• Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They should see it as a job, and maintain their damn properties.

    I am a condo super and constantly have issues with these multi unit owners who rent out, as their tenants call me about every broken fixture and I have to remind them that their landlord is their super, not me. I only take care of the common areas.

    Landlords don’t realize that their job is to be the property manager, super, handy man and administrator for the property they rent out. They’re not just supposed to sit on their ass and collect a check.

    • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I looked after a house that my brother owned while he was out of the country for a few years. The first tenants were a group home that destroyed the place so much we had to gut the drywall and they never paid the rent until I hounded them endlessly every month. Every month.

      The other tenants were just regular families and pretty good for the most part.

      I would say I was dealing with something related to that house all the time. Every three weeks for stuff. Leaky faucet, roof shingle gone, branch fell on the lawn, sewer backed up. Big and small, all the time.

      And they always called late at night or very early in the morning. This was before texting and email was common, etc.

      My brother was paying me to do this, I would have done it for free but he insisted, but I was so glad when he sold that place.

      I dealt with everything promptly. A family friend ran a property mgmt business and his crews did all the work promptly and billed us direct. People still always seemed annoyed and dissatisfied. Never again.

    • Ser Salty@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I’m somewhat “glad” I’m not renting a place owned by some rich chucklefuck, but one owned by a company. I know, sounds weird, but at least my rent money is going to something useful, since they employ their electricians, plumbers etc., hire a cleaning firm to clean the stairwell, and have a website where I can report problems, look at my energy consumption, stuff like that.

      • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        You rent from a responsible company it sounds like. In my part of the country, there are a few massive companies that own a large amount of property and do fuck-all, have no online portal for anything, take weeks to deal with things like leaking pipes and such. I’m newish to the state so I’m not sure how they get it away with it legally but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories from these companies. I rent a place now from some rich dude for a very reasonable price, he owns a handful of properties and they do well on the maintenance and everything, it definitely depends.

        • Ser Salty@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Aye, the one I’m renting from is a local company. You find lots of them all over Germany, managing the huge apartment buildings, especially the old soviet concrete blocks. Outside of places like Berlin they’re usually reasonable.

    • Spasmolytic@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Right, but do the faux revolutionaries in this thread know the difference between a good landlord and a bad one? They seem to enjoy basking in righteous anger and not to care for nuances.

      Good landlords hate bad landlords too. There’s a lot of common ground to be shared.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      I think the main money maker isn’t rent. It’s owning (or at least having a mortgage on) property that doubles in value every ten years.

      The rent often just pays for the mortgage and upkeep. The main payday comes when they sell it all off to the next parasite.

      • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Real Estate long-term ROI - 4% per year

        NASDAQ long-term ROI - 11% per year

        It’s about diversity, and the various tax advantages to owning the property/business/etc.

        • workerONE@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Good luck getting 11% a year in the stock market. I think your stats include the pandemic and I don’t think we’ll see increases like that again, at least we can’t count on it.

          • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            11% has been a financial planning standard since time immemorial (ok, well, since after the great depression). If a hedge fund or other investment isn’t hitting 11%, you should be in S&P or NDQ which flattens to 10% over time… or “only” 6-7% after adjusting for inflation.

            The last 30 years are considered “below average”. The market only grew 9.9%/year on average. Which apparently that 0.1% is a big deal for investors.

            Here’s a fairly good breakdown on SOFI. Obviously, we’ll never know what the future holds, but 10% over time is the “bad return” that rich people talk about.

    • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      “Landlords are rich leeches” is still true because the vast majority of property in the US is not owned by hard working people who are investing their earnings owning a handful of properties at most, but by property companies and hedge funds.

    • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s hard to get a good return on your investment in residential real estate without using leverage.

      For instance: You don’t buy one place outright. You buy 5 with 20% down. You may not have positive cash flow, but at long as it isn’t negative not only do you get all the increase in value, you also get more equity every month as the tenants pay your mortgages.

      If you bought it outright and over some period of time the tenants have paid your entire investment and the price of the property doubles, you doubled your money. If you buy 5 and over some period of time the tenants pay your mortgage and initial investment and the properties have doubled in value you have increased your initial investment 10X. And before the big expensive renovations come in, you can sell and buy something else if you’re not equipped to deal with that.

      Also if you are just breaking even to get free property but you want to start getting passive income, after a few years you can refi to a longer term and lower your mortgage payments to get in the black every month.

