One thing I’ve learned on reddit is that you never tell people on platforms like that or even this one that you’re a landlord. You could be the best landlord, never raise a reasonable rent, keep a well and promptly maintained property, and LanDlOrDs aRe The ScUm of ThE Earth!!1! is all you hear.
The very idea of being a landlord is pretty evil though? Like in a housing shortage you’re hoarding property and profiting off it.
So while I generally agree with your sentiment, there are some obvious ways that sometime could be an ethical landlord.
What if you have a house that’s too big, so you convert a floor into an apartment? You’re adding to the number of housing units available. Should you be forced to sell a portion of your house/building to whoever wants to live there? Or should you be able to rent it out to someone at a reasonable rate? Do we want rules that discourage people from potentially adding units to the market?
I feel like the “all landlords are evil” narrative is way too simplistic, and that simplistic view turns off people who would otherwise support reasonable limits on landlords and housing ownership. Like, it’s obvious that we need limits and taxes on people who own multiple properties, and it’s obvious that there are companies that exploit renters and drive up prices, but it’s all more complicated than just “landlords evil lol”.
I rent my property because it’s the only way I could’ve bought it at my age and I use that money to pay for the mortgage of it while I live somewhere I don’t want to (under parent’s wing in a crappy city) but angry people rarely if ever consider all scenarios
Your assuming everyone wants to own property over renting.
House and property ownership has a lot of responsibility and expenses involved. Your water heater breaks well there is $1000+ your roof needs replacing there is 30K. All of that goes away when you rent as it isn’t your responsibility.
If you own property it can be harder and more risky to relocate. I know a few people that bought in 2007 and then were stuck as they couldn’t afford to move because they were upsidedown on their house.
Not saying renting is all sunshine and roses. I personally would rather own then rent but home ownership isn’t for everyone.
But I do think it is a major problem when you have a few companies buying up all property so no one else can afford it. But I don’t think being a Landlord is inherently evil.
Threw down over 20k in fixes so far in our first year of homeownership, and due to interest rates and closing costs, we don’t really have the opportunity to move anywhere else without taking a significant financial hit.
You bet it’s not for everyone.
Rentals should be socialized, not owned by corporations or private citizens.
You’re still paying for those repairs when you rent, it’s just spread out.
Like in a housing shortage you’re hoarding property and profiting off it.
Housing shortages are caused by bad government policy: namely, low-density zoning. Direct your anger towards the entity that deserves it, and make them fix their fuck-up.
(Note: I’m not making some kind of Libertarian “all government is bad” argument here. I’m saying that in this specific case, the laws need to be changed.)
There is enough empty property to house every homeless person 30 times. Some of those empty property are summer houses and shit, but even then the problem isn’t the lack of housing, it’s treating homes as a mean to make money out of people’s basic needs. You can build the best walkable city in the world, but if it will be bought by professional landlords immediately it will not solve shit.
Not everyone is able or willing to own their property, what would they do if landlords didn’t exist?
Privatizing the right to have shelter is pretty scummy to be a thing to exist.
Make it illegal to rent out property you don’t live on.
If you want to rent out your basement, or build a seperate dwelling on your property then you are adding to the available housing and can rent that. Most people would rather build their own equity given the chance, and this would provide rentals for temporary living situations.
Rent their property from nationalized government services with controlled prices.
What’s the alternative here? Only letting big companies without any ethical regards rent housing?
Sure, there’s a good argument to be made that housing is essential to survive and as such should be provided by the government, but that’s not the world we live in. In this society, it’s likely someone is going to have to rent it out and I’d rather it be a person who actually gives a shit and can be held responsible rather than some faceless corporation.
Simple. Only individuals can buy single family homes. No renting of single family homes. And remove zoning restrictions to allow for more multifamily units.
I think everyone in your replies is conflating being a full time landlord and a part time landlord. One of them is definitely more evil than the other.
Well, renting out property is the only way for most people to achieve some moderate wealth.
You should never achieve wealth by the oppression of someone else. Housing is a human right, not a salary.
