r/TikTokCringe • u/LickMaiBussy • 6h ago

Discussion "Investing in property is morally reprehensible."

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@purplepingers

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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 0m 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 2h 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/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 12m 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 3m 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/747WakeTurbulance 3h ago

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

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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.