      This isn’t advice, fuck anybody buying up single family homes to rent, just showing one way they can generate both wealth and passive income for nothing. Literally nothing if they’re using a property management company.

      Fuck anybody buying up single family homes to rent. I know I already said that, but it bears repeating.

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      I’m not sure what you used to calculate it, but it definitely isn’t only “expensive cities with inherited properties”… I did the math on the last house I rented: lived there for 8 years. It was a duplex in a city in a very cheap cost of living state. Just my rent alone for those 8 years more than covered what the entire duplex was purchased for 3 years prior to me moving in. That means if both sides were occupied, which it was for all but 1 month in the 8 years I was there, it’s paid for in full in 4 years. Even if you “have to renovate” in 30 years, hell even 15 years, you have 10 years of pure profit even after considering insurance and property taxes and probably even maintenence costs…

      Maybe your area doesn’t have high demand for rentals or you under-valued your rent price, but there wouldn’t be so many people doing it if it wasn’t profitable.

    • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Sure, but I think this example also commingles labor with ownership (as is often the case).

      Like you said, your plan involves building a four-family home. That’s labor and worth fair remuneration. It’s just that, in order to get that remuneration you’d be taking payment from tenants who build no equity for their money. Yeah, you’ll have to renovate in 30 years, but you’d still have property and the money paid in rent while they don’t.

      A landlord can also simultaneously do valuable work supervising and managing a property. That’s not mutually exclusive with profiting from ownership, and we can separate how we evaluate the two. It even comes up with billionaires: Bill Gates obviously did work worth payment as CEO of Microsoft, it’s just not where he got most of his fortune. It can simultaneously be true that he’s a talented guy who deserved to be paid, but most of his fortune came from exploitative business practices and profiting off of the labor of others.

      Also, to be clear, there’s a difference between structural and individual criticism. Obviously slumlords are pieces of shit, but there’s a difference between that and someone who really does work as a property manager doing right by their tenants, or a family renting out a part of their home to make ends meet. I can think that landlords should be judged on an individual basis, while landlording as a thing shouldn’t exist.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s how a mortgage works. But the point is that after those 30 years you have a million dollar asset. That you had your tenants pay for.

      For a regular plebs like us that’s not a winning proposition because we can’t have our money tied up for 30 years but for people who don’t need their money liquid, it’s free real estate

    • Uncle_Iroh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The big money’s isn’t in the rent, the rent is just to pay the mortgage and upkeep. It’s that you’re getting in debt that someone else is paying for you while they gaurd your asset which is only gaining in value, you then sell that somewhere in the futute.

      • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        On average, the same amount of money dropped into the NASDAQ will have much better overall returns. Real estate ROI is about 4% per year, where the stock market has held close to 11% over the long haul nearly a century.

        For small-time landlords, it’s often about “I have a place for me or a family member to live if things go bad”. For bigger ones, it’s the tax-shelter and the low volitility of real estate, as well as diversity in case you need to sell when their stock is down.

    • Knightfox@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      It really depends on the nature of the rental and your area. If instead of building a house you build 4 closely stacked duplexes and charged each one double what the mortgage would be you’d definitely make money, but you’d also be an extortionate leech. In my area someone built 4 nice duplexes on a double lot (probably around 1.5 acres) and is now renting them at $1800 each. The land was probably less than $55k and the cost of construction was likely less than $1 mil. At 5% interest on a 30 year loan their monthly payment would be $5,600, but they’re bringing in $14,400 per month.

      $1800 for rent is an extortionate price in my area (it’s big city apartment rental prices, with a pool and gym), even after interest rates went up.

      On the other hand, I knew a couple who were landlords for nearly 20 years. They rarely raised the rents and even in 2022 they were still charging <$1000 per month for a full house because that paid the costs and for them it was an investment, not a source of income.

      They finally sold their rental homes and made about $70k over what they originally paid on each house. Doing the math that comes out to be a roughly 8.5% annual percentage return without counting the rent gained each month. That’s a fairly solid investment without being a sucky person.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Guidelines for buying rental properties say they should pay off in 10 years.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Buying here is cheaper (1600 per sq meter in the commie blocks part of the city) and rent is about the same. Outside of those blocks you’d usually get copper and no real insulation, with street parking. A brand new apartment in a nice place might net you 15-20 eur per square meter.

          Of course, I live in the ass end of Europe where wages are half of what they are in the west so it makes sense our rents, food costs, etc are higher. The peasants shouldn’t have too much to their names.

