The Renters Bill Of Rights as announced by President Biden will bring about

The recent announcement from the Biden Administration regarding a “Renters Bill of Rights” fits into the mainstream narrative that housing is a basic human right. The reality is that it’s about fascism. It’s about the government controlling what YOU own and making you bend to the will of some bureaucratic minion who will determine how much you can rent your property for and to whom you can rent it. This will help select billionaires, and that is apparently just fine with the progressives in the Biden Administration. You see, as you hamper the ability of mom-and-pop and small landlords to do business, those properties will go on the market. As we’ve seen over the last few years, when frustrated, burned-out landlords sell, many of those assets end up in the portfolios of rapidly-growing hedge funds which, in turn, make generous political contributions to certain progressive members of Congress.

Let’s look at what happened over the past few years. Could you have imagined four years ago someone in the White House (who was not a Democrat) saying that no one could evict someone for a national health reason? Could you have imagined, then, local and state governments extending that eviction moratorium beyond the statutorily-prescribed amount of time enacted by Congress? Could you have imagined further that Congress would then say, “Let’s give these landlords money to make up for the fact that they couldn’t get rent,” and then making some of these landlords wait for two years to get those funds for which they applied? Four years ago, I don’t think any of us could have predicted this.

The covid eviction moratorium and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program have been two of the worst things to happen to the residential real estate market. They have distorted the market and caused people to be able to live in houses, not take care of them, and then force landlords to have to dig into their life savings to make payments for taxes, utilities, and mortgages on rental properties with tenants who aren’t paying rent yet are enjoying the benefits of living there.

Why then would the Biden Administration want to cripple the ability of those who own anywhere from 1 to 500 rental units to be able to pick and choose to whom they want to rent at a price point the market will really bear? Why force these individuals out of the rental real estate market which often causes these assets to transfer from Main Street to Wall Street? I’ll leave you to answer that question for yourself. In the meantime, you may want to do something about this, and I strongly suggest you do something NOW.

Do not let this proposal gain any sort of administrative or legislative momentum. I have already been working with various members of both parties in the House of Representatives to oppose this, but it is something I cannot do alone. To protect yourself and others as landlords, I recommend you email, write, call and fax your local representatives. Make noise! See below for the details on how to do that.

Don’t let your voice be heard just once. Communicate with your Representatives repeatedly. Right now, there is not a specific bill pending in Congress, but I anticipate seeing several pieces of legislation. It will be important for us to be involved with these on a moment’s notice. When the House Appropriations Committee takes up funding requests for HUD, SFPB, and the other agencies tasked in the Biden Administration’s Renters Bill of Rights dream, we need to be present to be heard loudly and clearly.

Register below to receive frequent updates as to where this matter is pending before Congress. As new communication with your representatives is needed and would be useful, such as when a bill is up for a vote, when it goes from the House to the Senate, etc., I will update this website to reflect that information.

There are a lot of us who know mom-and-pop residential landlords, and we need to stand up together and let our united voices be heard.

I will add more letters as we go forward.

And call your member of Congress. Leave a voicemail if you have to.

They are just templates. Please make them your own. If at all possible, please add some personal details to the letter and talking points. For example, for my personalization, I might share something like this:

Again, that is some personal language for me and my situation. You should add a paragraph that personalizes your letter, fax or email to your member of Congress. This really matters! All people, even members of Congress and their staff, can relate to stories. Some of the recipients of your letters truly do care and do not want to harm you.

Once you have your personalized talking points and letter from the template, email, fax, call and write! Please send your letter and talking points all four ways. Flood the offices of your members of Congress! Currently, the Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives and have a great deal of say as to what legislation goes forward. We want to empower and embolden the Republicans to say NO, and we want to encourage moderate Democrats with whom we have successfully worked in the past to also join the Republicans in saying NO, that private property ownership and management are part of the American way.

Here is the easy link that will provide you with the contact information you need to direct your communications to your members of Congress. Click on the link below and enter your zip code.

If you are like me and have rental property in more than one congressional district, then you need to contact each member of Congress in each district in which you have property.

Once you have contacted your members of Congress in all the districts in which you own rental property, then share this link far and wide, again and again! Talk to people and encourage them to do the same. If we all do this, we can be heard, and we can win. If we choose to do nothing, we will lose.

What I’m asking you to do doesn’t take that much effort, but it can go a long way toward preserving your economic freedom, your planned retirement, and helping you continue to build the wealth you aspire to transfer to the next generation. It can go a long way to continuing to provide safe, affordable housing to individuals who choose to do business with you.

If you want to be notified as to when something is happening regarding rent control and the Renters Bill of Rights on Capital Hill. Please note that the registration for getting updates is only for this website. People who sign up for updates from this site will not be added to my general email list unless they specifically ask to be added. This website and the time I have put into it is not about me making a buck. It is about preserving the opportunity to choose whom we want to rent our properties and what price we deem to be fair and relevant in the marketplace.

My name is Jeff Watson. I am a real estate and self-directed IRA lawyer who has also been a landlord since January 1994. In addition to my small law practice consisting of just me and my assistant, I frequently speak on the topics of self-directed IRAs, asset protection for landlords, and investing in real estate.

In 2022, I invested over three weeks of my time, traveled over tens of thousands of miles, and spent over $10,000 of my own money to help defeat the monstrosity of what was in the “Build Back Better Bill” that would have damaged the self-directed IRA industry and make sure some of my allies in Congress were reelected.

In 2023, I’ve held more meetings than I can recall with various members of Congress, their staffers, and legislative aides talking about legislation that would be pro real estate investor and landlord. I have already spent significant time working with key members of the House Appropriations Committee to determine how best to stop any funding for the Biden Administration’s Renters Bill of Rights.

I’m privileged to have spent the last several years working with other members of the Seller Finance Coalition as well as one of the top-ranked lobbyists in Washington, DC.