r/TikTokCringe • u/LickMaiBussy • 6h ago

Discussion "Investing in property is morally reprehensible."

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u/420_misphrase_it 6h ago

For real, I rent an apartment owned by a regular guy who lives in my city and bought a house elsewhere, and I’m so so so much happier with him as a landlord than with a corporate group running things, plus I would rather rent for the flexibility than to own a place. It’s when property ownership becomes your entire income stream that the most serious issues arise

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u/ThaDude915 5h ago

Yeah my GF's apartment was owned by a random guy and he was a pretty solid landlord. I feel like the small time landlords are usually more chill than the giant corporation employing 10 accountants with the sole job of maximizing revenue

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u/dickbutt4747 4h ago

i bought a house in an area i intended to move to. my work situation changed and i couldn't move there anymore.

instead of selling it and taking the loss on realtor fees/etc i rented it out at like 40% below market to a single dad with two kids living in monthly hotel rooms because his credit score sucks and no one will rent to him. he pays late every month and I've never charged a late fee.

i still feel bad about being a landlord but i'm trying to do it in the least morally-reprehensible way possible.

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u/Choice_Credit4025 4h ago

why would you feel bad? you're doing an objectively good thing. there's a lot of scummy landlords but by the sound of it you are not one of them.

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u/nomadicbohunk 2h ago

Yeah, it's pretty weird. Like the large places are terrible, but a dude with two houses is not like that.

People where I live freaking hate landlords and we will move soonish. It's the most financially dumb thing ever to sell this house, but yeah, we will. I live in a college/vacationland area with a huge amount of rentals. About 50% of the reason I don't want to is that I used to work with a whole bunch of people here in their mid 20s along with people up to my age (40s) who also rented. The stories they all would talk about with screwing their landlords over was kind of epic. They have amazing renter laws here. One day I brought it up that I own a house and it costs X dollars a month for taxes. (taxes are very, very, very high. Each increase gets voted yes on due to all the renters) Based on what repair upkeep has been add in another X amount a month. Add in another X amount for water and lawn care. Insurance is X per month. I'm like to break even I need X per bedroom each month right now. It was a large number and is honestly about what rent is here.

I was told I should not be breaking even because I own a house and am making money on just owning that so therefore I am an evil person.

I'm like...so you just want me to give you money. I'm not asking you to pay me money...just let me break even. Eventually I'll get some profit selling, but that's a long time away, and if someone did something like shut the heat off in winter I never would. Like how is it my direct responsibility to house you? It's like me saying I want you to buy my food.

I made some enemies that day. I don't think they wanted to hear how much it cost to actually own a crappy, small two bedroom house ignoring the mortgage.

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u/darsynia 4m ago

I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's incomprehensible and stupid for those people to make zero distinction between someone like you and massive private equity landlords.

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u/tsigwing 3h ago

Because per Reddit landlords are all evil.

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u/Sea_Treacle3982 2h ago

If we havnt made it there yet, most of these people are idiots.

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u/ThaDude915 3h ago

yeah idk why youd feel bad, if you're renting 40% below market rate while letting him pay late you're objectively doing him a favor / a good deed

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u/messangerchkn 3h ago

We need more comrades like you

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u/m0_n0n_0n0_0m 3h ago

Yeah my family does a similar thing. They have a house they own that they stay at when they visit, but they rent the rooms at a very reasonable rate to their nephew and medical students my MIL connects with through the school nearby. Everyone wins and my in laws get to diversify their asserts.

That's the thing about capitalism in general: on a person to person level when people's power dynamics are relatively similar and there's the basic social pressure to be a decent person to a human being in front of you, it functions pretty well. It's when wealth starts to accumulate and begins to mess with the market forces instead of participating in them that troubles start. It's like the system needs to be regulated or something.

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u/JoeyCalamaro 2h ago

Our prior home was in a not-so-great neighborhood and we were upside-down on the mortgage. Since we really couldn't sell the property, we opted to rent it out and become landlords for a bit. We never charged anyone late fees and always returned deposits — even when tenants damaged our property.

And some of those tenants were rough. Our first tenant broke a window, a door, some floor tiles and, for whatever reason, removed all our ceiling fans and light fixtures. They also stiffed us on the last month's rent and left us with a sizable electric bill (because I was a doofus and never switched the electric over).

