20 Thoughts to “House inspections proposed; vetting renters”

  1. Mackie
    February 22, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    Bwah ha ha ha, burn baby burn

  2. 40 yrs in Woodbridge
    February 22, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    So you thought your property values were already in the toilet? Wait until they try calling your entire neighborhoods blight…..had the County done their jobs for the past 5 plus years in some of these neighborhoods this would not be an issue now.

  3. AWCheney
    February 22, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    Is there an opinion in there somewhere, Mackie…or merely a “spark” of latent pyromania?

  4. Alanna
    February 22, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    I’m afraid some of the communities that were having issues could be worse off with renters. I don’t think this necessarily was the ‘fix’ they were necessarily looking for. And, when you consider they now have a 40% drop in property value coupled with the abandoned properties that have now been gobbled up by speculators and turned into cheap rentals. It’s doubtful their “quality of life” complaints will go away.

  5. 40 yrs in Woodbridge
    February 22, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    I live in one of those neighborhoods and have been here for over 40 years. I can tell you that there has not been a significant change for years, except that the County agencies have not been encouraged to be in our neighborhood to assist with enforcements. It has only recently begun to improve because some people have taken an interest in changing things.

    If we “label” our neighborhood as blighted then the home values will continue to go down, people will be more accepting of lower quality of life and acceptant of a deteriorated looking neighborhood. If you allow enforcement action to take place in the neighborhoods and actually enforce the regulations on the books and hold the owners accountable our neighborhoods can and will turn around.

    Additionally if the homes being rented and Housing Choice Vouchers are being used the home is ALREADY subject to inspection by the County/State housing office and is done so more often than every 4 years. The County registration will not protect the neighborhood from any unwanted renters. The County can’t manage who is allowed to live in the neighborhood (unlike the HOA in the article), they will only be able to inspect the interior once every 4 years…..

    I suspect that the larger problems for the neighborhoods can be seen from the exterior of the house, is there trash, junk piled up outside, is the house in good shape, is the paint on the house and sheds in good shape, is the roof in good shape, is there missing siding, is the railings falling off, are there cars on blocks in the driveway??? You can tell all of this just driving by and if so why do we have to go government even more??? More money, larger government is not always the answer.

  6. Poor Richard
    February 22, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    Manassas started a rental inspection program in Georgetown South
    nearly a decade ago and it worked well until Richmond
    watered it down several years ago. It certainly drove some
    major slum lords out and property values rose faster than the
    city average – until, of course, the recent RE bust. You
    can Google – Georgetown South Manassas Rental Inspections – for more
    information/history.

  7. Slowpoke Rodriguez
    February 22, 2009 at 7:23 pm

    @Mackie
    Careful, Mackie, St. Elizabeth’s doesn’t allow fires in the rooms.

  8. ShellyB
    February 22, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    Sad, sad, really sad. This is exactly what economists and planners were warning us about before the Immigration Resolution disaster. And the worst thing is it’s hurting everyone not just the people who were upset about too many Hispanics in their neighborhood. I wonder what race the new renters will be? If they don’t take care of their property or play loud music, will people try to say it’s because they are a certain race, or just that they are rude neighbors?

    I have a neighbor who lets there dog do his business in my yard. I thought about trying to have them deported and then I just came out one day and talked to her.

  9. SecondAlamo
    February 22, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    So ShellyB the suspense is killing me! What happened? Could they understand why anyone would be upset over having their lawn fertilized for free?

  10. Moon-howler
    February 22, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    @SecondAlamo

    Hell 2nd, all sorts of people commit that crime. I like the ones who think it is ok, just as long as the dog goes on the other side of the sidewalk. grrrrrrrrr

  11. 40 yrs in Woodbridge
    February 22, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    I just want to make sure you know that I don’t believe the neighborhood conditions have anything to do with the resolutions or a certain race of people. The neighborhood conditions were deteriorating years and years ago (10 plus) this was long before the resolution was introduced.

  12. Chris
    February 22, 2009 at 11:01 pm

    I agree with 40 yrs in Woodbridge. Neighborhood Services has just really stepped up to the plate and started taking conditions and violations called in seriously. They(NS) is taking calls at record numbers and have improved on their turn around time. This approach should’ve been happening about five years ago, and not two years ago when the problem had escalated to such a level that neighborhoods had gotten to a couple of years ago.

    At first the concept of an inspection program sounds good. But let’s face it who wants to live in a neighorhood that’s been deemed as blight.

  13. Scott Nolan
    February 23, 2009 at 7:39 am

    Thank you so very, very much for the revised website appearance. It is much easier to read now!

  14. Elena
    February 23, 2009 at 2:02 pm

    I agree Scott 🙂
    Excellent update Alanna!!!!!!

  15. ShellyB
    February 23, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Second Alamo, she denied it (the lady who let her dog poop on my lawn) and so I very sheepishly said I had watched her and her husband both let the dog do its business in the past and not said anything. So then it was awkward because I was calling her a liar. So I asked if in the future could you bring some plastic bags. I think the fact she didn’t seem to have a plastic bag on her sort of made her realize she was the one who was wrong. Because she was very friendly in saying yes, of course.

  16. ShellyB
    February 23, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Did anyone hear? We were on National Public Radio today! The segment began like this, “People are wondering where the bottom of the housing market is? Well, it looks like we’ve found it. It’s called Manassas, Virginia.”

    They said that 95 percent of the homes sold in Manassas are bank sales, meaning home foreclosures. Houses that sold for $265,000 in 2006 are now selling for $60,000. Another one sold for $43,000.

    They said this create a big problem for the governments of Manassas and PWC because in the past they looked at bank sales of foreclosed upon houses as an anomaly, not the norm. It will effect tax revenue if and when they start assessing the home values without excluding bank sales.

    Puts a whole to spin on the words “Help Save Manassas.” Doesn’t it?

  17. Mackie
    February 23, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    @ShellyB

    Thanks for finding that ShellyB. Only now that people are watching their home equity collapse and their neighborhoods move towards rental neighborhoods and blight, only now can the majority in the middle appreciate how HSM destroyed the county’s economy.

  18. ShellyB
    February 23, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    Mackie, we cannot blame Help Save Manassas entirely. Even without them we still would have to deal with these national and global problems.

    But if you look at the places where there was extra damage done to local real estate and local economies, like Maricopa County in Arizona (where Sheriff Joe “proud to be KKK” Arpaio” is running amok), the problem is much deeper and much worse than the rest of the U.S. Same holds true for Manassas and PWC.

    But I think the biggest problem with what Corey Stewart, John Stirrup, and Greg Letiecq did is that they distracted us from this coming crisis with a political campaign complete with scapegoats and horrible legislation. We all took our eyes off the prize, and found ourselves talking about immigration when we should have been worried about fiscal issues, and how to whether the coming economic crisis. That’s the biggest reason why we’re doing so much worse than Loudoun and all the other counties around here.

  19. Moon-howler
    February 23, 2009 at 9:14 pm

    I will always believe that all the immigration hoopla was simply to win an election.

  20. ShellyB
    February 23, 2009 at 9:34 pm

    I agree. And it worked for a very small part of Virginia. The part that was turned upside down by Gospel Greg’s propaganda. The rest of Virginia didn’t buy the anti-immigrant election platform. Republicans lost seats in both houses in the General Assembly.

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