Mini-dorms, but many problems
Union-Tribune 3/7/07
Instead, Haaland and a former fraternity brother, Ian Sells, are the businessmen behind more than 100 mini-dorms in San Diego's College Area since 2000.
The growing trend – buying single-family homes, adding bedrooms and renting them to students around San Diego State University – has ignited anger among longtime residents who say the resulting late-night parties and loud music aren't compatible with neighboring families.
The city wants to tighten controls on mini-dorms by restricting a property owner's ability to renovate. At a meeting today, a City Council committee will discuss that and other options, such as reducing the number of parking permits issued to residents and adding a code enforcement position in partnership with SDSU.
Haaland and Sells think the city is kidding itself trying to stop mini-dorms around SDSU. The university serves 33,000 students on its main campus, but provides housing to accommodate 3,800. An additional 600 live in fraternity and sorority houses.
Do the math, they say.
“I don't care what laws they pass. I don't care what they do. Eventually all these houses, kids are going to be living in them,” Haaland said, adding that the city should rezone for more apartments on major College Area streets.
“There's just no way around it. There's so much demand. Literally, girls cry when I say, 'You didn't get this house.' ”
Longtime residents, many who have lived in their homes for decades, are not swayed. They complain of college students who urinate in their yards, leave trash in the street and are oblivious to how late-night partying affects the neighborhood.
Donald Rush, who has owned a home on Shane Place for more than three decades, lived next to a mini-dorm for 10 years. Rush, a retired real estate agent, had to wear earplugs to block out the noise emanating from the house next door. Sometimes he couldn't hear his own TV.
“I've never seen a quiet mini-dorm,” he said. “There is no such thing. This is an issue that has affected hundreds of homeowners and destroyed the quality of our life. Many people have just moved off.”
Paved front lawns
Haaland and Sells aren't the only people buying, managing or converting mini-dorms. But they are a major force behind the trend.
These entrepreneurs each had the same idea when they were SDSU undergraduates.
Haaland, who was a political science major, hated the dorms, and Sells, who studied real estate, couldn't find affordable housing. So they persuaded their parents to buy homes near the campus where they would live and rent out rooms to their friends.
Sells, 25, graduated in 2004 and considers the mini-dorm business a hobby, though he is a full or partial owner in 10. With 22-year-old partner Brandon Blum he manages 60, including the ones he owns.
Like many mini-dorms, homes that Sells oversees have had garages converted into bedrooms, other rooms added and walls built to create even more bedrooms. In the early days, Sells sometimes advertised dens and offices as bedrooms, and he paved over front lawns to offer enough parking.
Stricter rules in recent years have made it harder for landlords capitalizing on the student housing shortage. Last year, the city tightened its definition of what a bedroom is. That's important because in larger houses, anyone adding bedrooms must add parking spaces.
Sells had to switch gears. Now he won't purchase a home that he can't easily and affordably turn into a six-bedroom home. He stressed he has always done everything legally.
Haaland and Sells say they aren't getting rich on these conversions. At a house on Dorothy Drive, Sells said he collects $3,700 a month from six tenants, while the monthly mortgage on the home he bought for $500,000 is $3,600.
“What people don't understand is that you don't make money on the rents,” he said. “You make money when you sell the house.”
Couches on roofs
Haaland, who estimates he has had ownership in about 20 College Area rental homes since 2000, offers a package deal to investors.
Haaland, a licensed real estate agent, finds houses appropriate for expansion. He lines up investors to buy them and a construction company to add bedrooms and parking spots. He has turned about 50 houses into mini-dorms that way, and more investors are “banging on my door,” Haaland said.
“That's my talent. I can create a package,” he said. “I make sure everything's legit.”
A house under renovation on Rincon Street, less than a half-mile east of campus, is a current example of Haaland's handiwork. It's a three-bedroom home that an investor bought for $555,000.
The inside has been gutted. Workers are adding three bedrooms in what used to be the backyard, and the garage is becoming a seventh bedroom. Each room probably will rent for $600 to $700.
A newly paved strip in the back will provide five spaces to meet the city's parking requirements.
Residents say this type of thing is ruining their neighborhood.
“It's just a mess,” said Bernd Helmke, who lives next to a Dorothy Way mini-dorm and wishes investors would quit adding bedrooms to their properties to cram in more students.
“The kids will put couches on their roofs just to sit there and catch some rays and look cool,” Helmke said.
Cathleen Kenney said her Joan Court cul-de-sac gained three new mini-dorms in eight months, bringing tenants who must be told not to park on front lawns or block neighbors' driveways. Keg parties often mean 50 to 60 guests sharing a few bathrooms.
“You even have girls dropping trouser to urinate out in the public,” Kenney said.
Sells said longtime residents unfairly blame mini-dorms because they don't like the fallout of living near an expanding university.
“The college students are surrounded by people who are 70, 80, 90 years old,” he said. “I've talked to some of these people and I'm like, 'Why don't you just sell your house and move into a nice community where you have a lot of nice amenities? That's what everyone's doing these days.' ”
It's not just the homeowners who feel harassed. Mini-dorm tenants say they often feel under attack.
Recent SDSU grad Ian Grist has lived in two mini-dorms over three years, and currently leases a home from Sells on Dorothy Drive. Grist, a computer database administrator, has five student roommates.
Police have visited his home 30 to 40 times over the years to respond to complaints. Grist said he has never been cited or fined. Often the complaints are trumped up, he said. Once, a reported “riot” was really a party with 15 students, he said. Police declined to comment on any specifics yesterday.
In response to neighbors' complaints, Haaland said that mini-dorm landlords should be accountable for their tenants. He said he evicted six in the past six months for noise complaints.
Sells said he hes become a better landlord, responding more swiftly to complaints. He also plans to require renters to sign a letter outlining the neighborhood rules.
Haaland has a message for City Hall: Embrace student housing. SDSU's enrollment is projected to grow to nearly 45,000 full-and part-time students by 2025.
Students, Haaland said, have to live somewhere.