How Come I Never Advertise My Vacancies?

I get asked this question quite frequently, usually by tenants of mine who have friends looking for housing and having a hard time finding anything. Well, the answer is simple. It has been a very long time since I had a vacancy. When one of my tenants moves out, a new tenant usually takes possession the next day.

Why? Well, it is not because of the chocolate room. I don’t tell prospective tenants about the chocolate room until we are ready to sign a lease. I don’t want people renting apartments from me just so they can get free chocolate. Of course there is a housing shortage in this area, but I like to think the main reason why I never have vacancies is because my units have more amenities than most rentals in this area.

Washing Machines And Dryers

There are washing machines and dryers in all my apartments, even the 1 bedrooms. Very few 1 bedroom apartments around here have washing machines and dryers inside them.

I have wondered why do so few apartments have washing machines and dryers inside them. Nobody wants to go to a laundromat or a coin-op laundry room in the basement of the building, and landlords know that tenants are willing to pay extra rent for an apartment with a washing machine and a dryer inside the unit. So why don’t more landlords put washers and dryers in their rentals?

I think the reason is that most landlords are old (like me) and old landlords tend to think about what was normal when they got into the business 30 or 40 years ago. Back in those days, major appliances were a lot more expensive than they are today. I don’t think most college students realize just how expensive household appliances used to be because they are too young to remember. For example, in 1970, a microwave oven cost $500. That’s over $3,000 in today’s money. Today, you can buy a brand-name microwave oven for $50. Admittedly that is an extreme example, but adjusted for inflation, all household appliances are much cheaper today than they were when I got into the landlording business in 1971. However, there is one that hasn’t changed. Back in 1970, everybody wanted a washing machine and a dryer inside their apartment – and everyone still does.

What Household Appliance Uses The Most Energy? Answer: an electric clothes dryer. The average electric clothes dryer consumes as much energy as a refrigerator, washing machine, and dishwasher combined. That is because most of the energy consumed by an electric clothes dryer is used to produce heat, which draws a lot of electricity. Most other home appliances use most or all of their electricity to turn motors, which consumes relatively little electricity. This is why all of my units have gas clothes dryers. Electric clothes dryers cost $50 to $100 less than gas clothes dryers, but they are no bargain. Drying a load of clothes with an electric clothes dryer costs about 30 cents more than drying the same load in a gas clothes dryer. That may not sound like a lot, but over the expected lifetime of a dryer, a gas clothes dryer will save around $2,000 in energy costs.

Unfortunately, most of the clothes dryers sold in the U.S. today run on electricity, and as a result, it becoming increasingly difficult to find gas clothes dryers in stores. Most new apartment houses and condos have electric clothes dryers. Why? Well, as I said, electric clothes dryers are cheaper to buy than gas clothes dryers. And they are also easier to install. With an electric clothes dryer, all you have to do is plug it in. With a gas clothes dryer, you have to plug it in, but you also need to run a gas line to the dryer, and plumbing is expensive. Several of my units have stacking washer/dryers, and stacking washer/dryers that run on natural gas can be very hard to find. When I need one, I usually have to special order it. Most appliance stores do not keep them in stock.

It seems to me that if our federal government had a rational energy policy, Congress would create some kind of economic incentive for real estate developers to put gas clothes dryers in new housing or at least gas connections in laundry rooms. Right now, real estate developers and landlords have absolutely no incentive from the government to install gas clothes dryers or to replace existing electric dryers with dryers that run on natural gas.

 

Chemistry At U.C. Berkeley

Over half of my tenants right now are majoring in physics or chemistry, so it is time for a little Berkeley chemistry quiz.

HOW MANY CHEMICAL ELEMENTS WERE DISCOVERED AT THESE WELL-KNOWN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES?

Duke. 0 elements
Harvard. 0 elements
Johns Hopkins. 0 elements
M.I.T. 0 elements
Princeton. 0 elements
Stanford. 0 elements
U.C.L.A. 0 elements
University of Chicago. Maybe 2 elements, maybe none. See note below.
University of Maryland. My alma mater. 0 elements.
University of Virginia. 0 elements
Yale. 0 elements

University of California at Berkeley. 16 elements. Technetium #43, Astatine #85, Neptunium #93, Plutonium #94, Americium #95, Curium #96, Berkelium #97, Californium #98, Einsteinium #99, Fermium #100, Mendelevium #101, Nobelium $102, Lawrencium #103, Rutherfordium #104, Hahnium #105, Seaborgium #106.

Note: Americium and Curium were first identified at the Argonne National Lab at the University of Chicago during World War 2 by a team of scientists from U.C. Berkeley led by Glenn Seaborg.

Chocolate News

isisIsis Chocolate will soon be changing the company’s name. Isis Chocolate, a high-end Belgian chocolate company, will be changing its name to Libeert in January. The company has been in business for nearly a century and has a worldwide reputation for superior chocolates, but sales have been hurting because of the Islamic state group in Iraq and Syria with the same name. Apparently some people think that Isis Chocolates is some kind of fundraiser for the Islamic state. Can you imagine anyone believing that? Can you picture heavily armed Islamic terrorists setting up card tables in front of Giant supermarkets and selling their own brand of chocolate bars next to the Girl Scout cookie and the Boy Scout popcorn tables?

aydsAyds. This story reminds me of what happened to Ayds. Ayds diet candy was a popular product back in the 1960s and 1970s. The company claimed that if you ate an Ayds caramel 30 minutes before a meal, it would suppress your appetite. Ayds ads were everywhere, and Ayds sponsored a number of TV shows. However, the company went out of business when the disease AIDS came along. Their slogan seemed to reinforce the erroneous but widely held belief that you could get AIDS by eating Ayds caramels. Ayds slogan was: ‘With Ayds, you’ll lose weight!’
 

New In The Chocolate Room

Cinnamon Toffee Almonds. This is the traditional snack sold at Oktoberfest in Munich, and they sell literally tons of them. In Germany, they are called ‘gebrannte Mandeln’, which means burned almonds; however, these almonds are not actually ‘burned’ as Americans would use the word. It would be more accurate to call them highly roasted. Almonds are more expensive in Germany and throughout Europe than they are here in California. That is because most of the almonds sold in Europe are grown in California. California produces 80% of the world’s almonds. California also produces almost all of the walnuts and pistachios grown in the U.S. and most of the macadamias.

Butter Toffee Mixed Nuts. This is a mixture of nuts coated in butter caramel. They also sell a lot of these in Munich during Oktoberfest. This mixture contains no cinnamon or hazelnuts. Hazelnuts are extremely popular in Europe, but Americans don’t seem to care for them. Aside from Nutella, hazelnuts and hazelnut products don’t don’t sell well in the U.S. In the South, hazelnuts are commonly called filberts, but hazelnuts and filberts are the same thing.

Christmas Gift Table

My Christmas gift table is now open for business. Please come on over and select a gift of your choosing. It’s one gift per tenant, not one gift per unit, so if 4 people live in your apartment, your group is entitled to 4 items from the gift table. There is some nice stuff on the table, and its first-come, first-served, so for the best selection, you should come sooner than later.