Best case scenario, rent is low and only covers taxes and building upkeep. Then you’re essentially getting a zero interest loan since property is valuable and it’s being loaned for free.
Rent is obscene virtually everywhere. Rent should not preclude someone from saving money towards owning their own home, and it really does.
Like you’ll ever buy a house yourself and support all of the taxes and upkeep with your nonexistent pay
No it’s absolutely not. Your comment displays a complete ignorance of the business.
Wrong.
I’d make a point, but you didn’t bother. Typical landlord unwilling to put in the work.
I’ve had shitty landlords and good ones. My current one hasn’t changed the rent price in 4 years, comes out same day or next day to deal with issues… to be honest I wish I could copy and paste my current landlord to my next place too 😭
One of my old landlords tried to charge me for damage I didn’t cause… but guess who recorded every nook and cranny in 4K after accepting the keys, and used that footage to dispute and get my full deposit back 🤪🤪
My last landlord didn’t raise my rent for seven years. I was thankful until I moved out and he still hasn’t been able to re-rent the place after two years despite dropping the rent by $100. He just didn’t want to risk losing his prize schmuck lol.
What I most hate is landlords who put an automatic 5% (or whatever) increase into an auto-renewing lease. It’s bullshit because their mortgage generally isn’t increasing like that.
Small-scale landlords also usually have full time jobs and use rent to supplement their income. Not every landlord is just rolling in cash.
I work at a credit union where we deal with a lot of smaller investors and many of them have properties where they aren’t breaking even on a cash flow basis. But they are using the losses to lower their taxable income while building equity elsewhere. They are (from tenants I’ve heard from) good landlords. Lately we’ve been dealing with a lot of realtors that are buying up properties and that just doesn’t sit well with me so I’m looking to change careers and get more into C&I and CRE rather than SFR investments. Being able to cash out 7.25 weeks of accrued vacation time I haven’t been able to take too is a big plus.
In a lot of places if you own any land you are a millionaire, it’s coming to the point that if you own a condo you are a millionaire.
Choosing to use a basic human right as a form of income is scummy. All landlords are scum, whether they are rich or not.
People need a place to stay and not everyone has piles of cash for a down payment. Vote for the change you want, but in this system we need rentals.
It’s survival.
Can I come to your house, eat all your food, empty your bank account, and have your things?
Anyone with a mediocre amount of business sense or anyone that actually owns / owned (or pretends they own via a mortgage) real estate knows exactly how terribly difficult it is to just keep everything running.
This alone explains why reddit and such have no damn clue why renting is so expensive.
Not just being a landlord, owning a property at all, no matter how much you paid and when, means you’re rich…
As a couple we own a condo paid 85k in the early 2010s and a cottage paid 50k in 2020 (that was on the market for months)? I’ve had many users tell me I’ve got no business talking about the housing crisis because I’m privileged… Because the two of us are able to afford the mortgage on 135k in property???
Considering I have a very good credit score and a full time job but the banks wouldn’t lend me that much regardless if I could find a shack for that little, yea, sounds like privilege to a lot of us out here.
Why would someone become a landlord in the first place? You’re not born with a title deed in your hand, and if you were given income property by a family member, you’re still profiting off of the hard work of others. The only reason someone would choose to go out of their way to invest in rental properties is because they see an easier way of making money than having to go out and work for it like an honest person. “Mom and Pop landlords” aren’t a thing. If you have the funds to buy an entire second property, you aren’t just a “mom and pop”, youre in the 1%.
I’m in that boat. I’m a land lord. I built my forever home but after a medical issue I lost my job. Unfortunately my career choice, while lucrative, only has one or two positions per state. So I had to move. I’d like to return to the home I built but that won’t be for another 10 years minimum when I retire. I don’t want to sell my home, so I rented it out. I’m currently renting an apartment myself.
If you only own a single property you’re not the subject here. A lot of people wouldn’t even use the word landlord to describe you, because your income isn’t generated from ownership without production.
