This morning I woke up rejuvenated after sleeping eight hours. The night before I stayed with an AirBNB host, Jonathan, whose full time “job” is running an AirBNB bed and breakfast. Jonathan, born and raised in New Orleans, seems like a nice guy, but is just wasting his life by convincing himself that he’s working full time by running a 2-room bed and breakfast out of his home. His bashes capitalism and oil companies for taking advantage of the people of Louisiana and ruining New Orleans, when he just stays home all day, wasting time. His justification is that he makes as much as he would by working a minimum wage job. I think Hosting guests on AirBNB should be something that he does on the side to complement his full time job salary.
At about 8AM I left the home and drove to the lower Ninth ward wanting to see firsthand and experience the part of the city that was hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Visiting the area was very depressing but wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I was expecting a ghetto that was completely desolate and empty, with all the homes in disrepair. However, about 25% of the lots in the neighborhood still had homes on them, about half of which seemed to be well-maintained and the remaining half were still in dis-repair (and unoccupied) from the Hurricane. Throughout the neighborhood many roads are closed or permanently under construction. I don’t see how a city on such a limited budget can justify repairing the streets given the low number of residents, and the inevitably of future damage, destruction, and disappearance. In a way, this situation is similar to a junk property that will just drain money for years to come and provide no income/benefit. The best solution is to withdraw from the area and use the money for relocation assistance or levee protection for a better/higher part of the city.
After, I began driving five hours to Houston, eagerly listening to Bigger Pockets podcasts during the drive. When I arrived at Houston, I visited the Holocaust Museum which was educational/interesting but was more tailored to the crowd which has limited knowledge about what the holocaust was. I’ve been to much better holocaust museums in Israel and Los Angeles.
Next, I spent about an hour at the Honda Dealership changing my oil. After, I drove through Houston, noticing the abundance of luxury housing (single family, condos, apartments), high-end office buildings, and high-end retail projects. The retail projects were very upscale and were the most luxurious of any I’ve seen around the country. High-end finishes include stainless steel paneling, varying facades for each tenant, and more. After thirty minutes of driving around, I visited the Galleria, a mixed use hotel and shopping mall, which is owned by Simon Property Group. The success of malls stems from their roles as not only shopping places but also forms of entertainment and leisure. After visiting such high quality malls, I’m not surprised that malls are the safest property types and often are marketed at sub-4 cap rates.
