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How are you able to tell the state of the buildings in such details from the article alone? Unless I'm missing something, Rice pretty much addresses your commen

How are you able to tell the state of the buildings in such details from the article alone? Unless I'm missing something, Rice pretty much addresses your comment in the article: "It's one thing to do this with one building," he says, "if it is small and falling apart. It's another thing to do it with eight buildings with sitting tenants."

tomcam 6y ago
You’re right, I can’t be certain, other than being reasonably familiar with this business. That’s a lot of real estate. He doesn’t specify how many are paying. If he had enough tenants to move the needle and the buildings were up to code he would have little trouble getting a loan. I’m also willing to bet some serious money that either the buildings aren’t properly permitted for tenants, or that the previous owners were grandfathered in so they didn’t have to observe the same regulations the new owner will. If you haven’t gone through this process it ranges from difficult to imagine to nearly unbelievable what it’s like to bring buildings into compliance. You spend hundreds of dollars to apply for a permit, wait to get it, spend thousands of dollars for an inspection, get incomprehensible paperwork a month later, call someone to find out it means some aspect of your building didn’t pass, hire a lawyer to find out what compliance means, try to find a contractor to fix the things the previous contractor didn’t understand, pay for another inspection, get referred to a different department for something else you didn’t know about... it’s enervating, brutal, and expensive. Think you should have known what to do when you started? No municipalities have clear documentation on what to do when. You are just supposed to know it all ahead of time. No lawyer will coach you through it. Maybe, just maybe, you can find a local GC who can help. Or not. All municipalities have different rules. If you’re super lucky you can charm someone in the planning office to coach you a little, but they aren’t responsible if they forgot to help you with something. This just isn’t a business for the undercapitalized.
- joshspankit 6y ago
  > ... he would have little trouble getting a loan. Here’s the crux. If you’re willing to argue that he should have little trouble, then excellent: we’ve got a barometer for whether discrimination is a factor.
  - tomcam 6y ago
    Sorry, I’m not following?
    - joshspankit 6y ago
      You’re saying that if the details (the ones you mentioned being “enough [paying] tenants to move the needle” and “the buildings were up to code“) were in place that his loan acceptance would be guaranteed, but if the article is correct and he’s not getting the loans because of discrimination, then he wouldn’t get the loans even if the details were all correct. So I’m saying that if your argument holds and he would be all but guaranteed to get the loans with the details sorted out and he doesn’t get the loans, then you would essentially have to agree that discrimination is a factor.

tomcam 6y ago

You’re right, I can’t be certain, other than being reasonably familiar with this business. That’s a lot of real estate. He doesn’t specify how many are paying. If he had enough tenants to move the needle and the buildings were up to code he would have little trouble getting a loan. I’m also willing to bet some serious money that either the buildings aren’t properly permitted for tenants, or that the previous owners were grandfathered in so they didn’t have to observe the same regulations the new owner will. If you haven’t gone through this process it ranges from difficult to imagine to nearly unbelievable what it’s like to bring buildings into compliance. You spend hundreds of dollars to apply for a permit, wait to get it, spend thousands of dollars for an inspection, get incomprehensible paperwork a month later, call someone to find out it means some aspect of your building didn’t pass, hire a lawyer to find out what compliance means, try to find a contractor to fix the things the previous contractor didn’t understand, pay for another inspection, get referred to a different department for something else you didn’t know about... it’s enervating, brutal, and expensive. Think you should have known what to do when you started? No municipalities have clear documentation on what to do when. You are just supposed to know it all ahead of time. No lawyer will coach you through it. Maybe, just maybe, you can find a local GC who can help. Or not. All municipalities have different rules. If you’re super lucky you can charm someone in the planning office to coach you a little, but they aren’t responsible if they forgot to help you with something. This just isn’t a business for the undercapitalized.

joshspankit 6y ago
> ... he would have little trouble getting a loan. Here’s the crux. If you’re willing to argue that he should have little trouble, then excellent: we’ve got a barometer for whether discrimination is a factor.
- tomcam 6y ago
  Sorry, I’m not following?
  - joshspankit 6y ago
    You’re saying that if the details (the ones you mentioned being “enough [paying] tenants to move the needle” and “the buildings were up to code“) were in place that his loan acceptance would be guaranteed, but if the article is correct and he’s not getting the loans because of discrimination, then he wouldn’t get the loans even if the details were all correct. So I’m saying that if your argument holds and he would be all but guaranteed to get the loans with the details sorted out and he doesn’t get the loans, then you would essentially have to agree that discrimination is a factor.