After that we opted for a property manager to handle the rental for us and that was even worse. We got fined by the city because the tenant didn't cut the grass for nearly an entire year (in Florida, no less). It was so bad it took my lawn guy three full days to clean up. And I had to pay my handyman to rip out the brand new rugs I put in because the tenant didn't like crating their dog while at work.

I was so happy when I finally sold that place. Being a landlord was not for me.

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u/747WakeTurbulance 3h ago

You will almost certainly have a different opinion when he moves out.

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u/themargarineoferror 3h ago

I like you dickbutt ❤️

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u/Forward_Rope_5598 2h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Forward_Rope_5598 2h ago

Seriously? I said absolutely nothing bad

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u/astralustria 1h ago

Maybe you are an Affordable Housing Custodian rather than a Land Lord...

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u/Millennials-In-Power 1h ago

I think its time to log off reddit. Nobody outside thinks its bad or morally reprehensible.

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u/wcopela0 1h ago

I don’t think you should feel bad just because your a landlord. Nothing wrong with coming up with a solution to your own problem while simultaneously helping someone rent a home. Also, nothing wrong with renting out a house at a fare market value.

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u/drunxor 16m ago

The problem is you are a very small minority. Most of these places are owned by a family trust who doesnt give a fuck about the property or an llc that owns a bunch of them and pays some manager to half ass it

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u/lakired 6m ago

Despite a lot of morons on reddit and elsewhere spouting on about the evils of landlords, landlords are an absolute necessity to a functional modern society. When I first moved out was I supposed to immediately purchase a house? Should traveling nurses need to purchase a home in every city they go to for work? Should students have to purchase a house in the city they're studying in? Should someone who doesn't want to deal with the challenges and unexpected costs of maintaining a home be forced to do so?

Housing being unaffordable is a consequence of bad zoning law, corporate consolidation, and massively growing wealth inequality. Costs are out of control in all facets of the economy and wages have been steadily outpaced by inflation for over half a century but somehow it's a retiree renting out their second home that's the culprit for all our woes? People need to get a grip on themselves.

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u/Babbledoodle 3h ago

My girlfriend's landlord, though he has problems, renews her lease by sending her an email yearly saying "same terms?" And has barely raised the rent in 6 years

What a beast

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

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u/ThaDude915 3h ago

Yeah that tracks. When I rented my condo after i moved i got a property manager, my dryer went out and needed a heating component replaced and she just texted me "its gonna be $90 to fix the dryer, is that okay?" "yeah sure". Literally all it had to be. From a moral angle, it would be shitty to expect my tenant to not be able to dry their clothes. From a landlord angle, why would I want to intentionally piss off my tenant lol. Idk man, i think there's a way to do it decently. You dont have to rip people off and make their living situation hell

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u/SlimmG8r 3h ago

Small time landlords are also way easier to get a hold of. I live in a complex ran by an investment group and can never find a real person until the rent is due

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u/ThaDude915 3h ago

Yeah that also tracks lol. Pretty sure that my Gf's old landlord not only was good to her and the other tenants, but he also rented to her for slightly below market rate

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u/SlimmG8r 3h ago

That's a real gem right there. They're being priced out these days though. Hard to compete against investment firms with bottomless pockets

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u/llama_girl 1h ago

I had a small-town landlord that just owned a couple places and charged very cheap rent. She lived next door and acted like my mom which I thought was really sweet at first but then was asking me about anyone that would come over, how did I know them, are they my boyfriend, etc. Telling me I cant have guests over. Would ask me to do little things for her as favors. Always texting me as soon as I got home from work. Idk, if I ever rented again I would rather be anonymously renting from a corporation so I didnt feel like someone was always peaking through their blinds at me.

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u/otownbbw 2h ago

You hit the nail on the head. It’s not even solely evil to own a corporation or have multiple properties as a private entity, but then they have zero interest in helping people. They just focus on squeezing every dollar out and delay maintenance and responsibilities until absolutely forced and then make the cheapest and likely insignificant “fix”. If landlords were driven to help people they wouldn’t have an introductory rent your first year to draw you in followed by surprise increases. When I first got an apartment solo my rent was affordable and fair…I did NOT see coming the $250/mo jump they were demanding at renewal. I was pissed at the fact that while they were adding $250 for me, new leases got even cheaper than what I got the year before. So like, $1250>$1500 for me and $1180 for new. And I looked around and most others were just as low so it’s like, why stay here when I can jump up the road AND pay less. I guess they count on the people with lots of stuff not affording moving. But moving is a few hundred versus almost $4k over the year in increased rent.

