Yes, this is a satire account, but I’ve heard the exact same crap from so-called “small landlords” who think clearly the problem is someone else.
Every small contributor that makes up the bulk of the problem thinks the REAL problem is the one that’s bigger than them and they’re the small potatoes, or the good one.
I’ve had two good small landlords and a few bad ones, and all corporate landlords have been bad except for one that was okay aside from the semi annual fire evacuations for the laundry room
the good landlords were renting at fair prices and doing honest work. the bad ones were overcharging for students and not doing a fucking thing, including several months where the basement was slowly flooding through the foundation and I had half my carpet pulled up
I don’t have a problem with the good landlords who rented out their long since paid off crappy but maintained place for students at fair prices. it’s the hoarding, price gouging, and not putting a fucking cent back into it that pisses me off.
There should be nothing wrong with owning multiple houses. But your property tax should be adjusted on every house you own depending on the number of houses that own. It should be completely cost prohibitive at a certain point to own more than 2 or 3 homes. It should kick in after a year or two, so that it gives people more than enough time to purchase a new home, fix it up or renovate, and then time to sell the previous house. Owning houses shouldn’t be a profit-making venture.
That DOESN’T mean that if you do shitty things just because they’re legal, you get to be exempted from people’s judgement.
For example, shorting stocks and collapsing basically profitable companies for short-term gains is totally legal. Doing it still makes you a piece of trash, and I will judge you, and encourage others to judge you, as such.
It’s like… I try to think of what an “ethical landlord” might look like, and I just can’t picture it. Realistically the only “”“service”“” they provide is not having to save for a down payment and fixing things that break*(I know they don’t, but I’m trying to imagine what it would take for one to be ethical, so they actually would be in this hypothetical)*. The things a land lord will take care the ability of their tenants to build equity. That’s the benefit of owning. Pro-landlord people will say landlords take the risk of property values decreasing, but that’s pretty rare. Especially considering landlords inherently are taking up stock. So to be generous I’ll assume property value is static.
Even in this crazy optimistic, crazy generous hypothetical, land lords still rob tenants of equity because they aren’t able to get a down payment together. The only thing I can see making it fair is the landlord gives that equity back, either by charging exactly what the property’s mortgage is or transferring a portion of the ownership over every payment and… Now wait a second… This sounds like… BANKS. A MORTGAGE. Seriously. Every time I try to imagine what it would take to really really be an ethical landlord it just comes back to being a bank or mortgage.
Maybe there’s some place for folks to act as very very small banks and give a mortgage to someone like this, but like… It’s so convoluted.
TLDR: I view them as leeches even when I’m giving them every benefit of the doubt in a favorable hypothetical.
Yes, this is a satire account, but I’ve heard the exact same crap from so-called “small landlords” who think clearly the problem is someone else.
Every small contributor that makes up the bulk of the problem thinks the REAL problem is the one that’s bigger than them and they’re the small potatoes, or the good one.
This applies to EVERYTHING. Not just property.
I’ve had two good small landlords and a few bad ones, and all corporate landlords have been bad except for one that was okay aside from the semi annual fire evacuations for the laundry room
the good landlords were renting at fair prices and doing honest work. the bad ones were overcharging for students and not doing a fucking thing, including several months where the basement was slowly flooding through the foundation and I had half my carpet pulled up
I don’t have a problem with the good landlords who rented out their long since paid off crappy but maintained place for students at fair prices. it’s the hoarding, price gouging, and not putting a fucking cent back into it that pisses me off.
There should be nothing wrong with owning multiple houses. But your property tax should be adjusted on every house you own depending on the number of houses that own. It should be completely cost prohibitive at a certain point to own more than 2 or 3 homes. It should kick in after a year or two, so that it gives people more than enough time to purchase a new home, fix it up or renovate, and then time to sell the previous house. Owning houses shouldn’t be a profit-making venture.
Societal problems should be solved by the government, not by individual actions.
At a practical level, I agree with you.
That DOESN’T mean that if you do shitty things just because they’re legal, you get to be exempted from people’s judgement.
For example, shorting stocks and collapsing basically profitable companies for short-term gains is totally legal. Doing it still makes you a piece of trash, and I will judge you, and encourage others to judge you, as such.
It’s like… I try to think of what an “ethical landlord” might look like, and I just can’t picture it. Realistically the only “”“service”“” they provide is not having to save for a down payment and fixing things that break*(I know they don’t, but I’m trying to imagine what it would take for one to be ethical, so they actually would be in this hypothetical)*. The things a land lord will take care the ability of their tenants to build equity. That’s the benefit of owning. Pro-landlord people will say landlords take the risk of property values decreasing, but that’s pretty rare. Especially considering landlords inherently are taking up stock. So to be generous I’ll assume property value is static.
Even in this crazy optimistic, crazy generous hypothetical, land lords still rob tenants of equity because they aren’t able to get a down payment together. The only thing I can see making it fair is the landlord gives that equity back, either by charging exactly what the property’s mortgage is or transferring a portion of the ownership over every payment and… Now wait a second… This sounds like… BANKS. A MORTGAGE. Seriously. Every time I try to imagine what it would take to really really be an ethical landlord it just comes back to being a bank or mortgage.
Maybe there’s some place for folks to act as very very small banks and give a mortgage to someone like this, but like… It’s so convoluted.
TLDR: I view them as leeches even when I’m giving them every benefit of the doubt in a favorable hypothetical.