          Tenants also pay any loans associated with the apartment building repairs, or the repair fund collection, not by law but because apartments are in demand and tenants are not. The law actually says it’s the responsiblity of the owner, but there’s literally nothing saying that responsibility can’t be shifted.

    • Woht24@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m on your side mostly but the property prices going up in those 30 years would net you a fortune alone. You could likely sell it as is and triple your money

        • Woht24@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well yes it would but not entirely.

          The old saying ‘buy land because they aren’t making anymore of it’ is true. As the world population grows, owning large amounts of land will be scarcer and scarcer. Most young people can’t afford a home in any western nation across the world and it’ll only get worse the world over as time goes on and the population continues to grow.

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Some areas are losing a lot of their value. Waiting for population growth to fix that is playing the really long game

    • michaelrose@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Being a landlord isn’t a way for someone who doesn’t have wealth to acquire it. It’s a way to park your existing wealth in quickly appreciating assets preferably purchased from other losers when they lose their asses and collect monthly rent too.

      If on day one you have 700k and you purchase an existing property and in 30 days after you rent it out your property is still worth 700k and you are now ahead of the game in 30 days not 30 years.

      If you purchased at a reasonable time a year later its worth 750 and you’ve collected 84k 1% of property value per month.

      Most owners are in the top 10% to start with.

      • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        quickly appreciating assets preferably purchased from other losers when they lose their asses and collect monthly rent too.

        I wouldn’t say quickly appreciating, though. It’s a fairly slow growth rate for someone with that kind of money. They diversify into real estate because it creates some tax protections (your costs) and it’s fairly stable. Like buying into a terrible small business, but one that magically won’t fail. The things that could cause total loss to real estate are usually handled in standard insurance, unlike a business that can just tank.

        The thing is, as you and the other person said, it’s all about the big companies who own tons of real estate AND the big companies that manage rental properties.

  • DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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    1 year ago

    ITT: Poor, downtrodden leeches landlords talking about how hard it is to be a landlord, when the easiest way to end their suffering is to just sell their extra fucking house(s).

    • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      sadly if you try to be a good landlord and make a slim margin, you’ll get dumped a huge repair bill/tax increase/other expense and now you’re running the appartment at a loss. At that point you either sell it to a company willing to exploit it or you have to be less nice to your tenants and ignore repairs or charge more. Most people choose the first which is why we end up with terrible landlords.

      aside: heard someone in that exact situation running low income housing, on a phone call with an expert talking to the government. The expert said “any prudent management would raise the rents the maximum allowed amount”

    • Littleborat@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      They have once a year paperwork to do and still bitch and moan and they still call it work.

      It’s disgusting.

      The one “person” I know also drags tenants to court over stupid shit (he always loses 🤣)

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Where I live landlords (if they’re renting directly at least) are in a big legal responsibility over all kinds of stuff. The easier way is to rent through some company that deals with the renter.

  • BamBamToxico@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    My landlord’s two brothers who inherited a bunch of properties from Daddy. One of them lives in Scottsdale and the other in Hawaii. It really gets my goat knowing that 1 out of every 3 dollars I make goes to some overprivileged daddy’s removed boy. I probably pay their golf membership or marina docking fees.

    • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Thats the american dream isnt it? To be exploited until you do the exploiting? God I love America

      • Ser Salty@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        “Ferengi workers don’t want to stop the exploitation. We want to find a way to become the exploiters!”

    • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What’s the problem? If you don’t buy a house you need to rent one, houses aren’t free. Yeah those owners never worked for it, but isn’t that the case with every rich kid? Why don’t you buy a crappy house you can fix up yourself?

  • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Now come on, this isn’t fair to all the mom-and-pop landlords who speak to you politely while exploiting the fuck out of you and your family

    • pascal@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I don’t understand, is lemmy flooded by reddit kids now?

      Comments here make it sound owning a house is free and doesn’t cost money to not make it fall apart (houses tend to do so if left unmaintained).

      I’ve rented for 20 years since I left my parents’ house and finally bought my house last year, with great expenses and time waste. I’m still wondering today if renting was a better choice financially.

      • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I’m actually a grown adult who works my ass off and is lucky enough to own my own home.

        None of this changes the fact that landlords are predatory capitalist leeches.

        Winning life’s lottery doesn’t make me lose all empathy and become an ignorant buffoon who abandons my ideals and the hope for a better world for the sake of all people.