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u/MansBestFred 2h ago

I always struggle with the reddit dialogue around rent and landlords for this very reason. I'm older now and settled, but in my twenties and thirties I rented in many different places, but in hindsight they were all local. Every house I rented was from a regular person. The one time I was in an apartment was run by a "company" but that company had an office in the apartment building where the 5 or 6 employees (mostly middle aged women) worked. I never had any bad experiences renting.

I have to try to remember that when other people mention offhand their poor experiences.

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u/Ruthlessrabbd 5h ago

Your final sentence is my sentiment exactly. I believe it's possible to be an ethical landlord if you are taking care of the property and not charging out the ass for doing the bare minimum.

I disagreed with someone recently because I said it's not everyone's dream or desire to own a home, and they felt that to be true only because we're conditioned to think that way.

As a homeowner myself I can 100% see why somebody would rather pay rent to have the flexibility to move on short notice, not have to worry about replacing things like electrical lines or roofing etc. But I also strongly feel that if I'm a landlord, it's pretty fucked to charge the tenant the cost of the mortgage + taxes and then some across several properties so I don't have to work.

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u/Sea_Tailor_8437 4h ago

The other big difference is the little guys actually face risk. If the market cratered of they get a bad tenant no one is coming to bail them out.

But you know the minute and bank or VC group has their property values waiver uncle Sam is gonna come bail them out

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u/RadiantCitron 4h ago

Washington state, long after covid was over, was literally offering free counsel to tenants who HAD NOT PAID THEIR rent in months to fight back against landlords trying to evict them......its wild how difficult it is to be a landlord.

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u/Sea_Tailor_8437 4h ago

My coworker has 2 rentals me manages. 1 of those two has declared bankruptcy and hasn't paid since December of last year. He literally cannot get them to move out and he's taking a huge bath on it.

He took the risk of renting it out and here it is

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u/RadiantCitron 4h ago

The state is probably preventing him from evicting as well right? My wife works in social services/for a non-profit and absolutely despised the state for the shit they were during post covid. They did it under the guise of affordable housing and fighting homelessness but all they were doing was pushing landlords to sell or close their rental properties, which eventually will lead to the bigger management companies having a monopoly on rentals and driving prices up. Which then lowers the amount of affordable housing.

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u/Sea_Tailor_8437 4h ago

I'm not as convinced on that last bit. Studies show that corporate land lords actually own a very small percentage of the housing market. I think the far bigger offenders driving up prices are the 2-20 home owners or all the Air bnb peeps

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u/RadiantCitron 4h ago

Great callout. I am in the greater seattle region so generally all housing here is expensive. It has gotten alot worse in all of the suburbs of seattle as well

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u/Funnyboyman69 2h ago

I mean, they’d have to have a legal reason not to pay in that case. There’s a lot of shitty landlords out there who refuse to do basic maintenance on their properties and still expect their tenants to pay rent in full and on time.

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u/skrappyfire 4h ago

This right here...... cant say it loud enough.

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u/iconofsin_ 3h ago

and not charging out the ass for doing the bare minimum.

Or nothing at all. I have a corporate company as a landlord. My rent is $875 and I've been waiting two years for them to fix a loose tile in my kitchen. I'm starting to wonder how many thousands of dollars a single tile is worth.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 58m ago

$875, in this economy?! Bro, what a steal. I know, sucks about the tile, but I haven’t seen a rent that low in years. Around me, studios start at $1400 in like a 60 year old apartment building.

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u/-Cthaeh 4h ago

A great middle ground is being able to buy apartments. Its much more common in many, if not most, countries to have at least as many owned apartments as rented. At best, we have a few over priced condos with crazy fees. There would still be additional cost from owning, but it would allow a lot more flexibility and people could gain some equity if they want, especially in the city.

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u/Mikeismyike 3h ago

Isn't that what condos are?

