alderman announced that the side walk 50-50 replacement program is no longer restricted to owner occupied properties.
Our other guest speaker was Alan Weber, Attorney at Law. He answered many questions from the audience and was very informative. He pointed out that one of the major mistakes that landlords make was waiting to long before starting the eviction process on delinquent tenants. He also gave his opinion, based on experience, on where the major delays exists in the city on handling the eviction process.
I feel that our first year was a success and am proud that I was a part of it. It could not have happened with out the contribution of all ofour board of directors. On behave of the membership I wish to thank:
Ollie Mayes Vice President
Paul Rauls Vice President
Cecilia Rauls Treasurer
Lori Jerome Secretary
And a special thanks to Brigitte Pidduck of the Neighborhood Stabilization Team for her support and assistance throughout the year.
I can see no reason why the success of our organization for next year cannot be equal to or better than this past year. The need for an organization such as ours continues to grow if we are to realize the organizations mission statement, "TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE PROPERTY VALUE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE COMMUNITY, TO ATTRACT QUALITY TENANTS AND TO HAVE A SAFE, DESIRABLE NEIGHBORHOOD." Remember, there is no saturation level for knowledge. A knowledgeable Landlord is a good Landlord and an effective business person. Hope to see you at the next meeting.
ADVERTISING RENTAL PROPERTIES
There are many ways to advertise rental property.
* Place an "Apartment for rent sign in front of the building.
* Place newspaper ads. Ads placed in local or neighborhood papers will get you fewer responses but they will usually be from people familiar with or have lived or living in your area. The major newspapers will generate more responses but will produce the same or even fewer real candidates.
* Use local bulletin boards.
* List with an apartment locator service.
There are a few other options but the above are the most effective in our area. Another method that you might want to try is to offer a finders fee to your existing tenants. This is assuming that your existing tenants are good tenants. A good tenant wants a new tenant to be a good neighbor.
Just ask yourself if it is worth $50 to $100 to have a new tenant that an existing good tenant would like to have as a neighbor.
If you do decide to advertize, your ad should be easy to understand. Include basic details, such as:
* rent
* size (number of bedrooms, maximum occupancy, total number of rooms)
* type of rental agreement(lease or month to month)
* special features-such as appliances included, a/c, off street parking, fenced yard, new remodeling.
* address of unit
* phone number for more details
* pet policy
You might want to include that a credit check will be made on perspective tenants. Experiment with your ads. Try to identify the ad that gets the best results then stay with it.
Be sure your ad can't be construed as discriminatory. Focus only on the rental property and not on any particular type of tenant. Adds should never specifically mention sex, race, religion, disability, or age.
CHECK YOUR CALENDAR
We have established a permanent schedule for all our meetings. The Carondelet/Holly Hills Landlord Association's meetings are scheduled for the third monday of each odd month. All our meetings are held at Southern Commercial Bank, 5515 South Grand in the lower level. The doors are open at 6:30 and the meeting starts at 7:00 P.M. Our next meeting is scheduled for July 21, 1997. The main theme of this meeting is, "What is Happening in the Neighborhood". Our guest speakers will be Sister Marie Charles Buford of the Carondelet Community Betterment Federation and Wendy Cook of the Holly Hills Improvement Association. They will describe their organizations and any projects that their organizations are involved in, both past and present. Since they are much closer to the neighborhood than most of our members, they will be able to give us a better insight on what is happening in the neighborhood and what are their major concerns. Our third speaker will be Brigitte Pidduck from the Neighborhood Stabilization team. She will discuss problem properties and help develop action plans to address this important issue. I am sure that all of us are aware that the value of our investment properties are directly related to the health and welfare of the surrounding neighborhood. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
ITS A WINNER
We are going to have a raffle starting on our July meeting. The entire membership is automatically entered in the raffle and the prize is $30.00. There are two conditions that must be met to win. First, your name must be drawn and second, you must be present at the meeting to win. If a member's name is drawn that is not at the meeting, no winner will be declared for that meeting and $20.00 will be added to the prize money for the next meeting drawing. Once the raffle is won, the prize money will be restored to $30.00 and the cycle will repeat. So now, when you come to a meeting, you will receive valuable information pertinent to your investments and you might get a cash bonus. SUCH A DEAL.
WEB SITES
Here are some WEB SITES that might be of some interest
Missouri State Government
http://www.state.mo.us/
Carondelet Neighborhood Resources
http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/01/resource.html/
Holly Hills Neighborhood Resources
http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/01/resource.html/
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