REB 130: I Can Do What I Want With My Property!!!

The preservation of private property rights was fundamental to the American Revolution. These rights should never be held lightly, and should be protected at all costs.  Let's look at a couple of local cases, and discuss real property rights and their limits.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everybody, welcome back to Real Estate Bites. This is episode 130. Today we're going to talk about property rights. There's a couple local cases here that bring up the topic: the question of property rights. What can you do with your property and who's allowed to tell you what you can do with your property that I think are pertinent and want to discuss. But before I do that, I you know I really want to send out my condolences to any family of any young men or women who are already deployed or may very well imminently be deployed to this new round of madness in the Middle East. It makes me sad. It does. At any rate, man, let me get back to the topic at hand. Coming at you here from the home studio, which is really just my dining room table. Okay, so there's a couple cases uh that are happening here locally that really bring up the question of property rights and who's allowed to tell who what they can do on their property. Um, this has you know been something that uh I've had strong opinions about in the past. With these two cases, I don't really have um the answer. Uh for the larger one that is not in my hometown, I really don't have much of an opinion. And um for the one that is in my hometown, I do have an opinion, although I can understand both sides of the argument. Uh so at any rate, you know, the core fundamental of real estate and the real estate industry is the consideration and assessment of what is the highest and best use of a piece of land. Is it best used for housing? Is it best used for farming? Is it best used for industry, uh, transportation, or is it best used as for conservation purposes and just best to be left alone so that A, we can preserve nature and allow people to recreate in the beauty that is nature. You know, so these questions are what make up the fundamental purpose of the real estate industry. Obviously, it gets way more complex than that, but but that question is you know, what is the highest and best use of this land? Is is the core nature of the real estate industry. Um, so the two topics or current cases that I want to talk about, there is the mega site in New Russia Township. And then there is um a here in Sheffield Lake, where I live, there's a shopping center that is not as productive as it once was, um, not in as good of condition as it once was, and uh, there is a set of a pair of mid-rise apartment buildings that have been proposed to go into this giant parking lot. Okay, so let's talk about both of them. Let's start with the mega site. So you have these nearly thousand acres of farmland. Much of it is privately owned, quite a bit of it is owned by the county, it's part of the county airport. Um, and there's a proposal on the table to convert this farmland from residential agricultural and rezone it as industrial and build a gigantic industrial park. Uh, the proponents of the development say, and that's obviously the builders, that is um the county, folks at the county who are trying to push this thing through, the county commissioners, uh, and that is local trade unions who want to see those jobs offered to the people, the memberships of their unions, right? I know that the local plumbing union and I believe the local local electrical unions have both come out in major support. They are campaigning on behalf of the megasite because that means it would create jobs for their union members. And the construction, I mean, it's it's called a megasite. So the construction would take years to complete. That means you have years of jobs being provided through this construction. Uh, the people who oppose this construction are pretty much all of the local residents. I know that the township trustees rejected the initial proposal because these folks simply want to, they want to preserve a rural way of life and they want to um they they they want to keep their farmland and they they don't want a gigantic industrial center built in their rural township. Uh shifting over to the Shoreway shopping center in Avon Lake, the proponents of these apartment buildings and the construction are well, one, housing, and two, it will bring jobs for this term of the construction. Three, it will bring tax monies into the community. Projected a million dollars a year of additional tax revenue to the community to do with whatever they need andor want to do with, right? The opponents of the apartments don't want to see it. Um, the most of the objections that I've heard is at least the most salient objection I've heard is we don't want an apartment complex or even a pair of buildings built in an area that's that close to the lake that will obstruct our views, that will be an eyesore, etc. I've heard other complaints about how can our school district handle the additional families, uh, how can our community services handle the additional families? We'll need more police, we'll need more fire, etc., etc. Okay. So when it comes to real estate, look, guys, private property rights in the United States basically state that private property owners hold the right to use, sell, lease, and exclude others from activity on their land. Basically, you can do what you want on your land, whether it's for profit or personal use, because it's your land. And no one else should have a say in what you do. Now, the Supreme Court has decided, and and rightly so, that you there has to be limitations on that, right? There have to be limitations specifically because you might decide to do something on your land that could damage, devalue, or harm other people or other people's land, right? So, for instance, if you decide to do strip mining on your land or whatever it is you might, and then take the waste from whatever operations are and dump them onto your neighbor's land or in a stream, maybe, that will go and pollute the stream, pollute the wildlife, pollute neighbors' land. You can't do that, right? So there are limitations on what you can do with your land, and that is the nature of local zoning laws, right? Municipalities incorporate, they look at the land that's available, and they designate certain parts of their new community uh for agricultural, residential, industrial, right? You