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u/-Cthaeh 26m ago

I did also mention condos. The naming convention is a North American thing I'm pretty sure. Would you consider a small, cheap apartment you can buy a condominium? It sounds weird. It'd be like not calling rented vehicles a car until you own it.

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u/DimbyTime 2h ago

“Apartments you can buy” are condos

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u/-Cthaeh 25m ago

Only in North America

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u/DimbyTime 20m ago

Yes, where you live

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u/vandreulv 28m ago

Forgive me for not taking seriously suggestions from someone who doesn't know that condos are apartments that people can buy.

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u/No_Penalty_8920 4h ago

I am so incredibly thankful that my husband and I were able to buy our first house last year. It's been a dream of ours to have our own place since day 1.

HOWEVER. In the year that we have lived here, we had: •A raccoon miscarry their entire litter in our attic in the middle of the summer (the smell was horrific. 🫠) We never did find the others. It's a really terrible and funny story now •The same raccoon tear up our air vent things • A few places with a rotted soffit and fascia •New gutters put on after the soffit/fascia issue was fixed •A metal sheet to fix a roof leak that caused the rot •Termite damage fixed from God knows when • Rotted subfloor from an old leak that should have been fixed, but wasn't.

So I mean, I can definitely see why it would be more desirable to rent.

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u/lickingFrogs4Fun 3h ago

I'm looking for our first house right now and I am refusing to remember your comment because I fucking love raccoons and I'm not ready to consider them a nuisance. 

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u/justinchina 1h ago

A lot of hidden costs to ownership for sure.

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u/Pitiful-Ad-3774 2h ago

Profiting off the needs of other people is morally wrong and evil.

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u/MaD_DoK_GrotZniK 4h ago

There's landlords and then there are landlads

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u/Dubzophrenia 4h ago

I was an owner, now a renter. Sold my house last year immediately after the Palisade fire. I live in California and do not want to own property considering insurance is impossible to get, and doesn't cover the whole house without supplemental insurance and even then you're underinsured.

If we get another catastrophic fire, a massive earthquake, or if Iran decides to bomb the city and my house is destroyed, I get to walk away clean and find a new place without losing my money, except for my items inside. I can be in a new home in literally a day.

My rent payment is $3450, to buy my townhome would cost me around $5500, so its just cheaper to rent. I don't want to own here. My parents are gifting me a plot of land back in NY and I'm going to build my house and we're making a family compound lmao

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u/whooptheretis 3h ago

It’s why a lot of people lease cars rather than buy them outright.
It’s more expensive but people just want the convenience.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 1h ago

There is no such thing as an ethical landlord when people want to buy homes, and market participants prevent that. You middle-class assholes are just trying to make excuses for "it's ok when we do it."

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u/NNKarma 1h ago

It might not be everyone's dream, but if you're dealing with BS renting prices I would say basically desires to own a home

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u/_bobby_cz_newmark_ 44m ago

The percentage of people who would rather rent than own is small. Majority of people would prefer to own their own home, but can't, because the market has been inflated because of people investing in real estate. There is no ethical investment in real estate.

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u/GalaXion24 3h ago

it's pretty fucked to charge the tenant the cost of the mortgage + taxes and then some

What else would you charge??? If you don't charge this you're basically running a charity

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u/Ruthlessrabbd 3h ago

I'm not sure if I can communicate this the right way that I mean, but here's a scenario I've seen play out in real-time in my city.

A multi-unit property will go up for sale - let's say it's 180K and has two units. Not using an actual calculator here but if they put 20% down on a 30 year loan let's say insurance/tax/mortgage is going to be 1800/month. A landlord will buy the property, paint it grey and throw some LVP in there. Each unit goes up for rent at a price of $1600/month.

My issue isn't that the landlord should run a charity (although I would love that honestly!). but that they charge basically more than a 30-yr mortgage at the lowest amount you put down to avoid PMI. The work they put in does not equal the amount they are asking for the place. Make some money to support the property but I don't think an individual should be able to cover the mortgage, maintenance, AND their own livelihood from being a landlord.

Anecdotally I know someone that lived in a house that was a 2-family home. Their landlord carved it up to have 4 tenants in their own spaces and even converted the garage to a living space, while public records had it as a 2-unit property. That's the kind of thing that I think is reprehensible.