        Mutual aid, autonomy, and horizontality – these are all beliefs that I hold for a better world.

        Landlords are making the world worse by exploiting renters. They are at best class traitors, but in reality they are much, much worse. They are actively making the world a worse place for other people. They do not “provide housing,” as some would say – these are the true words of the foolish child. Instead, they create homelessness and exploit the misfortune of others for their gain.

        Landlords aren’t alone in this, of course. Anyone who is an actual capitalist has to go. Either they will do so willingly and live, or they will be unwilling to abandon their position and perish.

        • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          If someone’s grandma goes into assisted living, how does selling their house help anyone who can’t afford a house? Especially given the cost of assisted living. That’s a ridiculous criticism. It’s the people who own a dozen houses, or complexes, who are the problem.

      • Flumsy@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Because they provide something that is so valuable to you that you give them a good amount of money for it. Thats why.

        You choose to give them money because their house seems to be a huge quality of life improvement, otherwise you could always find a cheaper house.

        • darq@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Except there really isn’t a choice. You pay rent or… What? Sleep on the street or in a car? Which is illegal in many places already.

          “Just find a cheaper house” isn’t actually an option available to people who you know… Want to have a job. It’s just a glib thought-terminating cliche that doesn’t engage with the actual issue.

          • Flumsy@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            … and because you dont really have a choice, you shouldnt have to give them any money?

            You also dont have a choice not to buy food but that doesnt mean that the farmers shouldnt be payed for it. I have the impression that with landlords, people are just envious because they dont have to actively do labour even though that doesnt change anything for you…

            • darq@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              That isn’t comparable, and you know it.

              The farmer produces food. I am paying for the labour involved in creating the food I consume. The farmer works.

              The landlord collects my rent because he owns the house. Not because of any labour they do. And you admit that.

              I have the impression that with landlords, people are just envious because they dont have to actively do labour even though that doesnt change anything for you…

              Extracting profit without working to create value is parasitism.

              It does change things for me. It makes living expenses higher.

              And I’m not envious of landlords, I don’t think they should exist.

              … and because you dont really have a choice, you shouldnt have to give them any money?

              In your previous comment you said “You choose to give them money”.

              So you know what you are saying is utter horsecrap, and you are deliberately being a disingenuous dickhead.

              • Flumsy@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                The landlord collects my rent because he owns the house. Not because of any labour they do. And you admit that.

                Exactly, as is the case with any investment.

                And I’m not envious of landlords, I don’t think they should exist.

                So should nobody be able to own any land OR should one not be allowed to rent out one’s land?

                … and because you dont really have a choice, you shouldnt have to give them any money?

                In your previous comment you said “You choose to give them money”.

                You said you dont have a choice, and the question refers to that statement. Those are both your statements (“I dont have a choice” and “they dont deserve my money”). That doesnt mean that I agree with either of them… I still stand by my point.

                Im asking for the reason why not having a choice (according to you) would mean, if that was the case, that they dont deserve money.

                • darq@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Exactly, as is the case with any investment.

                  So you are admitting that comparing it to farming was a stupid thing of you to say. Good. Glad we agree.

                  So should nobody be able to own any land OR should one not be allowed to rent out one’s land?

                  Sure. Those are options. Or limited ownership where one may own land they live on, but not additional land. Or make rates and taxes on additional land ownership higher potential rental profits. And then direct public funds into public housing, as well as fixing zoning laws to allow for denser housing.

                  Im asking for the reason why not having a choice (according to you) would mean, if that was the case, that they dont deserve money.

                  That’s not my argument.

                  I don’t thing parasitism is healthy for society. That’s why landlords shouldn’t exist.

                  The fact that we don’t have a choice was in response to your assertion that people choose to pay landlords.

        • jaackf@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          If anyone was free to buy a house whenever they liked, renting wouldn’t be such a problem. The problem is, renting nowadays is the only solution and therefore those who own properties are free to charge what they like and people either put up with that or be homeless.

          Renting should be a temporary measure, however nowadays people can’t afford to actually buy homes because renting means they don’t have money for deposits.

          Renting isn’t a choice for most people, it’s a means to keep them off the streets. The landlords have the monopoly.

        • Custoslibera@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          The landlords built those homes with the sweat of their brow?

          Once the home is paid off they’ll reduce the rent to only cover the outgoings on the property?

