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House hunters in Lawrence may have a new option this spring -- large, older homes divided into apartments.
Some Realtors are expecting landlords to sell their houses in the wake of new city ordinances that regulate the rental industry.
One ordinance, approved in February, bars more than three unrelated people from living together in homes in single-family zoning areas. Another, given preliminary approval Tuesday, requires landlords whose rentals are in single-family zoning areas to register their properties and have them inspected.
"I haven't seen any great migration of those people listing those homes, but I wouldn't be shocked if that began to happen over the next few days or weeks or months," said Mike McGrew, vice chairman of Coldwell Banker McGrew Real Estate.
The reason, McGrew said, is simple: Money.
"From a landlord's perspective -- an investor's perspective -- you get it on the monthly (rents) and you get it on appreciation," McGrew said. "If you can't get the rent you were, you're not making as much money each month. And if the property itself won't bring that kind of cash, it won't have appreciated that much either."
But James Dunn, president of Landlords of Lawrence, said it might be about more than money. He said some landlords might not want to deal with the new regulations.
"It puts a lot of extra burdens on landlords, and some landlords may say, 'I'm just not going to deal with those types of things,'" Dunn said. "They're burdened already with the details of providing residential housing, and they may just say, 'That's it. Let me find that Realtor, and I'm going to be out of here.'"
If landlords begin selling their homes, McGrew said, the results could be positive for home buyers.
"It's going to take some of those investor-buyers out of the market," he said. "That will leave a little more inventory for the owner-occupant, first-time home buyer to choose from."
Mike Edmondson, a broker at Re/Max Professionals, said it may be too early for landlords to be exiting the industry because of the ordinances. He expects more to list their homes by May.
"There's a certain number of those houses that come onto the market anyway," he said. "Some people buy the houses for their kids and let them have roommates, and when they graduate they sell them."
But, he added, transforming apartments into a house won't be an easy task.
"The problem, I think, with the older houses is converting them back would be so cost-ineffective," he said. "A lot of the older houses don't lend themselves to lifestyles of today. They don't have big closets or master baths. Some of the rooms are smaller and chopped up."
That was a challenge Jeremy Anderson and his wife, Cherise, of Lawrence didn't want to face while raising two young children. They began looking for a house two months ago and were surprised to be shown two homes that formerly had been apartments.
"We're looking for a house we can move into, not for adapting from an apartment to a single-family dwelling," he said. "If you had the time to live in one of the areas and work on the rest, it may be advantageous."
-- Staff writer Terry Rombeck can be reached at 832-7145.
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