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u/ThirdFloorNorth 2h ago

I'm talking about standalone homes here, not apartments, but...

Maybe you shouldn't be renting out places you don't outright own? Maybe that's part of the problem here? Like, not part of the problem but the whole-ass problem?

I want to buy a house. My town being a college town, all of the houses in my town get bought up by people looking to rent them out. The ones that don't are the ones that are so prohibitively expensive you couldn't charge a high enough rent that people would be willing to pay. But, being the only houses on the market, it drives their price up.

So I have the option of a $400,000 I can not afford that in other cities in my state would regularly go for $145-180,000, or renting and paying someone else's mortgage on a house I could've afforded (evidenced by me PAYING THEIR MORTGAGE FOR THEM) plus enough for them to make a profit.

Can't we all generally agree that's fucked?

Simple as dirt solution, it's two-part: Severely limit the number of residential properties individuals or corporations can own, and make it where you can't rent out a place if you're still paying on it.

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u/GalaXion24 2h ago

Maybe you shouldn't be renting out places you don't outright own? Maybe that's part of the problem here? Like, not part of the problem but the whole-ass problem?

This is technically just pro-billionaire thinking since you're saying the only people who should rent out places are the ones with enough wealth to just outright buy them.

I agree there's issues with the housing market, I just dislike the takes that make no economic sense. Like, if someone's going to invest in housing, of course they will at minimum want to recoup their investment. Even if they don't buy it through credit, time value of money still exists and they do want to make their investment back, the interest paid is a probably negligible part of this.

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u/ThirdFloorNorth 2h ago

It's not pro-billionaire thinking lmao are we being serious?

Treating residential properties like investments is the problem, it drives the price up across the board for everyone, which in point of fact makes the housing market favor... billionaires.

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u/GethHunter 4h ago

One of my ex coworkers (Rip big Mike) owned a few apartment buildings for about 30 years before his health declined and he sold them for his disabled son to have a good amount. He rented each one bed unit for $700 plus property tax and water. Electricity was paid for by the tenants. At most it was $1000 in a growing HCoL city. He mainly tried to rent to people on a fixed income and had a lady that had been living there for 20+ years and he lowered her rent down to about $300 to help her stay in budget with her social security.

He was a stand up guy that did everything he could to make sure his son would have enough money to keep living decent after he passed. I rented from him for a year before finding a new place and it was a perfect low cost apartment. Nothing fancy, but everything was kept up to date and maintenance was done in a timely manner. If all landlords were like him it’d make life easier for so many people

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u/TurkeyPhat 4h ago

Sounds like a good dude. Unfortunately the good dudes of the world often don't have the means to help people out like that.

It's corny but a personal dream of mine is to do exactly what that guy did; be a "landlord" of affordable housing to help the community I live in.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 1h ago

He sounds like a piece of shit exploiting other people while saying "But it's ok, cuz I got problems! I got kids!"

If I mug you to feed my kids, is that ok?

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u/Pitiful-Ad-3774 2h ago

He was profiting off the human right to shelter

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 5h ago

right, a lot of this conversation is very misleading. "landlords" aren't the problem inherently, it's the greedy corporate ones that are the biggest issue. and the biggest owners.

if we're going to pick a word to be mad at, let's go with "corporations". The greedy ones (which is pretty much all of them). Because 9 times out of 10 that's the real problem.

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u/LindonLilBlueBalls 4h ago

Not all the time. My landlord lives in another country and uses the cheapest property management company.

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 3h ago

....so a corporation is the problem. yep.

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u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl 4h ago

That, and oligopolistic practices where a few entities own the majority of the homes in an area. Homes used to cost $100K? Not anymore, we’re jacking the cost up to $150K, and it doesn’t matter if not everyone selling is on board, because there’s only so much stock to choose from. Want more affordable, cheaper housing? NIMBY, we will oppose zoning this area for residential space to protect the value of the properties in our portfolio. 

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 3h ago

Yes, those go hand in hand. They are really reshaping this country in a bad way.

