Blog > Blog > 2009 > December

December 29, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Being a landlord or rehabber can be a tough business. Juggling tenants and repairs are a struggle in their own right, but sometimes the most stressful things can less tangible. For instance: keeping up with occupancy codes. And as of late, the City of St. Louis has been rabid in their enforcement.

In the past couple months I have personally experienced incorrect condemnation warnings and heard similar stories from numerous clients. As any City-investor knows, just about any property in a Housing Conservation District needs to be inspected by the City of St. Louis before it can be occupied. These inspections need to occur whenever there is a change in property ownership or a new tenant moves in. Simple enough right?

The problem is that one of the ways the City polices these changes is utility bills. If the gas, electric or water bill user switches at a property it is often as evidence of one of these changes. A warning is typically sent to the property owner followed by eventual condemnation if the owner does not comply. And when accurate, I have no problem with this. The trouble is that the system is not always inaccurate. Read more

December 16, 2009 at 4:23 pm

With the success of the 3-lane configuration test on South Grand, the powers that be decided to leave the bollards and concrete dividers creating the effect in place. The idea was that it would help people get used to the new layout, which is looming. The only problem is that those chunks of concrete are ugly. Read more

December 14, 2009 at 1:49 am

After a couple of weeks of work (almost without stop over the last four days) I finally have put up my new homepage. It isn’t completely finished, but it is good enough to go live to start off the week. This page will be the front end for Threshold Investment Properties. Too many renters and homebuyers were getting lost in the shuffle of the rather “busy” blog. If you are a regular ready this won’t really change much for you but if you wish to go directly to my blog and not the homepage, use the http://stlinvestmentrealty.com URL and not the http://thresholdstl.com URL from here on out.

They are still interconnected, but as time goes by they might diverge somewhat. I will continue to refine the site over the next few weeks and have a similar makeover coming to the actual blog. These changes have been a long time coming and when the final product is ready it will be better for both you readers and myself alike. I hope you like what I have done so far.

*NOTE – I am still working out a few bugs in the display for Internet Explorer. Should have those worked out in the next day or so. Also, I need to work on fixing all the blog links on the site so bare with me for a few days.

December 9, 2009 at 5:36 pm

Although the impact of the Interstate 64 closure through St. Louis over the last two years has been less severe than most feared, it still had an impact nonetheless. Since we’ve all be inundated by news on the subject lately I won’t bore you with rehashes of other articles, but I did want to point out a couple of real estate-related affects. Read more

December 8, 2009 at 1:08 pm

I had a little debate with a client yesterday about ceiling fans (Don’t I lead a glamorous life?), and it has me wondering what most people think of them. When buying a house or renting an apartment, what are your feelings towards ceiling fans? Are they a perk or an eyesore? Read more

December 7, 2009 at 3:42 pm

To those on the email newsletter list, I am sorry about the multiple mailings last night. For some reason the server sent out this week’s posts 5 times when doing the automated send out at 1am. I really have no idea why this happened, but will be taking steps in the next week to try to prevent a repeat. If you sound encounter this problem again I would appreciate a heads up. Sorry.

December 5, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Even in the midst of neglect beauty can often be found. Buildings caving on themselves from lack of repair are not what most would consider aesthetically pleasing, but even in these wrecks a trained eye can see things worth noting. For instance, take a look at these pictures. Read more

December 4, 2009 at 1:00 pm

Gut rehabs of LRA (Land Reutilization Authority) have been few and far between in the past eighteen months, with construction financing has been virtually nonexistent in this economic climate. So you can count me surprised when I got a call from a friend saying that this 4,932 sq ft monster in Marine Villa was going to be turned into a single family home. Read more

December 3, 2009 at 2:42 pm

The Post Dispatch is reporting that Cardinals President Bill Dewitt III has informed them not to expect any changes in the 2010 lineup at the future Ballpark Village project location. Read more

December 2, 2009 at 8:21 pm

After being under construction for years (literally), the commercial storefront at 3182 Morganford appears to be nearly ready for business. So what’s going to open up in this long vacant space at Morganford and Connecticut? A restaurant called Plaza Cafe & Grill. Read more