Reaction mixed to Newsweek story on Pocatello

Followers of the mythical Schuyler Colfax Society in Pocatello will rejoice at author Daniel McGinn’s most recent piece in Newsweek Magazine.
The Society, a brainchild of a long-departed Journal editorial writer (doubtless on a slow news day), was devoted to concealing the attractive qualities of Pocatello in order to better preserve them for those already here. Googlers might learn that Colfax was an obscure vice president, an appropriate icon for those who would keep Pocatello’s charms a secret.
McGinn’s magazine article entitled The Accidental Slumlord certainly does that.
Some background: McGinn first wrote about Pocatello back in 2005, a time when investors and/or speculators were hyping a red-hot real estate market here. A subsequent book entitled House Lust: America’s Obsession With Our Homes which appeared in 2008 included a chapter about long-distance landlords. To lend credibility to his work, McGinn invested sight-unseen in property though a Realtor in Pocatello.
The Colfax Society would have it known that McGinn initially took a loss on the duplex property, had to put up additional money for maintenance and repairs, and concluded it was a bad investment.
And just in case anyone may have somehow gained a favorable impression of the city, McGinn dispels that notion. Today, there’s enough poverty in Pocatello that local food banks are often empty due to high demand, he observes. Earlier, I joked to a friend that my visit to Pocatello felt a bit like Robert Kennedy’s tour of Appalachia.
Oh, come now.
However satisfying the writer’s gibes may be to the Schuyler Colfax diehards, they may be dispelled by the facts. McGinn’s property actually has increased in value since he acquired it, according to the Realtor who sold it to him, and the market here is in much better shape than in many cities with high foreclosure rates. And the same Realtor says even in today’s economic climate, he gets inquiries from would-be investors.
Outsiders will find out that Pocatello has a fine university, is expanding a first-class hospital, and has some employers hiring even in a dour economy. As always, recreational opportunities and cultural offerings abound.
Darn it. Things like that get around, and the next thing you know, we’ll be inundated with people seeking to share in our bounty.
Where is the cult of obscurity when we need it?



By Jimmy Hancock
jhancock@journalnet.com
POCATELLO — Depending on who you talk to, Newsweek writer Daniel McGinn’s most recent story centered in Pocatello was either a bit insulting to those who live in the Gate City or truly a case of self-deprication from a man who got pretty much what he was asking for.
I think he poked more fun at himself, talking about wanting to fix some things, but financially it didn’t make much sense, said Greg Johnston, a Realtor at the Home Specialists in Pocatello and a source in McGinn’s latest story.
But Johnston also admits that he sees the story in a different light than the average individual because he worked with McGinn throughout the process from which the story is derived.
Pocatello City Councilman Roger Bray, who thought McGinn’s previous story about the Gate City was a pretty positive story, said he has scanned the most recent story, but hasn’t fully absorbed. He believes the writer may have vetted a little bit of his frustration at the city where he chose to purchase a rental property.
It seems to me, someone with a guilty conscience like that, it might appear that he did a little transference to the city itself, Bray said.
McGinn first wrote about Pocatello in the summer of 2005, chronicling the fervor of residential real estate investors who were keying in on the Portneuf Valley. He talked to numerous sources outside the area who invested in properties here and several local real estate professionals in a story that captured the hot market that Pocatello was at the time.
A year late, in 2006, McGinn was writing a book. House Lust: America’s Obsession With Our Homes, was released in 2008. While writing a chapter for the book about long-distance landlords, McGinn felt first-hand knowledge was key to its credibility and he sought out an investment property in Pocatello.
Fast forward about three years and McGinn, earlier this year, is making his first visit to Pocatello since his 2005 story, and getting his first up-close look at his investment property. The result became a story in the latest issue of Newsweek titled, The Accidental Slumlord.
In the story, McGinn takes accountability to some degree for the condition of the home, but also leaves town promising to fix a heater and call an exterminator, and buying a remnant carpet at a local hardware store to appease just one of his tenants.
Financially speaking, this $213 purchase is pure stupidity: It doesn’t add to the property value and will hurt this month’s cash flow. But it seems a small price to pay to improve the life of a rock-solid, longtime tenant — and, of course, to assuage my guilt over owning such a run-down property, McGinn’s story reads.
The renter for whom McGinn made the gesture, Bill, has lived in the unit for about 15 years, he wrote in the story, long before the Newsweek writer ever purchased the property.
According to the story, it’s also much more than his property manager, Ryan Olsen, said he needed to do.
What about Bill’s request for new carpeting and linoleum? Skip it, Olsen says. The tenants aren’t going to move if I don’t replace it, and newer carpet won’t let us increase their rent. It would be a bad investment, McGinn wrote.
Bray saw the purchase of the carpeting, while probably beneficial for the renter, as having just as much of a benefit for the landlord.
It was a response he was told he didn’t need to make, Bray said. A lot of us, when we feel like we need to do a lot, feel better when we at least do something.
While much of the story is a bit self-depricating, with McGinn admitting he has netted a loss on the property and probably made a really bad investment, it also has some teeth toward the Gate City.
McGinn insinuates in his story that Pocatello is somehow a bastion of low income people, writing, today, there’s enough poverty in Pocatello that local food banks are often empty due to high demand.
The comment that Bray took some exception to, however, was one made late in the story.
Earlier, I joked to a friend that my visit to Pocatello felt a bit like Robert Kennedy’s tour of impoverished Appalachia, McGinn wrote.
When you compare your experiences to the Appalachians, that’s a pretty broad stroke, Bray said. I feel like he’s putting the blame on us when he tried to find a gold mine without paying the price to dig it.
Johnston, who met with McGinn for the 2005 story, was also featured in the book and sold the Newsweek writer the Pocatello property, sees it all a bit different.
I thought it was really interesting to read a landlord’s take on it, Johnston said.
The Realtor said the McGinn is also one of the few people he has ever sold a property to site unseen.
I have a large list of people who to this day are investors from outside the area, he said. It is not typical to purchase the property site unseen. I always encourage them to come out and look at Pocatello and make sure this is where they want to spend their money.
But McGinn intentionally bought the property the way he did to help him chronicle the story of those doing the same throughout the country at the time.
He was writing about people who were so caught up in the real estate frenzy that they were buying site unseen, Johnston said. He wanted to be able to write about that.
In fact, McGinn wanted to purchase the lowest priced investment property Johnston could find.
I told him about the duplex, and he said he would take it, Johnston said. I told him I could find him a property that needed less work, but he wanted that one.
Johnston said he did notice that McGinn poked some fun at the tenants, but thought the overall story was a positive one.
The property he purchase has still gone up in value since he bought it, he said. So many people are down on the market here, but nationwide, we are still doing pretty good.