guys can live here. Maybe there's some mixed planning here where you combine residential and commercial. This is the major commercial district where all the shops will be, and then okay, over here off the beaten path, this is where you can build your factories and make a lot of noise and make a mess, right? They segregate those different zoning codes so that the folks who live in the residential zoning are don't have to be bothered by the loud noises and the smoke or the waste from the industrial, all right. That that makes sense, we all get that. Um, you know, and then on occasion, zoning can be changed to accommodate something. So, in the case of the the megasite there, New Russia Township, this is zoned residential and agricultural, and the proponents of the megasite need to have it rezoned to industrial, and that therein lies their biggest problem because there's going to be opposition to that rezoning, right? So for the private landowners, you know, even if it were um you know, for the private landowners, you know, can they get it rezoned? Can they apply to have it rezoned? Oftentimes, yes, they can, especially if there is a purpose towards it, it happens all the time, you know, and that private landowner, again, shouldn't be told what they can and can't do with their land. Now, with the county-owned lands, well, those are owned by the people in the county who pay the taxes. So homeowners in the county, taxpayers in the county owned that airport. So they definitely should have a say on what happens with that public land that's intended to be essentially sold off to this developer for this mega site, right? Now that said, when it comes to the mega site, the proponents say there's going to be all this, these new jobs, this new construction, not only the temporary jobs of construction that are created, but the permanent jobs of folks who live or work in the industrial site, you know, tax revenues, etc., it's going to be lay the groundwork and the infrastructure for growth and development in the area. And the opponents say that, well, we don't want that growth and development in the area. And one thing that the opponents have, aside from the current zoning issue, that is a strong argument against this mega site, is they don't know what's going to be built. They don't know what businesses will come in there, they don't know what the tenancy will look like. They don't know what's going on in the site. And it's been very obscure who's going to end up operating out of this mega site, right? So it's a problem when you talk about permanent jobs, but but how many permanent jobs? Is there enough permanent jobs to justify this total transformation of this area, right? A big fear that is there is that a data center is going to be put in there. There's not many employees running around a data center, not compared to you know a normal plant or factory uh that has the C-suite on down through menial labor, right? And there may be hundreds, if not a thousand employees in one plant. You know, when you're just talking about a data center, there's going to be a handful of people who maintain it, who operate it, who oversee it. But a data center doesn't require a whole lot of human input to operate, right? So there's a strong argument about, well, look, we don't know what you're building or who you're going to bring in to operate whatever you're building. And until you can tell us that, the answer is no. And I think that's pretty fair. Now, here in Sheffield Lake, it's a shortway shopping center. We've got this large parking lot where they want to build these two apartment buildings. And I mean, this apartment, this parking lot is not nice, it's not productive in any way, shape, or form. Um, the shopping center itself has a number of vacancies that have been longtime vacancies. Um, it's not in the best shape. The building is not in the best shape. Don't know how successful those businesses are. I mean, there's there's a couple that have uh, you know, some some pretty frequent visitations, but I don't think a lot of them are performing very well. And again, the opponents of the apartment complex state, well, we don't want this big ugly thing that's built. Um, it doesn't necessarily have to be ugly, but they're just complaining, I think, uh, quite a bit for the sake of complaining. You know, they're they're complaining that uh, again, they say it's going to obscure lake views, it's not aesthetically pleasing. Um their complaints are that the schools can't support it, there's no proof. It's just a statement. Fire and police can't support it, there's no proof, it's just a statement. Uh, but even if there is not enough fire and police to support it, well, you know, an additional million dollars or so are coming into the community because of these buildings. Maybe more fire and police could be supported out of that. You know, the other thing, this again, this piece of land is not, it's not productive at all. The only thing that this piece of land gets used for, occasionally there's a car show there, and then once a year we have the uh community days um fair or carnival there, and uh aside from that, it just sits empty and vacant. That's another thing people complain about. What's gonna happen to our community days fair? Uh I for one wouldn't mind seeing it go. It's not what it once was, it's not as fun as it used to be. Um, based upon the people that seem to show up and the way they behave and uh how inebriated they can be. At any rate, um so in this particular instance, new apartments, yeah, they're not going to be aesthetically pleasing, but they're not harming anyone that's around them. Because you can't sit outside of your apartment or your front porch there on Lake Breeze and see as much of the lake beyond the boat launch that you could before, that's not causing you harm, right? That is not causing you any sort of damage, it's just not, it's just an annoyance, right? Especially because you could get off your butt and walk down the street and sit at the bench at the boat launch and look at the lake if you want a lake view. What you are doing by opposing these apartments on a weak basis with a weak case, is you're also affecting all of these business owners who I mean they're not getting rich, guys. These these business owners that have small mom and pop shops there in the shortwing shopping center and surrounding, they're not getting rich with these businesses. You're denying them the opportunity to grow a clientele base because there's no