Tired of absentee landlords, bad tenants and abandoned homes in your neighborhood? A Kansas City couple is trying to do something positive about all three.

      Suzanne and Von Bernritter aren’t the stereotypical landlords we often hear about in Historic Northeast. Currently owners of 15 single-family properties in the Northeast area (they have 22 in total), the Bernritters are committed to decent and honorable business practices, both for themselves, and their tenants.

     Von began their housing business about 14 years ago while still working a full-time job in computer programming. Suzanne joined in after they married 5 years ago; after three years, she left her job in the non-profit sector. Bernritter Properties is now a full-time business for both of them.

     For the last 18 months, this couple has been focusing their business on Section-8 families. The Section-8 program has become more “landlord-friendly” in recent years and that has resulted in good relationships between the program, its beneficiaries and area landlords. One of the Bernritters’ goals with the Section-8 program is to “break the cycle of ‘no pride’ in both tenants and landlords,” said Suzanne Bernritter. “If landlords don’t care what the property looks like, there is no incentive for the tenants to keep it clean and tidy.”

     Bernritter Properties is choosy about its tenants, and have turned away prospective renters who are not willing to meet the expectations. Tenants sign a code of ethics, a document outlining those expectations of cleanliness, pets and behavior. While not a legal document, the code of ethics does put everything out on the table. According to the Bernritters, most of their tenants are doing a good job of keeping the yards and houses clean; in 18 months they’ve only had to evict one tenant. It helps that the Section-8 program also has a set of expectations and rules, such as a zero-tolerance for illegal drug activity. Section-8 properties are also annually inspected, with random pop inspections; these are in addition to those done by the Bernritters themselves. Additionally, the Bernritters have connected tenants with various social service resources in the area.

     What about the problem of absentee landlords who just don’t seem to care? Von Bernritter believes that “some of the old-timers have just become jaded. But you have to get past the bad tenants and other problems,” he says, “or get out of the business.” Being a landlord is not an easy job, and “people often go into it for the wrong reasons, such as a quick buck,” Von says. In an effort to alert people to the challenges and proper practices of being a landlord, both Von and Suzanne belong to the KC Investment Group and Landlords, Inc. Von is the executive vice-president of KC Investment Group. “It’s an educational group. We bring speakers in to talk about various real estate issues and educate prospective landlords.” Von is able to mentor others through his own experiences.

      The business has become very successful. This year alone, the company will purchase about a dozen or so houses-mostly abandoned homes or foreclosures which only need a bit of rehabbing and yard work. Most of the clean-up work is sub-contracted out to businesses with the same ethics as the Bernritters. A management company is in the very near future of the business to assist with day-to-day activities such as screening clients, arranging maintenance work and performing the random checks on tenants. “But we’re still going to be very involved. We will not be absentee landlords,” Suzanne emphasized.

     One aspect of the business they will maintain themselves are the relationships they have been building with area neighborhood associations. “We’re working on the same problems together.” Suzanne said. They have encouraged neighborhood associations to contact their office to alert them to abandoned properties. They will, at the very least, take a look at the property, and if for some reason it doesn’t fit with their requirements, they will pass the referral on to other good landlords. Referrals of property should be directed to their office at 816-820-4626.

     The bottom line is about “empowering the tenants,” Suzanne said. “Being poor does not mean that you cannot live in a nice home.”

Reprinted with specific permission from the Northeast News.