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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.