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For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Don’t Lose Your Minibike. Scenario 37.

There are actually two lessons here. But, we’ll start with a story about one of our old tenants. We’ll call him “Larry.”

Larry lived by himself with us for about 2 years. He had a large dog. He wound up renting one our properties located in a not-so-great neighborhood. The neighborhood was sort of a ghetto, but more accurately: depressed. People there weren’t particularly violent or anything. They were the most unmotivated people we’ve ever run across. Larry lived among them due to the fact that his wife died suddenly leaving him a lot of debt. He lost his house. He filed for bankruptcy. In all cases of the word, the “system” really worked for Larry. He went from well-off to poor and wound up needing government assistance to live in the ghetto. He was honest and extremely hardworking. In fact, when he finally moved out, he wound up buying a new house while being self-employed.

The one probably Larry had was that he might have been a little too trusting and honest. This resulted in him losing is minibike.

Before he moved, he showed us a garage full of items he planned on selling at a garage sale. He had the typical horde of crap that most people seem to not be able to get rid of during these modern times. He also had a nice looking minibike running off a little Briggs and Stratton engine.

While we were all outside in the garage on a hot summer day we asked Larry about his bike and what he planned to sell it for . . . in those ensuing minutes, one of the many ghetto thugs that tended to peruse the alley next to Larry’s garage spotted the bike.

Ghetto Thug: “Hey man. Is dat bike fo sale?”
Larry: “Yeah.”
Ghetto Thug: “Can I try it out.”
Larry: “Sure.”

After this short exchange, Ghetto Thug, put down his own pedal bike, got on Larry’s bike and rode away. To this, Larry said, “I guess I’m never going to see that bike again.”

Here’s are Money King’s tips:

Tenants: Know your neighborhood, and beware of your surroundings. Larry lived in a highly-concentrated of area of depressed rental units. Theft was rife. Theft was so rife, in fact, that obviously someone wasn’t afraid to steal Larry’s bike right in front of him in broad day light. Tenants, if you’re shopping for rental properties, do a little analysis of crime in the areas in which you desire to live. Commonly, local police departments will have crime stats that can be very informative. Many “ghettos” are NON-violent. You’ll have areas filled not with gangs and guns, but rather, thieves, con-artists and schemers—all out to get your stuff.

Landlords: Same lesson. Know your area, because guess what, you and your vacant units are targets too!

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, tenant, theft, ghetto, thugs, honest, people, neighborhoods