You are correct Blackstone is not buying rural single family houses. They are buying middle of the market single family houses in growing suburban areas, is what I understand. And probably all kinds of MDU properties as well.
On Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 2:40 PM Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > What triggered my post was that we had a customer who died about a year ago, > his wife took over the account, and after some storms last week we saw that > her Internet (and VoIP) were down although the SM was up. Finally after much > effort managed to contact her, she said oh I moved last weekend and my son > packed up all the computer equipment. > > As usual, I asked if there was a buyer or tenant for the house, and she said > no it wasn't even listed and might not be sold for many months and we should > come get the radio. About the only other option at this location is Starlink > so I would normally wait and see if a new owner or tenant wanted service > without an install fee. > > But when I asked my field tech who lives in the area, he said ... well, > here's what he said: > > "That's going to be a tough sell. The house was never modernized and it is > small. I guess it has the shop but even that really isn't much of a > building. Plus it is near literally nothing. Nearest town is a toss up > between Amboy and Rochelle and neither of them has all the modern day things > that city people would need to survive if they wanted something remote like > that. Maybe a local will end up with it. Which would be a rare occurrence." > > According to Zillow it's a 2400 sq ft house built in 1983 on a 1.3 acre lot. > The guy wasn't a farmer so I assume no farmland comes with it. He probably > built it in 1983 on a parcel where a farmhouse once stood would be my guess. > > Now, it's possible she is keeping the house off the market while she fixes it > up to sell, but that is not the vibe I was picking up. I'm guessing she > moved into town. > > I do see kids taking over the farming operation from the parents and looking > for an affordable house of their own, but not that far from town, especially > if they are going to get married, have kids, etc. > > The part about people not wanting to be landlords is true. I have customers > with a few "rental houses", but it's a chore, and they fear bad tenants. > They also tend to turn over every 1-2 years. The most likely scenario would > be that someone down the road would buy it to rent out, since they could keep > an eye on it. > > I have also had tenants as customer where the house was foreclosed by the > bank which then threw the tenant out because they wanted to sell the asset > not rent it out. Or the owner decides to sell, and the tenant has people > coming through all day every day for showings. > > I keep reading about investment companies like Blackstone that are buying up > all the real estate and turning them into rentals, but I don't think they are > buying rural single family homes. More like apartment buildings, townhomes, > duplexes, and student housing. > > -----Original Message----- > From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Chris Fabien > Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2025 11:27 AM > To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] rural areas and fiber > > In our area, this sometimes happens if the house is in pretty poor condition > because it's got 40 years of deferred maintenance when the > 80 year old retired farmer dies. So then it's more a matter of the structure > not being worth fixing back up to marketable standards, but the 20/40/80 > acres it's on is valuable as farm land. I think fiber being available would > have very little impact on this. However, there definately are folks in our > area that would love to live rural, have animals and hobby farm but still > need good Internet to make that an option. The base premise I think you're > suggesting is it's not worth running fiber to rural areas because nobody > wants to live there anyway. Which at least in central Michigan is wrong. > > On Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 12:15 PM Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > In some areas we serve where houses are a mile apart and the nearest town > > with a Walmart is 15 miles away, people tell me that when a homeowner dies > > (many are in their 70’s and 80’s), they won’t even list the house because > > nobody wants to live in the middle of nowhere. It will be abandoned, or > > torn down to and turned back into farmland. We no longer have small family > > farms with the farm family living in a house on the land, because you need > > to farm so many acres to make a profit. If a farmhouse is near a town, it > > may become a rental house, but not when it’s 10 miles from the nearest town > > or school. > > > > > > > > But I expect some company will be awarded $15K+ each to pass these houses > > with fiber. If it takes 4 years to complete, the house might not even be > > occupied by then, and in any case, the 80 year old occupant probably > > doesn’t care if they have gigabit Internet. > > > > > > > > So will fiber make these houses suddenly desirable, and work from home > > people will move there from the cities, towns and suburbs? Reviving these > > rural areas where the younger generation has moved away? I guess that’s > > the vision, I’m not sure I buy it. Well and septic and propane, quarter > > mile driveway to plow in winter, but blazing fast Internet, and you can > > have horses and chickens. > > > > > > > > Will they start building subdivisions out there once fiber is available? > > I’m not buying it. Am I wrong? > > > > -- > > AF mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
