A reader of the ApartmentAssoc Yahoo Group asks:
What is the size of Residential apartment industry in Southeast of Wisconsin?
It is pretty big. I haven’t gone through the work to assemble this data recently, but here is some older data. Assembling fresh data should be less today due to the amount of information you can find on the internet these days.
Ten years ago there were 25,000 rental owners in the City of Milwaukee and 31,000 if you included owner occupied duplexes and fours.
As a rental property owner in Milwaukee the following items should rank high on your list of concerns. (Just a draft)
The Milwaukee Journal notes that  Lenders are abandoning foreclosured properties
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/50548282.html
“Rodney Lass figured his days as a homeowner were over when he was hit with a foreclosure judgment more than a year ago.
He stopped rehabbing his two-story Bay View home and moved on. [snip]
The foreclosure, however, failed to go through after the California-based lender decided it didn’t want the gutted house. Lass said he found out for certain that he still owned it from the Journal Sentinel.”
Tim’s comments
There is another twist, probably worse for the community than abandonment by the lender. An emerging phenomena is owners of properties in lower income areas are being sued for the balance of the mortgage, not as a foreclosure but as a large claim action. The lenders are seeking only a money judgment against the owner and are not asking the court to give them title to the property. The only option at that point for many owners is bankruptcy.
This will be has been posted shortly at the Courthouse:
PLEASE NOTE
In Small Claims Eviction cases, you may only sign complaints and appear in court on behalf of a property owner if you are one of the following:
· The property owner (if the property is not owned by a corporation/limited liability corporation)
· A full time employee of the property owner
· An attorneyEmployees of management companies or other outside service providers may not sign complaints or appear on behalf of property owners.
No single idea, thought or policy has done as much harm to urban American than the political expediency of ignoring occupantsâ responsibilities.  While Milwaukee certainly does not maintain a monopoly on these ill-conceived ideas, we are a front runner.
Take todayâs Journal article on snow removal as a timely, but far from unique example.
âA city ordinance requires snow and ice to be removed or prevented from posing a hazard on sidewalks within 24 hours after snow has stopped falling. If the city is forced to provide the service, property owners – not their renters – are charged $93 for a 60-foot lot and a $25 administration fee for the first occurrence. That administration fee grows to $50 for each subsequent occurrenceâ
Any tenant reading this article thinks âAnd here that no good son of a sewer rat I rent from put in the lease that I had to shovel.  Even the Journal says itâs his job, not mine.  No way Iâm going out there in the cold and do his job!.â
Some days there seems to be no limit to attempts to cheat rental property owners out of their hard earned money. Tenants, the City and WE Energies all seem to stay awake nights figuring how to get your last few bucks.
In the past month many owners have asked âWhat is my responsibility to pay for separately metered utilities when the tenant moves or doesnât place the account in their name?â and then go on to tell their tale of woe, describing how WE Energies is attempting to extract money from them for utilities they do not believe they owe.