Strange Neighbors

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The 2-flat next door to us has been 100% vacant for at least 5 years now. The guy who owns it doesn't live there, he doesn't rent out the two units, he doesn't air bnb it, nothing.

And he's paying $12K/year in property taxes on it with 0 income income to show for it. He's now waved good bye to at least $60K for no damn reason!

And we live in the heart of Lincoln Square, not some abandoned weed-strewn corner of the southside. Our neighbors who own a 2-flat down the block just rented out their upstairs unit to a new tenant for $2,500.

I simply don't understand some people.

so the plot thickens on the completely vacant 2-flat next door to us.

two middle aged dudes came poking around the property over the weekend,

and being nosy and curious, I asked them who they were. the subsequent conversation went like this:



dude: "it's cool, i'm Roger's (the owner) son and this is my friend. i grew up here as a kid, before we moved over to uptown"

me: "oh wow, how long ago did you guys move out? i'm curious because the building has been completely empty since we moved in over 3 years ago?"

dude: "yeah, my dad is kinda strange, we moved out when i was 14 back in 1994, and he hasn't done anything with it ever since."

me: "holy shit! it's been completely vacant for the past 27 YEARS?!?!?!"

dude: "yeah, like i said, my dad is kinda strange and has a hard time making up his mind."

me: "no kidding. why doesn't he just sell it? 27 years of property taxes with no rental income is a pretty damn steep penalty."

dude: "he just can't seem to let it go"



i had no idea that the building has been totally vacant for nearly 3 decades now!

i don't know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of property taxes he's sunk into it with absolutely zero rental income to show for it!

as i said before, I simply don't understand some people.



so how about others? anyone else have a neighbor who makes you scratch your head?

[the urban politician]

^ Did he not declare the building vacant to the County Assessor? That chops the property tax way down to a mere fraction of the usual amount

[craigs]

My husband and I are the "strange neighbors." His grandma lived here until she needed 24/7 care (she's a mile away), but she clearly couldn't do yard work or maintenance. And the property sat empty for almost two years before we arrived, so the yard looked terrible (truth be told, it still does but we're working on it).

The vacancy was noticed by the entire neighborhood. Since we moved in, the neighbors have been slowing their cars to a roll to stare at us if we're watering the plants, or the garage door is open. Several have gotten out and introduced themselves, telling us they are glad we are here once we tell them who we are. And they're super-supportive of all our novice plantings, watering schedules, etc. We put some drought-resistant flowers in pots along the front walk and it stopped one jogger in her tracks. She was literally ecstatic.

There's still so much work to do, though. And I'm not sure the lawn is coming back without literally starting over completely by tilling the dead stuff and rolling out a fresh layer of grass.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Did he not declare the building vacant to the County Assessor? That chops the property tax way down to a mere fraction of the usual amount

I don't think so.

Cook county tax records show his tax bill has gone from $5000/year in 2001 to $11,000/year for this year, which seems pretty par for the course for a Lincoln Square 2-flat that hasn't been on the market for at least 40 years.

[Camelback]

Originally Posted by craigs

My husband and I are the "strange neighbors." His grandma lived here until she needed 24/7 care (she's a mile away), but she clearly couldn't do yard work or maintenance. And the property sat empty for almost two years before we arrived, so the yard looked terrible (truth be told, it still does but we're working on it).

The vacancy was noticed by the entire neighborhood. Since we moved in, the neighbors have been slowing their cars to a roll to stare at us if we're watering the plants, or the garage door is open. Several have gotten out and introduced themselves, telling us they are glad we are here once we tell them who we are. And they're super-supportive of all our novice plantings, watering schedules, etc. We put some drought-resistant flowers in pots along the front walk and it stopped one jogger in her tracks. She was literally ecstatic.

There's still so much work to do, though. And I'm not sure the lawn is coming back without literally starting over completely by tilling the dead stuff and rolling out a fresh layer of grass.

That's cool.

My 2 cents on the grass: it's probably not the best time of year to attempt to establish a new lawn. I would put it off towards the Fall or wait until March, once the winter rains come through.

For now, I would scalp it down as close as possible to the earth if you want it to have a cleaned up look.

[Camelback]

A long time ago, I once had a neighbor that lived above me, (Carlos) that would have extremely loud sex with extremely large women he would snare at the bar. A couple times I thought the ceiling would buckle. You could hear everything, extremely clear, as if I was in the same room.