          The speculation on property as an asset class has no effect on pricing people out of the market for ownership?

          • pascal@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Once the home is paid off

            HA HA HA! That’s funny!

            I bought a house last year after renting for 20 years since I moved out of my parents’ house.

            My kids will probably still pay for my house.

        • nick@campfyre.nickwebster.dev
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          1 year ago

          No, you pay off their mortgage in exchange for not being homeless. All renting should be rent to buy. No renting without equity in exchange.

        • norbert@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Did they provide me shelter or did they sink their temporarily excess capital into the local single-family home market driving up prices?

          I’m paying a fair bit to live here so it seems I’m providing my own shelter.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Landlords do a lot! They own the house. They move your money from your account to their account. And once in a while, they spend some of your money on fixing the sink that you pay them to use.

    • Jamie@jamie.moe
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      Better than the neighbors from where I grew up turning their land into two big trailer parks.

      It used to be a nice little place, just out of town right off the main road. We never even really had to lock our doors. Later on, shitheads from the trailer parks would break in, steal anything not nailed down, made the whole area crap.

      One of the landlords had their house broken into when she was staying with her husband at the hospital for a couple days. Complained that the trailer park people don’t pay and just hitch and leave if you try to force anything.

      Still has the trailer park going strong over a year later.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        People who use their property are distincly less of a blight on society than those that just own stuff.

        • Jamie@jamie.moe
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          1 year ago

          And all it cost was everybody else’s peace of mind, windows, and property.

    • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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      Shelter is a need, owning women as property is not. It is disgusting to compare people complaining about landlords and people complaining women won’t be their possessions.

  • nodsocket@lemmy.world
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    Landlords actually do a lot of work. Maintenance and dealing with tenants can easily become a full time job if you have multiple properties. A lot of people buy rentals thinking it’s “passive income” and then end up working twice as hard as before.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      They’re supposed to do all those things but most don’t. I’m a condo super and the owners who own and rent multiple units are the worst. Their tenants are always calling me about every issue, and I have to remind them that I deal with the common areas, not the interior of their unit unless there’s a flood. Those landlords tend to own multiple units and just assume I will deal with their issues, but I won’t. When you own, you’re the super, manager, admin, etc. But most landlords I’ve encountered just wanna collect the check

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      The places I’ve stayed so far pay a company to deal with these issues in place of the owner.

      I can’t speak on what that costs, however.

      • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Management companies typically take a percentage of the monthly rent (can vary wildly from 8% up to 25%+). This also means they have a vested interest in increasing a building’s rent by the maximum legally allowed amount every single year, because it means they make more without doing additional work.

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      They also assume all the risk of the property too. Tenants can leave as they please but landlords are stuck with the property if the market turns.

      • nodsocket@lemmy.world
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        Eh, I wouldn’t say the housing market on the whole is fickle in the same way as as the stock market. But for things like property damage, the risk is definitely on you

      • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
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        Landlords also absorb all the risk if the tenants skip out on two months of rent and leave the unit with no appliances, dog piss stained floors, a body sized hole in the bedroom wall, a toilet that leaked noticably but never reported resulting in extensive water damage, etc.

        While its guaranteed that theres a lot of shitty landlords out there, and a ton of price-gouging corporate management companies (who are the real problem these days eith affordability)… I’m fully convinced every user who says “landlords are the devil” are they, themselves, the Tenants from Hell who do not pay the building they live in the tiniest modicum of respect; then wonder why every landlord hates them and hassles them.

        • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
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          People will assume you are exaggerating but I will back you up here. These things happen and can all easily happen at one property.

          • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
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            1 year ago

            Oh yeah. I’ve lived it and breathed it… a few times. Cleaning up a ruined house fucking sucks and it’s expensive too. Makes me wonder how some people stay alive with how quickly they wreck stuff.

        • Russianranger@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Agreed, there has to be a level of understanding. Just because you live in a space and pay rent doesn’t mean you can go wild and let the place crawl with refuse and roaches. I have an upstairs neighbor in my apartment complex that is the quintessential definition of the renter from hell. And we get all their roaches even though we keep the place spotless. And not to paint the landlords as martyrs here, as they have their own issues, but some people have a bad case of main character complex and think the rest of us that have to suffer with the stench and infestation are just the NPCs.

        • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What risk? A landlord that isn’t a complete idiot would have set aside some of their extortion money or required a deposit.

