this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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IDK about you all, but renting out a property sounds like a gigantic pain in the rear.
I rented from an awesome landlord in college, he's just a genuinely good dude. I'm still friends with him. While I was in college, I saw the treatment he got from my fellow renters, and how they treated the property we all shared. I didn't appreciate it, since if they messed something up, I would have to deal with it until my landlord was able to fix it. He didn't deserve to be treated like that, and I certainly didn't appreciate how much shit I had to endure because they were stupid.
Everything from leaving windows/doors wide open in the middle of winter, idling a truck with a side exhaust in the driveway right next to the open side door, filling the house with carbon monoxide and setting off the CO alarm. Plenty more that I just won't go into. My least favorite was one dickhead... I have no fucking clue what his deal was, but everytime his computer was online, everyone else would lose their internet connection; internet was included in the rent, so we couldn't even tell him to knock it off because we were directly paying the bill for it... So he gave no shits at all about it. I offered to look at his computer to try to figure out why in the hell it was creating the problem and he actively refused. I ended up getting permission from the landlord to overhaul the internet router, I installed a dd-wrt capable unit and set per-IP throttling rules that meant each person could only use up to a certain amount. It was something like 60% of the rated speed, so, not slow, but it was enough to keep any one system from basically DOS-ing everyone else.
My landlord cut me so much slack from day one. No last month payment? no problem, you're waiting on student loans, and won't get the money for three weeks? Sure, I'll see you in three weeks then. He didn't even lock people into a minimum 1 year lease, so you could move out at the end of the semester and save the rent over summer. He even brought me booze to try out on a few occasions. He'd just randomly pour me a shot and be like, try this! Just a really good dude.
I saw how often he came to the house to fix the shit that my roommates damaged, and how much work he had to put in week after week to keep things going. I don't want to fucking do that shit. I don't even like having to do chores around my own damn house, nevermind cleaning up after some asshole tenants. Of all the things I learned while watching and talking to my old landlord, I learned that I don't want to be responsible for someone else's mistakes like that.... Even if I'm charging them for the damages and they pay for it, and that goes smoothly (which, let's face it, it usually won't), I just don't want the hassle and the headache.
Yeah I don't understand the landlord hate on lemmy. Some landlords suck, but lots don't. Many people can't afford to buy a home. Where are they supposed to live if renting doesn't exist?
Then what about hotels? Are they also evil for buying and renting property? Should people have to buy a property while traveling for a week?
Where does Lemmy think we should draw the line?
I get it. I don't agree that all landlords are bad, but many are.
I would support a raise in property tax that's matched by a discount for primary residences. So most families will not see a difference, while people who own multiple homes and landlords need to pay more for taxes.
In addition, putting a cap on how much property a company can purchase in a year for the purpose of renting; as well as giving incentives for larger rental buildings like high-rises, since it can dramatically increase the amount of available units while preserving the amount of available property available for single family homes.
All of this would be to incentivize rental companies to build more large rental structures, instead of buying up a hundred homes and renting entire homes to people. IMO, renting an entire house should not be something that anyone can do (as in offering it as a rental). I know this has been what many do to try to reduce their overall spending, but bluntly, if instead, you can get an affordable home that you can mortgage for a similar monthly amount, then you'll be far better off in the long run. If credit is a problem (poor credit, or a bad credit score, and/or no credit), then there's rental units from high rises.
I just want to see the family homes given back to families to own.... Not just rent and live in forever, never owning it and never having anything to show for it.
Unfortunately that view, if it ever came to be (and realistically, I don't expect it will), would put my landlord friend out of business for renting, and bluntly, I would be unapologetic about it. Simply, the policies would ensure that homes are going to people who want/need them, and who will personally use them. I have every confidence that he would be fine since renting isn't his only source of income. I believe both he and his wife have fairly well paying jobs. There was a time that they didn't, and they needed the extra income from the rental house to make it, but I don't think that's really the case anymore.
Making it hard to impossible to maintain a rental property as an individual, and making it difficult for any business to buy such properties that they can then rent, while pushing the rental companies to build more high density apartment style rentals, IMO, could solve a lot of problems that we're having with the housing market. It would force out a lot of would-be landlords, and make the whole endeavor unprofitable without significantly increasing rent. The increase wouldn't be tolerated by the market because there would (hopefully) be plenty of inexpensive apartment rentals available.
If we can swing this axe just right, we can basically put these landlords out of business, and free up all their would-be rentals for single families looking to buy.
IMO, it would also crush a lot of the investment property people, who buy homes with no intention of living there or renting it out, and they just sit on the deed until the market value goes up. Now the holding costs of the house are far higher than their potential return on investment and they would cut their losses, flooding those homes into the market as well.
I'm not saying the plan is easy, or that it won't backfire on us. I'm just saying that it's better to do this than sit on our hands waiting for so many people to become homeless because they can't afford rent that the landlords and investment property people no longer have anyone to sell to. That's when I see property costs falling. When people have given up so thoroughly on having a place to live that they refuse to even rent anymore because the costs are simply too high.
I'm sorta in the same boat except my tenants are awesome. Old homes have old problems and I'm constantly changing or fixing. Honestly with all things said and done, with all the time spent and the cost of repair, if I would have just put the money in the S&P500, I would probably have broken even.
This past weekend one of the dryers broke. I sent a guy out there to repair it. He came back telling me the part cost more than the machine. Great. $250 wasted. Fine. I have to buy a new dryer. Take time off work to have it delivered. First one comes. It shows up broken. Fuck. Fine. Take another day off to get a replacement. Fuck second one comes damaged. OMFG! Just ordered a 3rd one from a completely different company. Gotta take another day off. Who knows on Tuesday if this won't be the same issue.
Last I heard my old landlord/friend was massively renovating the place, he stripped it down to the studs and I think he even added another floor to the building. He was redoing everything. At the time he was waiting on a permit to continue the work. He was putting in the time and effort to modernize and reduce his efforts long term. Hopefully that works out for him.
I hope your Tuesday delivery is smooth and that the new unit arrives undamaged in working order.
All the best.
Thank you. Might be a good idea to redo the home at this point.