the widow and her children the judge was quoted as saying, “I’m sorry ma’am. What is happening to you is quite unfair, but according to the laws of the state of Maryland he has every right to evict you and there is nothing I can do about it.” It was one of those stories that when you read it you say to yourself, “there should be a law about this!” The woman lost her home, but she chose not to go quietly. She got her local-elected offi - cial to pass a law based on her story. Unfortunately, when the pendulum swings, it swings hard in the oppo- site direction. Maryland, once a state where evictions were relatively quick and tended to favor landlords, was suddenly on the forefront of passing an “anti-investor” law that would make it completely illegal to pur- chase a home from a person going through foreclosure for the purpose of reselling or renting it. Bad enough for investors, but even worse for anyone going through a foreclosure as it would cut off an exit strategy that in many cases is their only option from facing complete financial meltdown. Our member wanted our local real estate association to mobi- lize and “march on Annapolis.” To his surprise (and mine) when he finished debriefing me on the topic, I said something like, “You seem very knowledgeable about this, why don’t you go down and testify.” The thought of which made him want to (in his words), “puke on my shoes.” I was serious though. I told him, “Go testify; tell them how harmful this will be not only for investors, but also the homeowner and if they won’t listen, then we’ll send out an alert and mobilize.” To his relief and delight, the public hearing was in a room of about 50 people with about 10 being elected officials who were part of the com -
each of us needs to be prepared to get involved particularly at the local level where our pocket books can be most impacted. The good news is that most elect- ed officials, especially at the local level, will listen to all sides of the argument and most genuinely want to do the right thing, even if they dis- agree with your politics. CASE STUDY: EASTMEETS WEST INMARYLAND THE STORYOF BRUCE NORTON AND BRIAN FROSH In 2004, one of the members of our local Real Estate Investors’ Associ - ation (DC-REIA) came to me to dis - cuss his concerns about a new state law being discussed in our state cap- ital (Annapolis) that would make it illegal for investors to purchase the home of someone who was facing imminent foreclosure. The logic behind this new law was sound. An unscrupulous investor had recently taken advantage of the widow of a State Trooper and got her to sign over her deed in exchange for a pseudo-loan that many considered usurious. At the eviction hearing for
industry and make it impossible for small scale investors to raise money through syndications, a key tool for transitioning into commercial real estate deals. Fortunately for the independent real estate investor industry, estab- lished players in the syndication and IRA industries (with full-time paid lobbyist and staffs) were able to kill this proposed legislation before it got too far down the path. Howev- er, individual real estate investors cannot relax and rest easy as for every draconian law being consid- ered in Washington, D.C., there are exponentially more being drafted in state capitals and local city halls and townships. Case in point, the recent pandem- ic gave numerous local and state politicians cover to draft and pass state and local laws that severe- ly impacted landlords’ abilities to collect rents and evict non-paying tenants, all without providing any relief to the actual (tax-paying) owner of the property. While there are a number of real estate advoca- cy groups that exist at the Federal, state and (in some cases) local level to advocate for real estate investors,
76 | think realty magazine :: december 2021
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