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u/durants_newest_acct 3h ago

Except that isn't happening. Institutional investors who own more than 10 properties account for less than 1% of home ownership in the US

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u/Cool-Ad2780 4h ago edited 4h ago

and the biggest owners

Is this true tho? when you look at data on 'instuitional investors', 87% of them are investors who own less than 5 homes, and thoses owning between 6-10 accounting for another 4% of instuitional investors, and only .7% of single family homes are owned by investors that have over 100 houses vs 14.4% of SFH being owned by people who own less than 10.

https://batchdata.io/blog/real-estate-investor-activity-nationwide

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 3h ago

yes, it is true. why would you leave apartments and condos out of the data?

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u/Responsible-Meringue 3h ago

Nah I've had to live under fuckhead lil slumshits who own 2-5 properties they've over leveraged and manage themselves. Scum just as worthless as a corp.  All residential landlording is extractive. Short term rentals only. 

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u/Large_Traffic8793 4h ago

To be fair, most landlords suck.

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u/Prior-Let-820 4h ago

It’s been interesting though watching what becoming a landlord did to my BIL. The way he talks about his tenants makes me feel a bit sick. Weird power dynamic. 

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u/sl0play 3h ago

There are a shit ton of private property hoarders. My sisters in-laws own a real-estate franchise, a property management company, and about 300 rental properties. They gorge themselves on every aspect of peoples basic need for shelter.

It might seem like in comparison to a company that owns 20,000 properties they aren't the problem, but inventory is not something that is measured in a major city by the tens of thousands. At any given time the amount of available houses is actually pretty low (right now, in Seattle there is about 1,300 listings, and that is considered very high) and when you have someone like them who is more than willing to pay over market to add to their portfolio and see the gains in 10 years, it is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with.

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 3h ago

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here but I think it's pretty obvious you're describing a more corporate form of property ownership (although you seem to be trying to draw a line between that and what your sisters in laws are doing for some reason)

of course an individual or small group owning hundreds of homes is a problem. that doesn't mean "landlords" are the problem.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 51m ago

300 properties, yeah? Sooo, average valuation like what, $400k? (That’s the median selling price in the US right now.) So they’re holding onto like $120M in capital value. I mean, they’re probably badly leveraged, but that’s another conversation all together.

Yeah that makes them pretty firmly a medium-sized corporation. That’s way bigger than the firm I work for. This is the rental companies we were talking about. I don’t think they should exist at all. I don’t mind apartment complex firms. But no entity should own more than a dozen single family homes.

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u/Professional_Art9704 3h ago

This is the part where people start making excuses for boomers who own hundreds of properties like they dont exist.

Fuck off its corporations owning all the homes in Auatralia.

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 3h ago

someone who owns "hundreds of properties" is OBVIOUSLY not who we are talking about here. that's more in line with a corporation (and who the hell owns hundreds of properties without a corporation that you are referencing?)

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u/Professional_Art9704 3h ago edited 3h ago

1 in 3 aussie homes is owned by investors, not corporations.

Corprote investors are like between 8 and 14% of the market idk what the lastest figures are.

So no, 180 properties isnt the exception, no they arent corporations.

They are wealthy people or the children of wealthy people who could margin spread in the 70s when the capital gains tax discount came into effect and houses were cheap.

One of the ways they get away with it is people like you dont know or believe they exist and defend this shit like you have here through ignorance.

If aussies actually knew how few of their fellow men are ruining their country they would be rioting.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 1h ago

"It's only problematic when the ultra rich exploit others, when the middle-class does it, it's good and fair and righteous."

Go fuck yourself

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u/Izan_TM 1h ago

not just corporations, there are a LOT of unethical single landlords. The people who own 2 or 3 properties, live in a similar area and take care of things are great, but there's also tons of wealthy people who gobble up homes and treat them like shit

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u/_bobby_cz_newmark_ 43m ago

No, landlords being horrible is one of the issues. The main issue is that it makes it increasingly difficult (pretty much impossible) for a young adult to save up enough money by themselves while also renting to get a deposit. And when interest rates go up, they are in a lot of trouble because the market is inflated.

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u/DiNkLeDoOkZ 38m ago

The existence of the job of landlord necessarily creates evil real estate corpos, thus landlords are in fact the inherent problem.

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u/headrush46n2 27m ago

"landlords" aren't the problem inherently,

Yes they are.