      • Landrin201@lemmy.ml
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        Oh wow boo hoo, they have so much risk 😔 they have an entire house that they can sell at any time, who someone else is paying the mortgage of. Oh, the horror! If the market should crash they’ll lose the equity another person paid!

        Really the landlords are the victims here, not the tenants paying their mortgage for them plus a little extra for profits. Clearly the tenants have committed the crime of not having good enough credit for a loan, or the crime of not having enough for a down payment, so they aren’t worthy of owning property.

        No no it’s the landlord who has the real problems, because they could ein a shaky financial situation of “selling the second house iown” if the market dips!

        • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So the 2008 economic crisis never happened? Where I live (Europe) houses are actually going down in value right now too.

          • doleo@lemmy.one
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            Going down fractionally, after having grown an incredible amount in the last 3 years. Please don’t swallow this obvious bullshit. Prices are high, prohibitively high, and are going to stay that way until everyone bar a few is forced to rent.

    • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      If you have multiple properties you hire someone to do that work. ‘Landlords’ include property companies that own hundreds of units, which is the majority of ownership in the US. Do you think the owners of these companies are doing maintenance and dealing with tenants? The executives are in effect the landlords, and all the work they do is figure out how to make more money off of their company’s investments, aka figure out how to better extract income from tenants.

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        If you’re talking about the owner of a property company, that’s a company owner not a landlord. Still a tough job to run a company.

        • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          What does it mean to be a landlord then? Are you saying the properties owned by these companies have no landlord? I don’t doubt it’s a tough job to run a company, I still don’t think that justifies the amount of our profits we give up to ensure we have shelter.

          • nodsocket@lemmy.world
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            Properties owned by a corporation do not have a landlord. They are owned jointly by a group of investors who assume the financial risk. You can be a property company investor too if you want, there are a number of such companies called REITs that sell shares on the stock market and return a quarterly dividend.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
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      It’s genuinely not easy, both my parents have owned rental properties at some point in their lives, as a retirement investment. I’d never consider a rental property as an investment myself as a result of what I’ve seen tenants do to a property.

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      Yeah, these memes are made by kids who have never actually worked at all, much less at upkeep on a property they don’t live at. They probably whine about taking out the trash every week and beg their mom for new games while thinking they’re independent somehow.

          • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            I’m not sure if you’re serious, Adam Smith was one of the most influential political thinkers during the development of modern western governments and capitalism. His views shaped the discourse of politics heavily in the last three hundred years.

          • Custoslibera@lemmy.worldOP
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            It’s not my job to educate you.

            You expect too much of me to succeed where others have clearly already failed.

            • db2@sopuli.xyz
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              The best part of lemmy is that douchebags like you out yourself so freely, it makes quick blocking so much more efficient.

  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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    ITT leeches saying “actually consuming your blood is providing a vital service and takes a lot of work”

    Or worse, theyre just aspiring to be leeches

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    So apparently buying a house, furnishing it, maintaining it, complying with various codes and regulations, and making the house available for someone to live in for a period of time for a sum of money is “parasitic”. Not sure why, or why the same logic wouldn’t apply to anything of value someone makes available to others for a fee.

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      You wouldn’t do this if it weren’t profitable. The tenant will end up paying for the furnishings and maintenance many times over in rent, and you will get an appreciating asset that you are gradually paying off the debt for. You’re not getting paid for management, you’re profiting from holding capital in a system designed to benefit those that have capital, and seeking rent for the ownership of that capital.

      I wouldn’t hold it against someone in this system we have if they end up buying a property to safeguard their money, but let’s not pretend that landlords are not a parasitic relationship that reduce the amount of housing stock available for people to buy and act as a middle man between a tenant and a property management company.

      • arc@lemm.ee
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        Why on earth do you think anyone would rent out a house, or pay for all the ancillaries - furnishings, repairs, insurance, legal etc. if they didn’t get a return on their investment, time and effort? Do you also accuse Marriott of being parasites for renting rooms? Or Hertz for renting cars? They do these things because they spent a lot of money to provide something of value that people can utilize for a period of time but they still expect to make money.

        Renting is a business. It’s as “parasitic” as any other business were a person pays for something with money and receives something in return. If you are not prepared to rent then don’t. There are other options to having a roof over your head. Buying a house would be one option but there are others.

