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This building was purchased years ago by a Hungarian immigrant
who came to this country with nothing but a dream and a drive. She turned this building into what it is today and has become
a cooking icon here. People have been known to travel from all over to taste her cooking. She is none other than Sylvia's
Gourmet Kitchen. She also had to learn to be a landlord of several apartments above the restaurant.
As the
information comes in, I hope to have this page filled with Thompsonville information, landlord business,
property and neighborhood
affairs, and fun things.
Any input that residents wish to include would be considered. Always looking for trivia and old
photos.
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Your house or houses are you biggest assets (besides your mental
health)--and when it comes to rental homes --it's actually the people that make or break a rental business.
Sometimes
you have to learn as kind as you may be --it's business first. You are not a charitable organization or subsidized housing.
You can be nice and offer perks and services and favors once you know you have a client not just a tenant.
Research
your tenants carefully. Call a tenant reporting company, one such company is Info Center in Mass. 1-800-462-3033--the recently
changed to SafeRent i believe but same phone number.
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This is one of our units next to Sylvia's building. We had an
open house after many years of bad tenants destroyed the house. In this unit dogs ate the wood trim off the walls, even the
toilet paper holder
Enfield Small Property Owners Association
Is a small property owners group based
in Enfield.
They meet once a month--1st Wednesday at the Town Hall at 7:00 820 Enfield Street, Enfield Ct.
It is
advised that anyone seeking to purchase property for rentals should get some training. Connecticut is a pro-tenant state and
is not too forgiving if you don't know what you are doing. You can personally be devastated by tenant circumstances as well.
If you are buying older properties it is especially important to get good reasonable tenants.
You must know your Title
10 by law or you can be fined $10k and jail time if you are brought to the mat about it.
Too many owners are trying
to go it alone until they get in trouble then try to seek help after a problem arises. They need to learn what resources are
available also for their tenants should they run into trouble.
Landlords (not a word I prefer and if I could change
it to "rentor" or housing provider I would) need to with their tenants to build relationships which will in turn build a better
communty. A better community attracts good people and will in turn grow a solid rental business.
I find most people are
decent landlords but don't know or have the tools to make it better as a whole.
A stabilized area earnes a good reputation
for families to grow, and properties are better cared for.
In Thompsonville, it's 62% rental according to the Census
Bureau. A landlord's job is a little trickier here. Many people are not rooted in the community and the turn over creates
pockets of uncertainty. Many potential tenants buy into someone else's perception of the old Thompsonville and decline housing.
To make matters worse, investors who know nothing about the area have no vested interest in working the community as a whole
and healthy entity. They pose the threat of constantly attracting the bad element unless the property is supervised. Also,
a tenant knows right away whether a landlord sees them as just a meal ticket and thus does not really care what happens in
their absence, so long as they get their money.
Thompsonville property owners need to unite and deal with specific
issues pertaining to the proportion of
taxes paid to the level of services we recieve here.
We need to help one another
gather good people and families to create the community atmosphere.
I have seen crack houses develop because a
property owner lived off site and lost control of his building. Because I live where I rent, so it makes it especially hard
for us to live harmoniously among rental properties. Many landlords do not know how to do background checks and many only
check credit-- if that. Greedy, desperate or hopeless property owners stay caught in the vicious cycle of renting to bad people.
These tenants good or bad are partners with us in our financial lives--unless we have no mortgage, no liability or
no conscience--and they can make or break us. We choose how to command respect by how we treat the renter and they, in turn,
react to us. It's critical for the new property owner to get as much information as needed to build their business the right
way. If you have questions that I can assist you with, please ask!
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This was one of the most horrific nights of my life...when I
was assaulted by one of my tenants who was selling crack cocaine and gun running. He owed us months of rent I went over to
plead with him. I knew nothing of his activities until that night,i never screened very well then...I brought my then 12 year
old daughter--to show him--i guess--i thought he would see we had kids to feed and since we had all new mortgages we were
broke...we needed his rent.
It went very badly and i got punched in the mouth --ejecting one tooth out of my mouth onto
my chest, and fracturing the jaw bone that held the other front teeth. He pushed the two front teeth up enough to need 2 doctors
to pull them out and place them back where they belonged. The braces came off the next day after the painful and scary dental
work. The glue is still on my teeth today. Alot has changed since then.
Smaller injustices followed --i never got to face
him in court instead his defender wanted to know if i would drop the charges....While bleeding in the ambulance a young new
cop gave me a ticket for breach of peace. Having been a loyal member of the Community police, I was helped through the humiliating
day of court and being treated like a common criminal. I fell into depression there afterwards. See what a bad tenant can
do??
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Apartment renting is tricky --get help whenever you need it!
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Renting to the right people improves your bottom line in so
many ways.........
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