Corporate ownership of rental property
 

If it is not in your area, it will be soon. Big Housing is the latest boogeyman to visit the American Public. And if it is not Big Housing, beware of the Short Term Rental monster eating up desperately needed affordable housing! A few facts are in order before pursuing this issue: Of the 143 million households across the country, less than 700,000 are short-term rentals, and it's not big corporations that are buying all of them up. About 10% of homes that have been purchased for rentals are being bought up by large corporations. The majority of it is mom and pop; it's local neighbors reinvesting in their neighborhood. 
 

Please keep these numbers in mind when dealing with breathless reporters writing about the latest clickbait, er, story. Additionally, other than parts of the coastal regions in close proximity to the coast, which are typically not affordable anyway, the locations chosen for Short term rentals are not usually competing with affordable housing renters. The properties are higher end or in areas that would, by nature of the Relators® mantra “Location Location Location!” demand a premium in the first place. 

Locking in Natural Gas Prices now…
 

Inevitably there will be calls about how high natural gas prices are once the snow starts flying. This is true also for those utilizing propane as well. Energy consultants have often shared that as the leaves start to change in late summer early / fall it is often the best time to lock in those rates and supply contracts.  With the geopolitical instability, please consider this a call to action – save yourself some headache and operation cost by locking in sooner rather than later. 
 

The second thing to do, if you are in a state that has been deregulated, make sure your electric rates are locked in as well. Generation costs can very greatly, and fly by night discount operations can fall apart if there is a real shortage on energy. Rolling brownouts have been projected, and this will not go away any time soon. Word to the wise: invest in real energy efficient items, not just the propaganda, and know your rates and contract. In some cases, the local utility will also provide credits, discounts and other benefits for energy efficiency improvements.