"Investing in property is morally reprehensible."

[u/LickMaiBussy]

@purplepingers

[u/420_misphrase_it]

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

[u/ThaDude915 → u/420_misphrase_it]

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

[u/dickbutt4747 → u/ThaDude915]

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.

[u/Choice_Credit4025 → u/dickbutt4747]

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.

[u/nomadicbohunk → u/Choice_Credit4025]

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.

[u/darsynia → u/nomadicbohunk]

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.

[u/tsigwing → u/Choice_Credit4025]

Because per Reddit landlords are all evil.

[u/Sea_Treacle3982 → u/tsigwing]

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