Even Those Who Diversify Their Portfolios Are Feeling the Pressure

This is a very general statement, but living in the San Francisco Bay area for most of my life, I have not seen the economy take its toll the way it has this past year (even during the dot com bust.)  We have had financial centers, various technology centers from bio-tech to IT, a strong service industry, and certainly numerous enterprising entrepreneurs that were constantly rising to the top in spite of what many other areas of the country were experiencing. It was reflected in the real estate prices here too, they kept going up and up, even though logically it didn’t make sense, everyone loved it.

Now, I am seeing a struggling that hadn’t been as apparent before.  Maybe it’s because I am a landlord so I’m closer to some of it.  I am one of those who has diversified my portfolio, not just investments of precious metals, stocks, foreign currency and real estate, but also my business life is diversified as well.  I have an offline business as well as online, never wanting to leave my destiny to someone else. Thank goodness I do this though, because the pinch is everywhere and has a trickle down affect.

I currently have a tenant who needed to break his lease for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here….but I have always had wonderful tenants and haven’t had a problem “finding them”.  However, what I am seeing interviewing potential new tenants is something I have NEVER experienced before.  Out of 10 families this past week, 8 of them continue reading »