Real Estate

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” -Alexander Graham Bell

By now we are all aware that the foreclosure crisis is many layers deep, touches every person in America, and the impact will be felt for at least a few generations. The stories of those most affected by foreclosure are frequently discussed in any news medium you care to look. But there’s another story out there and it’s just as important to tell. There are new and beneficial real estate opportunities that have suddenly presented themselves to those people who have decided to move beyond fear and look at Dayton Ohio real estate with new eyes. I’d like to share a few of those stories.

Did you ever see the video of the baby elephant who gets stuck in the watering hole? The baby needs help, the mama needs help, the extended family works together to get this baby unstuck. Most mothers will tell you that once you become a mother, all children are your children. Your kid’s friends are extended family, and that was the situation with recent buyers.

Their daughter’s friend had become family and needed a place to live. The buyers- middle class folks who lived in a modest 3 bdrm, 1 bath brick ranch home in Clark County- were in a position to help. It was good timing for them. They saw a need, saw the opportunity, figured out a way to make it work. They looked at several homes, made a few low ball offers, and we found a seller who was willing to negotiate. They purchased an outdated property for cash, fixed it up, and are now renting it to the friend. A simple business transaction? On paper, yes. But emotionally, this was an extremely satisfying transaction for everyone involved, including the seller. The property was an estate sale, so there was a lot of emotion involved from the seller’s side as well, and they were very happy to know how the property was going to be cared for.

I’m seeing more parents purchasing homes for their kids. Lower home prices mean that the parents, who often have more cash, have better credit, and have the skills and ability to take a distressed property and renovate it, can do that for their extended families, and that’s good, but there’s more to this story because the other thing that’s happening is that it’s creating some continuity in the Dayton area. Young families are putting down roots.

This is happening across economic lines. Cash buyers are looking in neighborhoods that were once neglected. You can buy a big home in the Dayton area for under $15,000 and absentee owners are getting some competition from Dayton area families who want to own a home but can only pay cash.

I have a client who lost a good job. He has access to cash, and has become an attentive landlord, using real estate to provide income for his family. One of his purchases was located around the corner from his home, it’s a short sale that he is now renting back to the previous owners. In this transaction, everyone made the most of a difficult situation. Local people are becoming conscientious landlords; renting to their own children, or are purchasing property in their own communities. This can create a vested interest in making sure that rental property is maintained and cared for. Not only does the landlord benefit, but neighborhoods and communities can benefit from this as well.

First time home buyers are another buyer niche that can create wealth through real estate even in this market. This is not the same wealth that the market sustained prior to 2007, this is slow, steady and purposeful planning by using low interest rates to purchase very specific investment properties in just the right locations, in order to create another stream of income for these younger home buyers.

I don’t know what the long term effect of the upheaval and resulting change in attitudes and opportunities will be, but in the short term it means that there are families moving into neighborhoods that need the stabilization families often bring. It means Dayton can have communities in which there are renters and landlords who have ties to each other and to the neighborhoods in which they live. Each of my clients has taken a crisis and found the positive opportunities available. There is no denying that doors have closed to many people, and I’m not here to proclaim the old Realtor’s saw about “This is a great time to buy!” because obviously that’s not the case for many people, but, every change and challenge bring an opportunity for someone, and right now there are plenty of doors that have just been thrown wide open for a whole new group of people; doors could have only opened in a real estate market like Dayton, circa 2011.

There are 1,500 vacant lots in the city of Dayton. Fifteen hundred?!? Let that sink in for a moment. These aren’t boarded up homes, vacant homes, abandoned homes, these are vacant lots that the City of Dayton has to maintain, somehow. It’s staggering to think about. I see plenty of these lots, and you do too, but to think about 1,500? So the question of what we should do with these lots comes with some urgency behind it, but also some promise and potential. Dayton now has Jonathan Cain with the Lot Links program and several months ago he took some time to talk to me about Lot Links. Mr Cain, like Leah Werner, is a true champion of the potential in Dayton. He’s excited about the possibilities and the opportunities the Lot Links program could represent, if we really thought about it, and he’s open to discussion and willing to help, and looking for a chance to spread the word about this program to clubs, churches and any organization that wants to learn more about it.

You may know that Lot Links is an inexpensive way for Dayton residents to purchase vacant lots that are owned by the City of Dayton. Jonathan told me that most purchasers are neighboring home owners who want to expand their yard space to create a play area for the kids, or a garden, or to put up a garage. Useful purposes all, and those lots would fit well into an established neighborhood without much distraction or disruption in neighborhood aesthetics. You can purchase a lot for as little as $235.00, although a buildable lot is $635.00- still cheap land ownership and the city guarantees clean title without liens. The problem, as I see it, is that land ownership has to be profitable somehow. It doesn’t do any good to simply own a lot. Either you have a house and all the positives that can potentially come with home ownership: Freedom, independence, stability, or you have property with which you can create income: Food production, rental space of some sort, a business.

Ohio is often considered the “Mother of Presidents” with eight Presidents who thought of Ohio as their home (seven if you don’t count William Henry Harrison who was born in Virginia, but was raised and is buried here). Ohio has an extraordinary and rich history and no small part in shaping our country. One of my favorite quotes is from Ohioan and President William Howard Taft “Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race…”

Back to those fifteen hundred empty lots? That’s a lot of property. But we also now have the opportunity to offer people, for dirt cheap, the chance to enjoy one of the most “important right(s) guaranteed by the Constitution”. How can we use this opportunity to its best advantage? I have a few ideas. We can, and probably should, have a community garden every few blocks- gardening is good for us, but that’s not likely to be an income-producing or highest and best use of land. Expanding your lot size adds value to a house, as does a garage, so for a neighbor to acquire a lot for their own use, that’s a good idea. We tend to think of these lots as either private residential, or some sort of community property, but I think it might be beneficial to start to consider business uses and allow room for developing the lots in profitable ways- I’ve begun to think of this as “micro-development”.

If we want to promote the “growth of civilization” in Dayton Ohio we might do worse than making room for unique uses for all these vacant lots: Allow someone to build a garage and rent it to a neighboring homeowner; pave an empty lot and rent out off-street parking; true urban gardening including chickens for income producing fresh eggs. In other words, we open the land for micro-development, for someone to use for a small business. It’s weird, perhaps. It’s certainly not what we signed on for when we decided to plant roots in Dayton, but the only constant in life is change, and the strong adapt. Momentum builds momentum and rethinking highest and best uses for what we have in abundance is a possible way out of our current situation.

We can flourish, if only in small ways at the start, by reveling in our right of property, which is one thing Dayton has plenty of right now- inexpensive and available property. San Francisco doesn’t have it, nor does Oakwood for that matter. Dayton has an opportunity to celebrate what President Taft understood was crucial, integral, part and parcel to what makes America such an extraordinary place- our right to own property. It would be a shame for us to ignore such strengths.

Photo: Teri Lussier

Correction: Initially this article stated there were 15,000 vacant lots; it has been corrected to 1,500.