Lot's of body slapping

He was a cool guy with strange and loud bedroom activities.

[llamaorama]

Originally Posted by Camelback

A couple times I thought the ceiling would buckle. You could hear everything, extremely clear, as if I was in the same room.

He was a cool guy with strange and loud bedroom activities.

I'm imagining it was like the sound of Godzilla stomping from a distance

Crash, Crash, (shrieking roar)

[dave8721]

When I was a kid we had a neighbor behind us that had a panther in their backyard in a cage for a while. It just sat there an paced all day. Kind of sad actually.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i had no idea that the building has been totally vacant for nearly 3 decades now!

i don't know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of property taxes he's sunk into it with absolutely zero rental income to show for it!

as i said before, I simply don't understand some people.

Makes you wonder how many buildings across the city are just sitting like this.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Camelback

A long time ago, I once had a neighbor that lived above me, (Carlos) that would have extremely loud sex with extremely large women he would snare at the bar. A couple times I thought the ceiling would buckle. You could hear everything, extremely clear, as if I was in the same room.

Lot's of body slapping

He was a cool guy with strange and loud bedroom activities.

Reminds me of this shitacular hotel I stayed in New Jersey a few years ago. The couple in the room behind me were rather vocal....I felt like I was an unwitting part of a three-way with the paper thin walls.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Camelback

A long time ago, I once had a neighbor that lived above me, (Carlos) that would have extremely loud sex with extremely large women he would snare at the bar. A couple times I thought the ceiling would buckle. You could hear everything, extremely clear, as if I was in the same room.

Lot's of body slapping

He was a cool guy with strange and loud bedroom activities.

Listening to your neighbors having loud sex is considered a rite of passage in NYC.

[Crawford]

I only had one annoying neighbor situation. In my 20's, a personal trainer lived above me, and would practice kickboxing and Tae Bo at 1 AM. And he would bring home men and women for some loud lovin'.

[(four 0 four)]

When growing up in rural upstate New York, we had neighbors (about 1/2 mile down the road) who had 14 kids. The intelligence level of some of them led us to believe a few were the product of brothers and sisters getting together. The father 'earned a living' as a well-witcher. He was excellent at finding an underground water source by using a divining rod or walking around looking at a broken watch. He couldn't read or write and since he had no driver's license, always drove a tractor. If the family was with him, they had a hay wagon hitched to the tractor. In the next house down was a family that was somehow related to the first group. They had no indoor plumbing and one of the kids once reported that his grandpa got sunstroke from sitting in the outhouse too long.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

I don't think so.

Cook county tax records show his tax bill has gone from $5000/year in 2001 to $11,000/year for this year, which seems pretty par for the course for a Lincoln Square 2-flat that hasn't been on the market for at least 40 years.

Not only is the guy strange, but he's stupid leaving so much money on the table.

He not only paid the FULL property tax, but he also:

1. Has to pay water and trash bills, which also goes way down if you turn off the water
2. Has to insure the property, and property insurance rates are higher for vacant buildings. Unless he decided not to insure the property

In addition, vacant properties just deteriorate faster than occupied ones, where residents can keep an eye on things

[Buckeye Native 001]

I'm in a townhome. My neighbor is leash-training his cat and sometimes the cat gets loose and hides in my outdoor closet. He and the other next door neighbors sometimes blaze at the same time so my stairway and downstairs bathroom smell like college.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by (four 0 four)

When growing up in rural upstate New York, we had neighbors (about 1/2 mile down the road) who had 14 kids. The intelligence level of some of them led us to believe a few were the product of brothers and sisters getting together. The father 'earned a living' as a well-witcher. He was excellent at finding an underground water source by using a divining rod or walking around looking at a broken watch. He couldn't read or write and since he had no driver's license, always drove a tractor. If the family was with him, they had a hay wagon hitched to the tractor. In the next house down was a family that was somehow related to the first group. They had no indoor plumbing and one of the kids once reported that his grandpa got sunstroke from sitting in the outhouse too long.

You win.

[Pedestrian]

I friend of mine lives in a small apartment building in "Baja Nob Hill" (which is real estate jargon for "Tenderloin adjacent"--the slope of Nob Hill a few blocks down from the top but at least on the "right" side of Geary St).

