These are the same people that would complain that the oil companies are “gouging”. $1000 to convert a property from homestead to non-homestead? Now that’s what I call gouging. Coon Rapids gives you a two year rental license including inspection for $60.00 I think they are playing on the low price of entry into the real estate investment world in Minneapolis. While that is a steep fee to pay if you can get a house for $30k I’m guessing it won’t stop or slow things down too much and the thieves in the Minneapolis Government know that. Your thoughts?

So if we already obtained our mpls license for 2008, do we need to get this? I own a unit in a 4-plex – I previously lived there, and I’m now renting it out – I never moved it from homestead to non – I didn’t know. Thoughts on this?

This affects more than you investment property owners. This $1000 is really sticking it to people who are forced to convert their property to rental to cover some of their mortgage payments. My wife and I relocated for work last September and have been unable to sell our house because of sharp drop in housing prices. Since we had only lived in the house for about 2 years we barely had any equity so our asking price was pretty inflexible. So we opted to rent it out to help cover the mortgage until the market turns around and we can sell off the house without destroying our credit. And I know this is a situation that a lot of people face: relocating or needing to sell a home for reasons other than being a sub-prime sucker and not being able to. Convert to rental to cover your costs. And that’s where the city steps in and squeezes the people that are already bleeding. I’m paying a rent in New York and a mortgage in Minneapolis. Even with a renter, the market is so flooded with new rental properties that we’ve even had to drop our rental asking price down to nearly 2/3 of the monthly mortgage, so we’re still taking a major hit on the place. But what can you do? It’s a scam. Last year we paid for our HUD inspection when we put the house on the market. It cost $150. Do you think their $1000 inspection will be 10x better than that HUD inspection? No.

I hear smoovew. We’re in the same spot.

We would like to move, but do not believe it would be good for us or the real estate market to short sale our current property forcing local real estate values even lower. Our best option may be to rent our current place until the city/ county can deal with the foreclosure problem.

I’m concerned that this may encourage /more/ people illegally renting out properties. I mean, if so many were illegally doing it when the costs were lower, why does the city council believe the problem landlords will pay this extra fee?

The trouble is not with the responsible landlords who follow the laws. This may encourage more people to avoid the laws and that may actually backfire causing more of a problem.

We recently purchased a small home for our daughter to live in while she goes to the U. If she homesteads the property, are we still required to pay the $1000 fee? There will be two friends living with her and paying rent.

I despise and don’t respect the cities of Minnesota government. The idea of charging $1000 is a F****** rip off from ordinary hardworking citizen. I own a house in Bloomington and don’t live in it because I’m in the military and have to work in another state so i let my brother live there to help me pay the mortgage, now he also got a job move to another state. I can not sell because I owe more than the current value of the house, I need the house to be rented to help with the mortgage otherwise I’ll have to stop paying and let it go into forclosure. It is hard enough to find a renter in this market and you get slamed with $1000 for converting to a rental. The fee should be change to $100 or less, NOT $1000.

$1000 for the rental fee conversion is a robbery!, city of minneapolis is out there to get hardworking people. I’m kinda in the same situation as Bruce, I bought the house in Minnepolis and struggling to make the payment, to avoid foreclose, I moved back home with my parents and tried to rent my house out to make payment, but the city charged me $1000 for fee and now the city inspector not thing, but trouble maker causing me so much trouble and I’m so sick and tired of it and now in a process of foreclose my house. City of Minneapolis forcing people to forclose their homes!

City of Minnepolis = Gangster!

I would just like to add my voice to the ones above. I had to move for work and am faced with either selling my house at a loss in the current market (after SO much time, effort, and money put into fixing it up) or paying this outrageous fee for an inspection PLUS rental permit… and no guarantee that I’ll be able to rent the property anytime soon or at a decent amount to cover mortgage costs. Is there anyone out there fighting this in legislation already or any suggestions of who to write to?

Should you obtain a license if you have a residential relative homestead, on the property? my mom lives at my previous residence in Coon Rapids.

Count me among the angry homeowners. I also had to move out of town. I can’t sell in the current market and have to rent to cover my mortgage, but with the low rental rates I am not even covering that. The $1000 fee is crippling. I would join anyone who can think of a way to fight this!

It is criminal, the city should take a moment to consider if they want alot of empty foreclosures, or responsible homeowners who have to rent so they don’t lose their home. I truly wish someone would take up the cause and fight for single family homeowners and our right to rent our property. I’m sure we would ALL comply with affordable conversion or licensure requirements. I completely support safety, but really, safety isn’t what this is about. If it were I could have used my TIH inspection I had received and paid for a mere 30 days before. This is about generalizing single family home owners into a”group” of landlords and gouging those who are most vulnerable. I want my renters to be safe, I want to comply but truly can’t afford the $1000 conversion fee, or worse, now the fine’s I’m receiving. I’m at a loss why would the city do this to those most vulnerable.

If you think the rental conversion fee is a lot, wait until you see how they get you with the reneal property inspection checklist…I just received a 9 page booklet of items that have to be in perfect order in order to keep my rental license on 8 units in Minneapolis. I think they literally want to run me out of money and out of town. They may find that they are creating a bigger problem for themselves when landlords decide they have had enough and just start walking away from these properties. That is the problem with government agencies…when they run their budget into the ground they just get to take money from whoever they want to so they can keep their jobs.

You guys are all bitching on this website! Stand up and do something about it! Its spineless complainers that have allowed the government to impose taxes at will. What happened to the real Americans who fought for what was right? Join my mailing list by responding to nomorefees2010 [at] yahoo [dot] com and help me bring suit against the City on Minneapolis!