he tapped the investors that he enriched with his payday lending business to stake him $180 million and bought up thousands of low-rent buildings in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods (which are also Chicago’s blackest neighborhoods).

All those R.E. transactions must be recorded in the Cook County Recorders office. Those documents will tell the whole story about who the actual owners of the properties are. ;)

Biggest slumlords these days still take Section 8 vouchers.

Last year in Jan 2018 I retired from medicine years earlier than 65. I was fed up with my physician job with the VA and their militaristic stupidity. I also am the primary caretaker of my mother, who is entering end stage dementia. I am her only child, but she has been forgetting that I am her daughter for 3 to 4 months now. She needed me full time and I was never going to tolerate the 5 years of job time it took to retire with a Federal employee health plan.

I did not have the savings to retire, but I did have the real estate I bought between 2000 and 2005. I was newly married then and my hubby, who moved to my state at our marriage, was not able to find high end carpentry jobs in a new state. So I bought rental properties and he landlorded for me and we also flipped. He and I did lots of remodeling. He dealt with the tenants and I handled the business data entry and legal issues. I have a self written 15 page Lease developed over 19 years and I have litigated all my own evictions. When my hubby died in 2011, I became the part time Landlady. I hired help and now have full time employees. We do a lot of projects ourselves. I am now living off my rentals and managing them full time.

I get some ideas from this article:

1. It is written by a very tenant friendly journalist. If a multiple unit is purchased from a distressed landlord, it is not unusual to find poor management allowing tenants to get way behind on rent. They need eviction or strong encouragement to leave(cash for keys, etc).

2. The units usually need upgrading and that is much easier with an empty house. Therefore, you need to clean out the tenants with strong inducements or eviction. After upgrading, get higher rents and better paying tenants to take over.

3. I do not participate in Section 8 as it's too much government. There are several local charities which will help struggling tenants out with money. I do not take their money because it comes with too many strings. They may provide the money for one months rent but demand you agree to not evict for 6 months. They like to pay at the end of the month rather than the 1st. They are usually just putting a very temporary plug on a rapidly sinking ship.

4. I agree with their eviction of lots of dead weight and wanting to start over, but I catch hints of a rental business model I abhor. There are Landlords who really do not work to get the best tenants in for , hopefully, a long pleasant, dependable relationship. They put in anybody and work the account to generate lots of expenses, and they really rack up charges at move out as well. They do not want the steady monthly income of well managed properties, they want to create thousand of dollars debt and keep pulling former tenants back to court and garnishing wages. They spend more time milking collections than managing.

I would not want the tenant pool they must be working with, but they are sharks.

One time, just for kicks I searched Zillow for properties in Baltimore, $100 or less. Hundreds of these. Stripped plumbing, wiring, fire damage, roof damage, and generally unpleasant vibe. Don't bother bringing a hi-fi to your new pad, these neighborhoods abound with constant auditory cultural expression.