When he moved in and for years after the building was owned by a little old Asian lady who ran a tailor shop doing mostly alterations on the ground floor. I believe it's a 6 floor building.

Anyway, the old lady died and her son who lives out of town inherited the building. Since then, the tenants have slowly moved out and he's done nothing to maintain the building or recruit new tenants. Covid accelerated the move-outs. My friend and one other are all that's left. He's lived there so long that under SF rent control laws he's got a really sweet deal rent-wise.

But a few weeks ago somebody pried open the security gate and rifled all the mailboxes in the lobby (remember, they say crime's not worse in SF). The building owner still hasn't fixed the mailboxes although he did repair the gate and re-key it. So my friend rented a mailbox at the nearby post office and is getting his mail there now.

He also complained to the San Francisco Tenant's Union, a powerful NGO in this city of 60% renters. They said they would contact the building owner on my friend's behalf.

But neither of us can understand why he does as you have described about the building next door: Keep paying taxes on a building he doesn't seem to be actively trying to rent or sell.

We wonder if he's trying to force the remaining tenants to leave so he can sell the building empty (and therefore totally rentable at market rates). But in SF it's very expensive to induce a tenant to move out this way. Tenants, if they are smart, can extract thousands of dollars from the landlord, especially if, as is the case here, the tenant is disabled. So the whole situation is hard to figure but I keep urging my friend to hold on and wait for a really sweet offer to get him to leave.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by (four 0 four)

When growing up in rural upstate New York, we had neighbors (about 1/2 mile down the road) who had 14 kids. The intelligence level of some of them led us to believe a few were the product of brothers and sisters getting together. The father 'earned a living' as a well-witcher. He was excellent at finding an underground water source by using a divining rod or walking around looking at a broken watch. He couldn't read or write and since he had no driver's license, always drove a tractor. If the family was with him, they had a hay wagon hitched to the tractor. In the next house down was a family that was somehow related to the first group. They had no indoor plumbing and one of the kids once reported that his grandpa got sunstroke from sitting in the outhouse too long.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I friend of mine lives in a small apartment building in "Baja Nob Hill" (which is real estate jargon for "Tenderloin adjacent"--the slope of Nob Hill a few blocks down from the top but at least on the "right" side of Geary St).

When he moved in and for years after the building was owned by a little old Asian lady who ran a tailor shop doing mostly alterations on the ground floor. I believe it's a 6 floor building.

Anyway, the old lady died and her son who lives out of town inherited the building. Since then, the tenants have slowly moved out and he's done nothing to maintain the building or recruit new tenants. Covid accelerated the move-outs. My friend and one other are all that's left. He's lived there so long that under SF rent control laws he's got a really sweet deal rent-wise.

But a few weeks ago somebody pried open the security gate and rifled all the mailboxes in the lobby (remember, they say crime's not worse in SF). The building owner still hasn't fixed the mailboxes although he did repair the gate and re-key it. So my friend rented a mailbox at the nearby post office and is getting his mail there now.

He also complained to the San Francisco Tenant's Union, a powerful NGO in this city of 60% renters. They said they would contact the building owner on my friend's behalf.

But neither of us can understand why he does as you have described about the building next door: Keep paying taxes on a building he doesn't seem to be actively trying to rent or sell.

We wonder if he's trying to force the remaining tenants to leave so he can sell the building empty (and therefore totally rentable at market rates). But in SF it's very expensive to induce a tenant to move out this way. Tenants, if they are smart, can extract thousands of dollars from the landlord, especially if, as is the case here, the tenant is disabled. So the whole situation is hard to figure but I keep urging my friend to hold on and wait for a really sweet offer to get him to leave.

Has he considered paying for the repair of the mailbox himself and deducting it from the rent? That is common in NYC when landlords drag their feet on repairs.

[bossabreezes]

Originally Posted by craigs

There's still so much work to do, though. And I'm not sure the lawn is coming back without literally starting over completely by tilling the dead stuff and rolling out a fresh layer of grass.

Love gardening! And in LA, you have unlimited options. As far as grass goes, it's pretty intolerant of drought but I think Clivias are an outstanding drought tolerant alternative. They form a dense ground cover and bloom beautifully.

They are definitely taller than grass, but require practically no water and will never need to be pruned or cut.