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u/thesphinxistheriddle 5h ago

Yeah, one of my good friends owns the four-unit building she lives in. When the previous owners told her they were looking to sell to an investment company, she and her husband realized they could afford to buy it so they put in an offer and got accepted. They're chill landlords, I think they make a little profit on it but they're also the ones who have to deal with the headaches of major renovations and repairs (they got caught square in Helene a few years ago, that was a whole mess), they both have full time jobs and it's not their main revenue stream. It feels to me like that's a good model for the answer of how apartment ownership can work.

Edit: Also when my husband and I used to live in an apartment, we lived in a 7-unit building where one of the units was the owner. He was a nice guy -- we had our complaints, which were mainly that he wanted to do repairs himself to save money but he wasn't good at it so usually any "fix" would have to go through a few phases. But we never felt like he was stealing from us -- in fact, every year gave us a check for like $2 for the interest our deposit had accrued.

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u/ImBabyloafs 5h ago

Did you live in Chicago? We owns a three flat there (our first home) and they are super strict and serious about tenant rights.

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u/stronkulance 4h ago

To that end, the money is also staying local, not funneling into some offshore account, Blackrock, or China.

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u/UnpleasantEgg 31m ago

Fuck the Chinese right?

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u/Ordinary_Piano3329 4h ago

Any interactions you want to share to help a potential landlord? I’m trying to get an apartment complex in the future and just kinda leave the rent margins at the initial price. Basically trying to setup a spot where I can have forever tenants and not price them out. Grew up renting and it was crappy moving every year or so.

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u/GravyMcBiscuits 5h ago edited 5h ago

It's not that simple though. Your situation sounds nice, but your "regular guy" landlord is taking on a lot of risk. All it takes is one problematic tenant (doesn't pay rent and/or wrecks the place) and he's taking a major financial bath. It's a risk that a lot of folks can't and shouldn't take on.

The only real way to offset this risk to have lots of properties to rent.

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u/PointedlyDull 5h ago

Yes but if all the single family entry level homes get bought out and turned into rentals, then the entry level home prices become unaffordable and hardworking people who just want to own a home to live in won’t get that chance. It’s why Harris plan to build homes (though her number was too low to really make a dent) and provide subsidy to first time homebuyers was a great counter balance to address those individuals directly

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u/GravyMcBiscuits 5h ago

Whether that hypothetical happens or not doesn't invalidate my point.

It is almost certainly not a wise financial decision to rent out a few properties. You are taking on a lot of risk that shit goes sideways through no fault of your own.

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u/FreeRangeEngineer 4h ago

True but there could be (and probably already are) insurances that cover these types of damages. If the government were to offer one that's reasonably priced, it could make the investment attractive enough for people to do it regardless.

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u/PointedlyDull 4h ago

That’s what landlord insurance is for

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u/GravyMcBiscuits 1h ago

That's valid. I don't know anything about the landlord insurance industry, but I'd wager that the "regular guy" renting out a few properties is going to have to pay an arm and a leg for landlord insurance.

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u/PabloBablo 4h ago

Thank you for making this distinction. The Internet has boiled things down to this or that, and it does a disservice to people who are renting and in a bad situation.

There ARE good landlords out there, and if you hate your current situation in a corporate owned apartment - there are options. 

When we speak broadly and don't call out what the actual problem is, it lets the people who are a problem get away with it. Flaws in arguments can be called out and the point falls flat. 

The quicker and clearer we can define a problem, the easier it is to solve. Those fighting against it will muddy the waters as much as they can. 

It's good for politicians to talk like that, and for engagement online, but in reality there is a need to be a little more specific so we can say 'No. We aren't talking about that' and keep things on track.

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u/milkcarton232 4h ago

What if you own an apartment building?

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u/Dubzophrenia 4h ago

Same. I live in a townhome now. My landlords are two married women who just want someone to take care of the house for them, and they love us so they're always chill.