    • ComradeKhoumrag@infosec.pub
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      Every landlord I’ve had doesn’t do shit. In principle, sure yeah being a landlord can be a bit of work. In practice? They expect it to be a source of passive income

      • purprain@thelemmy.club
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        I’ve had the exact opposite relationship with all but one landlord. The one bad landlord relationship I had I sued and won. But I’ve lived in about 6 or 7 places with amazing landlords that took care of the maintenance and everything else. Hell I fell down in a shower busting a big ass hole in the tub once and the landlord replaced it at his own cost.

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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      It’s a very US-centric view because their states seemingly doesn’t enforce rules and regulations while also not having rent control. Creating a situation where landlords can demand pretty much whatever they want in a housing crisis while also not spending their revenue on actually maintaining the apartments they rent out.

      The complaint is fair. For them.

    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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      Yeah, honestly, small town landlords and building owners have to keep up repairs and constantly monitor the situation so that the tenants don’t burn down or cause an infestation that tanks a 200k USD miminum (it goes a lot higher from there) investment that wouldn’t have been payed off for 13 more years as per the contract for deed.

      They also have to file all the receipts, run background checks and keep documents on their tenants, and keep their leases up to date. All of this has to be securely stored for like 6 years.

      There is a lot of risk involved in getting shelter to people who need it the most in the USA. Not everything can be a charity, if you’ve got a problem with that system then you don’t have an issue with landlords you have an issue with corporatocracy and real estate moguls on a much larger scale using a necessary resource as a semi-fungible currency. More than 1 in 20 homes in the USA are owned by Chinese investors. I’m sure there are some bad apples but the majority of non-affiliated landlords are just doing what they need to do to minimize financial risks and stay afloat.

      Sometimes things like Lawyer Consultation Fees, Eviction Serving fees, Vacancies, and Water Damages forcing you to replace the flooring, the boards, some insulation and vents… It can run into the negative multiple months in a row. Sure they get some of it back after Tax Season, but they still had to pay in Quarterly Taxes up until that point so in order for it to work they need a lot in savings.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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      Yes, nothing. Except for repair and maintenance and servicing all those cost and insurance and worrying the tenant doesn’t pay and all those headache people never forsee. Nothing.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        You mean all the stuff they can easily outsource and still make a profit? You make it sound like landlords are doing us a favor.

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            Why don’t I just become a billionaire too while I’m at it? Oh right, because I can’t just opt into having the money to be part of the ownership class.

            • Flumsy@feddit.de
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              Exactly and where did the money come from? They earned it until they had enough to invest in a house.

                • Flumsy@feddit.de
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                  Yes, actually. Where do you think their money came from? (Alternatively their relatives may have earned it, that shouldnt make a difference for you though).

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            “if you can’t fix the problem, just become part of it!” Great advice mate 😂

            • Flumsy@feddit.de
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              How dare they provide so much value to you that you feel the need to give them a good amount of your money.

              What part is the “problem” exactly?

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          Nope, i make it sounds like you’re someone that’s never think beyond their own perspective.

          Edit: to add, it’s survivor bias to think that all home owner on earth are earning huge money from the property and can afford to outsource the work and still make profit.

          • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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            “Anyone who disagrees with me is living in a bubble!”

            Childish actuations make you sound like a child.

            • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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              Ohh you’re not? Because your point doesn’t seems like you’re anywhere outside the bubble of your own. Maybe try a better argument perhaps? Or you can keep whining idk i don’t really care.

          • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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            Renting a property you own is a business, and repairing property that you rent out is, unsurprisingly, a business expense.

      • Flumsy@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        They seem to provide some kind of vakue to you, otherwise you could just buy a house.

        • doleo@lemmy.one
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          You could just buy a house.

          Can you just step back from the keyboard and realize how stupid what you’ve just said is?

          • Flumsy@feddit.de
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            The fact that you cant buy a house shows that your landlord is providing value to you, because they make living there affordable where it would otherwise be unaffordable.

            My statement still stands: IF they werent providing any value to you (eg. making living there more affordable) then you could just buy a house. (But they do provide value which is why you can afford to rent but not afford to buy a house).

            • doleo@lemmy.one
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              Paying a higher amount in rent than a mortgage would be is not making living affordable. They’re exploiting the fact that many people can’t access credit or afford to make a required down payment/stamp duty/legal fees, etc. up front.

              • Flumsy@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                Alright but wouldnt you then say banks, for example, are also exploiting you (because you have to pay an interest when takking out a loan)? Isnt that also exploiting the fact that many people dont have the money upfront"?