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A WIN FOR BLACKROCK: Biden Throws Small Landlords Under the Bus

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President Joe Biden makes remarks to the press regarding COVID-19 on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, on the North Grounds of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith)

In 2018, the IRS recorded over ten million returns that included income from rental properties. That’s more than just the “top 1%.” There are millions of middle-class Americans who have invested in rental properties to achieve goals like putting their kids through college or saving for retirement.

The moratorium on evictions created to help families through COVID-19 has put a lot of pressure on these landlords who must maintain properties, even if their tenants aren’t paying rent. Here’s the story of one landlord, Buddy Shoup from Spectrum News 1:

When Buddy Shoup was 6 years old, he remembers helping his mother hammer down molding in a home she bought as an investment property.

Now decades later, Shoup runs the rental property business his mother started.

Family Home Rentals, LLC owns 35 properties in the Catawba County area. ​

Typically he has very few tenants who don’t pay their rent, but since the evictions moratorium went into place, Shoup says he has lost $24,000 in money owed. The moratorium is ending August 1.

“This one tenant hasn’t paid his rent in over a year, but three boats showed up in his driveway but no rent money. Another tenant also didn’t pay rent for several months but continuously had Amazon packages delivered and new furniture and other things from Rent-a-Center. There went my money,” Shoup said.

Shoup said he couldn’t evict anyone for not paying rent, only for breach of contract in their lease agreement.

Shoup said when some of this tenants fell behind on rent this past year, he would point them in the right direction to community organizations like the Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry, which helped neighbors with utility payments and rent.

But he said those programs are running out of money, if they have any left at all.

“The money from the government, stimulus checks, all of it, should have gone to the programs so they could distribute it to people who need it for rent and utilities. It should never have gone directly into people’s pockets,” Shoup said.

Shoup said he still had to financially keep up with his properties, installing air conditioning units, heat, fixing pipes, even though he wasn’t getting rent money, because legally as a landlord he has to keep the homes in good condition.

“I’m glad the moratorium is expiring. It should never, never, never have gone on this long,” Shoup said.

Now, Biden wants to extend the eviction moratorium at least in parts of the country. Listen to Shoup’s response to Biden’s decision in a Fox News interview below:

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Action Line: When mom and pop landlords are pushed out of business because they don’t have the capital to keep up with mortgage payments and maintenance during Biden’s new eviction moratorium, friends of the administration like BlackRock CEO Larry Fink will get the opportunity to buy up those properties. It’s another case of you invest, and they win.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
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