• wisefoolkp@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    2 years ago

    Even if you try being a good landlord, dealing with some tenants can really darken your soul…

    • skulkingaround@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      2 years ago

      It’s also not as lucrative as most would think. I have a few rentals and it’s certainly not enough to quit my day job in IT. It’s maybe an extra $15-20k in my pocket at the end of the year after expenses and taxes and such, and I spend at least 10-20 hours a week doing accounting, maintenance tasks, coordinating contractors, legal stuff, etc. Sure, the equity is nice too, but it doesn’t do a whole lot for me until retirement age.

      As far as whether landlords can be “good”, I see myself as providing a valuable service to those who cannot or don’t want to become homeowners. In a perfect world, those who cannot but want to become homeowners should, but the cost of housing has little to do with rentals and almost everything to do with zoning, development restrictions, and tax structure. Until that world exists, someone has to offer rental properties to these people, otherwise where would they live?

    • dangblingus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      33
      ·
      2 years ago

      What’s a “good” landlord? Someone that upholds all of their obligations that the law says they have to do in order to make money off of the actual work of others? Still a parasite.

        • lone_faerie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 years ago

          So does the person who made your coffee this morning not deserve a place to live? What about the person who delivered your dinner? The person who delivers your mail? The one who picks up your trash? The people who built your house? The person who stocks your groceries?

          wHaT dO yOu Do FoR a LiViNg?

          What does that have to do with your right to a roof over your head?

        • FrostbyteIX@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 years ago

          What do you do for a living?

          I sell drugs to minors and bribe police to allow me to keep doing it.

          No, I’m a construction worker building houses and units.

          • Gort@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            For a moment there, I thought your second sentence was going to be confessing that you were also a landlord.

          • TAG@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            No, I’m a construction worker building houses and units.

            So you, the mastermind behind the housing crisis, blame the victim?

            Why do people have to rent? Because they cannot buy because construction workers refuse to build enough housing.

            Why do landlords charge so much rent? Well, the biggest contributor to that is mortgage costs, driven up by out of control labor costs for construction.

            The rest of the rent goes into savings by the landlord. The reality is, most renters are not as gentle with their homes as owners are and when something breaks, they demand that the landlord fix it and threaten to withhold rent until it is fixed. Facing financial ruin if they cannot make mortgage payments, the landlords are forced to turn to greedy construction workers preying on people backed into the corner. The construction workers take all of the set aside “excess rent” and more.

            So really, we should stop blaming land lords and start blaming construction workers. They could, literally, build a free house for everyone.

            I am joking, if that was not clear.