The word landlord is regressing to mean someone who owns multiple properties and just collects rent without having to do any value-generating work.
If you have the funds to buy an entire second property, you aren’t just a “mom and pop”, youre in the 1%.
This just in - every blue collar business owner with a shop is in the 1%
Why do anything and sell for a profit then? And owning rental properties is work. A lot of work. And you’re wrong about the 1% thing
Why would someone become a landlord? My uncle took out loans to buy distressed properties sold at auctions, and then he would put in the “sweat equity” to fix them up for renting out, all while working his full time job. So, he would work all day, and afterwards would manage those buildings doing all the maintenance and cleaning himself.
Why did he do it? He did it to make money…so he could send his son to college, so hopefully his son wouldn’t have to hustle a full time job and a busy part time job as well. My uncle worked his ass off to make a better life for his son, how selfish of him.
Why would someone become a landlord in the first place?
As a way out of a job they hate and as an investment opportunity. Maybe they’d rather paint walls and replace toilets than sit in an office.
“Mom and Pop landlords” aren’t a thing
Where’d you get this, straight from your ass? Yes they are, I know several.
You’re so confidently incorrect here I’m not sure why I’m bothering as I’m sure you’ll be a prick about it but virtually nothing you wrote is true of the landlords I know. And before you accuse me of simping for corporations. Nope. I’ve lived several years in corporate owned properties and despise the level of exploitation they standardized on. They’re fucking evil bastards.
The fact that you don’t know and can’t fathom a landlord that owns a small amount of property and treats their tenants decently lets me know that you have a very limited life experience. I am moving soon to a corporate owned place for a variety of reasons but I wish I didn’t have to. My current landlord owns just this one property to my knowledge and he’s treated me well since day one. There’s a huge difference.
Maybe if you pulled your head from your ass you’d understand that your lack of experience has no bearing on how reality is.
As a landlord and someone who loves shenanigans, it’s been great. It’s never been easier to piss off dozens of people I don’t like at once.
Like, sure dude, my owning a few houses is totally the reason your city that I don’t live in won’t build new housing to meet demand, and I totally enjoy spending all of my weekends doing manual labor fixing shit for my tenants.
my owning a few houses is totally the reason your city that I don’t live in won’t build new housing to meet demand
You’re literally buying the supply and creating a demand by owning more than you can personally use.
If you want to have an actual debate about housing supply and demand, I’m always down for reasonable discussion.
Ultimately what matters is that enough supply is built to meet buyer demand, whether it be from owner occupants or landlords. Landlords can buy up or build as much housing as they want, but as long as there’s still more available, the prices will stay reasonable and owner occupants will have no issues getting affordable housing. And buying up too much will crater the rental rates if there are significantly fewer potential tenants than available units. There are plenty of markets where this is the case, the city I am in is one of them. Someone on a $50k salary here would have no issues finding a modestly sized SFH in a reasonably nice working class neighborhood. Cheaper if you’re willing to go for a condo or townhouse.
never mind the fact that that landlord probably worked hard to buy his first property and subsequent properties to self-employ themselves in the first place
covid hoarders also worked hard to buy up all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper
also, pick a monster dictator who committed genocide, they worked hard too
working hard doesn’t mean you’re doing good things, you can work hard and be evil
landlords are creating a scarcity of places for people to home and feed their families in order to charge those families money to get rich off, and, regardless of how “nice” they pretend to be in fixing the sink if it clogs, will throw a baby into the street to be homeless if their demands for money aren’t met.
I’m sorry for your negative experiences, but please be mindful that not only your subjective world exists. I might have been extremely lucky, but all my previous rental places were maintained by nice folks.
“Nice folks” doesn’t mean shit if they are paying the absolute minimum to upkeep a building and never missing a chance to raise the rent. The overwhelming amount of landlords are the above.
Its not that the person themselves cant be “good” but the act of hoarding and limiting access to a basic human need, like shelter, to use it as leverage in order to extort profit from others is wrong.
Landlord-ing is inherently bad it doesnt matter if the person doing it is the nicest person on earth.
