History of LLIA

Landlords of Iowa was organized in Waterloo by Black Hawk County landlords in 1989. During that summer, weekly meetings were held to set up the first convention, determine funding and organize.

The first convention was held in October of 1989 at the Ramada Inn in Waterloo attended by 115 landlords from throughout the state. Following this convention, a steering committee was formed with Karen Atwood, Barb Blow, Sandy Schwickerath, Deb Boike, Cindy Blow (all from Waterloo) and Luke Barlowe and Bill Hamilton from the Quad Cities. Quad Cities was the first chapter to join. After the second convention, Cedar Rapids (Linn County) joined.

Karen Atwood was elected first President in 1991 and served until the convention, when Luke Barlowe was elected. Luke left for Tennessee shortly after that and the Vice-President, Richard Rehman from Cedar Rapids, became president serving for the next six years. Roger Wahl from Council Bluffs served for two years. Karen Atwood served as president in 2000. Penny Whitters served as President from 2001 through 2004. Darryl Waugh is our current president.

“Our original goals were to form a state organization to educate landlords on the Landlord/Tenant law, hire a lobbyist to keep us abreast of legislative matters and provide landlords with a mechanism for networking.”

In January of 1995 we, in cooperation with the Iowa Landlords Association, hired Joe M. Kelly as lobbyist and charged him with the duty of working to change landlord/tenant laws. Since then a number of laws have been changed and we have had a voice to prevent certain laws from becoming enacted.

We provide an annual convention to teach proper use of forms, bring in speakers on better landlording and provide opportunities for landlords to network. The conventions have been held in different locations throughout the state giving access to more landlords.

Today there are 15 chapters throughout the state with over 1000 members. Chapters are in Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, Knoxville, Marshalltown, Mason City, Muscatine, Ottumwa, Quad Cities, Sioux City, and Waterloo/Cedar Falls.

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