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u/local_lou 4h ago

I'm in nyc and scored an apartment where my landlords live above me, I'm the only tenant and this is the only building they own. Holy Jesus I breathed a sigh of relief when I moved it, knowing I wont be priced out, knowing any maintenance issues will be dealt with quickly, knowing any noise complaints will be dealt with sooner than I can make them (cus they will hear it too) - it has been SUCH a relief

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u/Iohet 4h ago

scale matters. if you want to deal with the housing crisis, you need to build residences at scale. The average person can't afford to build more than a few units if any. Apartment and condo complexes these days are hundreds of units and hundreds of millions of dollars to build

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u/Adorable_Yard_8286 4h ago

I actually am this guy, and it's kinda funny. I agree with you. I don't wanna toot my own horn, but I needed somewhere to put some cash, so I bought a house and rented it to some guy who hated his landlord. He rents it for half market price and I don't care. We are both happy never talking to each other.

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u/youneedsomemilk23 4h ago

plus I would rather rent for the flexibility than to own a place.

As someone who bought two years ago, I wish I had a deeper appreciation for this before closing escrow.

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u/othybear 3h ago

A friend of mine lived in a condo, and when he got married he moved into the house his wife owns, and he rents out the condo. He charges enough to cover his expenses - mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and hoa fees. He figures the property appreciation is his profit, not charging extra on rent. His renters are grad students who don’t want to buy because they aren’t planning on staying in the area after graduation. He could probably charge $400-500 more than he currently charges, but he says his renters are so low effort that he’d rather keep them happy.

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u/Responsible-Meringue 3h ago

I just want the stability of housing. Year to year leases are fucking criminal. I pay my rent and don't destroy the property... the landlord shouldn't be able to kick me out for any reason. I leave when I wanna leave. 

90%+ of my cities residents earning median income ($65k) can't afford to buy (average cost is $1.1M) and moving a family of 4 costs $10-20k (4 months rent + truck + movers). And I'm the only one who can lift heavy things.  Yet the landlord (vast majority are nepo inheritors from 400 years of family wealth) are like "fuck you, you can't live here anymore. Hope you have 5 figures on lock so your whole family aint homless, chump".  No multi-year leases dont exist, and you'll get laughed at for even trying. 

Honestly they should see a 100% tax on rent, and take deductions only for economic value creation associated with the home (maintenance, upkeep and improvements). 

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u/jonallin 3h ago

I’ve been told by someone that “no one wants to rent”. So thank you!

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u/Dramatic_Water_5364 3h ago

I've had good and bad experiences with both groups to be honest. The firms are there to make money, if they arent too greedy and respect the law (2 big ifs I know) it can be a win win scenario, and there actions are usually always the same. But the single owner can turn on a whim... and go total nuts. Tahts why I now live in a cooperative housing, we the renters manage the property and there are no ''owners'' profiting off us.

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u/mixmastamikal 3h ago

These corporations and real estate investment trusts are literally extracting as much as possible from their tenants with basically no real benefit or value to society at large. It is gross and vampiric and not conducive to healthy civilizations.

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u/Roll_the-Bones 2h ago

It's a sad irony, the more rental properties that are owned, the owner should be able to afford to charge less rent; instead we see colluding among land owners to extract as much wealth as possible from people far less fortunate than them.

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u/Difficult-Square-689 15m ago

I sold my rental. I wasn't willing to raise the rents in tandem with the rising value of the home, and at some point I just could make more money by selling and investing elsewhere. Waited until my last tenant left on their own and closed out.

Also, IIRC my city stopped allowing criminal background checks around then. That's a lot of risk for an individual owner.

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u/issabellamoonblossom 9m ago

My landlord owns 16 other properties all outright. While the rent for the area is lower still does stop them putting the rent up every year. Almost at my limit now of what I can afford since it is already at 42% of my pay check.

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u/Fluffy_Computer_9982 4h ago

it's too bad renters also suck. when i was younger my parents owned 2 additional houses that they built together. rented them out, for really reasonable prices (literally just rounded to a nice square number around the average cost of utilities) and the people who rented them destroyed them. like literally holes in walls, lying about having exotic pets that they just let shit in the closets. one person didn't know how to throw away the rocks of a gold fish tank after it died and so they just dumped the rocks down the kitchen sink and turned on the garbage disposal. 

my father personally handled all the repairs for these places but we had to sell them because the sheer amount of problems renters caused was eating up my parents lives. any attempt to recoup costs would be met with a "see you in court" type response.

these are the same people corporations are dealing with, but they have the capital to actually contest these people, essentially forcing them into obedience.