chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035
CHAPEL HILL — Steve Mills says he has never worked a day in his life, but, boy, has he been productive.
Mills’ family moved to Chapel Hill from Washington Depot, Conn., soon after he started talking. The transition was not traumatic because he was only 2 or 3 years old. Now he eases the way for others, mostly students. By his estimate, he — through his company Steve Mills Rentals — provides housing for 100 UNC Chapel Hill students.
He is casual about numbers and uncertain of exactly how many local properties he owns. He guesses between 50 and 60. When it comes to his age, Mills says he is older than 50 but declines to be more specific. In June 2010, he will step away from active management of his company but not retire entirely.
What gets him out of bed in the morning are the relationships and connections he made during those past five-plus decades. How often does a landlord tear up a 12-month lease only a few days after the ink had dried? When one of his student tenants called him complaining of allergy issues, that is what Mills did. He let the tenant move out and did not charge a penalty, despite having the legal right. Finding another tenant proved difficult, since most students had already found housing.
“I know of other people who he has let leave in the middle of their lease for whatever reason,” says Catherine Sullivan, 27, who has spent her four years as a medical student in one of Mills’ apartments. “Steve is the best landlord I’ve ever had.”
Keeping tenants happy is more important than the bottom line, Mills says. He refuses to raise rent on existing tenants when they renew their lease. He is not running a nonprofit business, though.
Chapel Hill is fertile ground for the rental business. The N.C. Economic Development Center Inc. reports that Chapel Hill (42.9 percent) and Carrboro (31.5 percent) hold homeownership rates well below the state’s average, which the U.S. Census Bureau reports was 69.4 percent in 2000. The troubled economy also helps the rental business because banks are more reluctant to give out mortgages, Mills says.
Mills loves renting to students, and it goes beyond the fact that their mothers and fathers will always pay their rent. Mills wants his student tenants (“98 percent” of his tenants) to have a learning experience, so the signature on the dotted line is theirs, not their parents’. Mills gets more than just rent and gives more than housing.
“[Renting to students] keeps me from being cynical in my old age,” Mills says. “They keep me young, and they renew my faith in the upcoming kids.”
It is not a one-way connection, either.
“He can help you be a better person, like instantly,” says Nathan Mills, Steve’s 27-year-old nephew and partner.
As Steve Mills recounts the past, he has his thick worker’s forearms folded across his chest and blond hair that has had more rays of sun pass through it than teeth of a comb. He talks about knowing nothing about rental properties when he bought his first two houses for $10,000 each on Barclay Road in Chapel Hill as a 19-year-old more than 30 years ago.
Mills prefers to learn by doing. He gives the impression that others might benefit from that style of learning, but he stops short of saying that the current education system is broken.
The current system did not work for him. It might be part of why he dropped out of UNC’s pre-med program after a year. After a stint in Vermont as a self-professed ski bum, he returned to work at his family’s heating and air conditioning company in Chapel Hill. He learned maintenance and repair skills, crucial for a landlord.
“If something interests me, I just jump in with both feet and learn how to do it,” Mills says. “I teach myself.”
Mills left the family business after he acquired so many properties that it became a full-time job.
He would change nothing about the 30-plus years he has spent as a landlord. That is not to say he has not made mistakes. He probably should have bought three more houses as a 20-year-old when a deal was offered, he says. Still, he focuses on the future.
Mills has a quick but thoughtful answer to every question except one: What is your least favorite part of the job? Silence. He loves everything, even being on call to make repairs during the holidays or late at night and early in the morning.
“An average person would get a phone call at 7 o’clock on a Friday night to go and stop a toilet and be pretty upset about it,” says nephew Nathan. “But Steve … has taught me if you go at it the wrong way, it becomes a bad time. But if you go into it positive and outgoing, nine times out of 10 it’s great.”
The trip has been so great that stepping back from the company is the next opportunity for Mills. He will pursue his interests, whether building another electric car, getting into amateur radio or kite-surfing in Beaufort, a hobby he and Nathan share. But Mills will miss his days as a landlord in Chapel Hill and the lunches with Nathan at the dining table in their office at 120 Purefoy Road.
With his busiest period over now that students have moved in and started class, Mills may renovate one more house in Carrboro before he steps aside. The company will then fall to Nathan, who has been groomed for three years, with Mills making occasional appearances. Teaching his nephew was a joy, Mills says.
“It’s nice to find somebody with an open mind who is willing to learn and wants to learn. You don’t find that very often.”
