You probably know I created my wealth through two things – learning how to treat myself like I mattered by paying myself first (A 5000-year-old concept of the wealthy.) and investing in real estate.

While there are more details, those are the two primary drivers.

Owning apartment buildings makes me a housing provider – I don’t like the term landlord as that has some negative connotations.

My tenants and I have a contract with each other; it’s called the Lease Agreement. They honor their part, and I honor my part. They pay rent, and I provide excellent housing plus handle all repair requests.

Recently the city of Burbank, where we have 18 rental units, was considering adopting a rent control measure that the voters had already rejected two years earlier.

Now to the question in the subject line: Is rent control good or bad?

In my presentation to the Burbank mayor and city council members, I described my Google search results; I could not find any studies that said rent control was good.

Instead, thirty years of studies pointed to the following:

  • An increase in the homeless population.
  • The impact of gentrification displacing the poor and working class that it is supposed to help.
  • The deterioration of the properties.
  • A lack of new units being built creating housing shortages.
  • An increase in bureaucracy.
  • A decrease in mobility.

While many economists wrote about how rent control did not work to serve the intended population, my final comment to the council was a quote from Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck who declared that, “Rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing.”

Let me know if you agree or disagree.

To Your Prosperity,

Rennie