doubt that if these apartment buildings are built, the people who live there will come out of their apartments and likely walk to these stores and shop. There's a high probability that the vacancies will be filled by businesses who now have a new client base built out of this apartment complex. The new families in the apartment complex, obviously, along with the families that already exist here, now create enough of a demographic to support their business model in that place, right? So you're thwarting a lot of development, you're thwarting a lot of uh you know, potential prospective business, you're thwarting a million dollars or so every single year that comes into the community that can then be put out. So, where do we draw a line? Where do we draw a line where the general public can say yes or no to construction on someone's private property? That's the question. That's something to think about in your community and any any community as you look, as you consider the highest and best use of land, and whether or not it's productive, and whether or not it is contributing to the general welfare of a community. I mean, that's what government is supposed to do, they're supposed to uh you know monitor and and provide opportunity that is good for the general welfare of the community and the residents whom they govern. Uh so the other thing is on the flip side of it, if the government limits what can be done on private property to an extent that it devalues the land that it sits on, that is called the taking clause. Um, and that that's actually part of the Fifth Amendment, right? So the Fifth Amendment we all know is I plead the fifth. You know, I can't, I'm not gonna be compelled to say anything that incriminates me in front of anybody, even a court of law. A part of the Fifth Amendment, though, is it takes it talks about the taking clause, which means if the government so limits someone's private property that it that it devalues the property, essentially they are taking the property away from the owner, they're taking their property rights and property value away, and the government is then compelled to compensate that person, that landowner, for the devaluation in that property. And is that happening in either of these situations? Are the private landowners down in New Russia Township or the private landowners here in Shoreway in Sheffield Lake, are they being taken from? Now, in New Russia Township, it's not zoned for the mega site, they have to get past that first. So the government isn't necessarily taking because the law was already set in place, the ordinance was already set in place that this is for farming andor residences to be built upon, not a mega site. However, in Sheffield Lake, a planning commission already approved the rezoning. Now it just needs to go through council, right? So there's they're already halfway through the approval of it. Is the local government taking value from that from that landowner? I don't know. Um, but definitely things to think about. You know, property rights are uh sort of the basis of, in my opinion, American ideology. You know, this is this is my me and my person belong to me, my sovereignty, and no one else. And that which I produce with my hands belongs to me, right? I mean, our founding fathers fought a war against England to secure our freedoms because they were sick of being taxed to death. They were sick of being told what they can do of coming out here, taking the risk, working hard, creating a living for themselves, and then the crown saying, no, no, no, uh, you know, a third of that belongs to us, right? Feels kind of uh feels kind of familiar, don't it? Right? Taxation inherently is theft, unless, of course, the community, the people get together and vote for it and approve it and pass those levies or those bonds or those ordinances that create the taxes, if it is simply imposed upon you by government, well, that is uh everything that the founding fathers fought against. So, again, just some little real estate bites to chew on through the weekend and consider uh as you move through your community. That said, let's take a look at the statistics because we just wrapped up Q1 and let's take a look at these here. All right, so you can see here column C, inventory staying low, even though in column D, these are the sales that closed in the last week. They were 82, so a big jump up in closings from prior weeks. Uh, probably one of the contributing factors to keeping the inventory down is that houses are starting to sell quickly again. You can see our median home prices are there. Here's the stat that I really want to focus on. Column G is median square foot value. Now we saw a dip, right? Q4 2025, we ended up with an average median home value of 167.19. That was a significant correction from the quarter before that, right? You can see over eight dollars less per square foot. And I thought we were going to see an even deeper correction as I look at all these 158s, 160s, but we had just enough of these high ones. We actually improved square foot value by an entire 41 cents a square foot. So prices are remaining flat through the winter season. As we heat up into the selling season, uh, expect to see more inventory coming online. I know that we are heating up here at Civitas Real Estate Group. Um, if this this interest rate doesn't climb anymore, you can see we we jumped up to 6.62 percent a week ago. We're back down 21 basis points to 6.41 percent for a mortgage. That's what the interest rate was this morning and for a conventional mortgage. You know, so if this stays stable, these interest rates, um, and we stay stable with this low, low inventory as demand picks up in the selling season, as families are deciding to upgrade, move, downgrade, whatever it is, but make their things happen in the warmer summer months here in the Midwest prior to the next school year setting in. I imagine we're going to see this average median square price, uh square foot price begin to climb up again. All right. That's gonna be a wrap for today. Episode 130 is all said and done. As always, guys, if you like this stuff, snap that QR code, go under YouTube, check it out. You can also find your boy on Spotify now. Real estate bites is uh being published on Spotify. So if you'd rather listen while you're in the car, uh please download and follow on Spotify. That'd be cool. As always, thanks again for joining me. Take care of yourselves, take care of one another. I love you, people. We'll see you next week.