Current Events > Being a landlord is the ultimate scam.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You get a tenant in the door, then raise his rent $50, or even $100, every year, on the year.

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But first you have to secure the rental property.
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lilORANG posted...

But first you have to secure the rental property.

Which isn't hard.

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Well, yeah.
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Cost of ownership such as rising property taxes and routine maintenance justifies the rent increase.

Returning_CEmen posted...

Cost of ownership such as rising property taxes and routine maintenance justifies the rent increase.

The cost of rent astronomically exceeds the cost of upkeep. The problem with landlording is one person expecting to be paid an exorbitant amount of rent by another just for owning a property.

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Shablagoo posted...

The cost of rent astronomically exceeds the cost of upkeep. The problem with landlording is one person expecting to be paid an exorbitant amount of rent by another just for owning a property.

The astronomical price is set my the market though. If it was truly exorbitant it would stay vacant.

No it wouldnt because people need a place to live and a small number of humans compared to the total population control all the land and property.

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Orlando_Jordan posted...

You get a tenant in the door, then raise his rent $50, or even $100, every year, on the year.

It's like scalping. Without even fully giving the other person the (in this case, essential to survival) scalped item.
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My rent has never been raised once in the fours years I have lived here. Maybe the American way isn't the only way to do things? I certainly experienced the bullshit described in this topic when I lived in America, but you shouldn't assume it should or has to be that way.

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Notti posted...

It's like scalping. Without even fully giving the other person the (in this case, essential to survival) scalped item.

LOL, exactly.

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Returning_CEmen posted...

Cost of ownership such as rising property taxes and routine maintenance justifies the rent increase.

Yeah this argument goes work at all. We built apartments for a really rich guy and we estimated what he earns a month; for each building he makes $75,000/Month. There are 5 buildings. He's getting $375,000/Month and $4,500,000/Year. The loan was $10,000,000. Hes going to have it paid off in 2.5 years and then sell the property at the 10 year mark when all of the warranties expire. Hes going to make pure profits of $33,750,000 for doing absolutely nothing.

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Perascamin posted...

Yeah this argument goes work at all. We built apartments for a really rich guy and we estimated what he earns a month; for each building he makes $75,000/Month. There are 5 buildings. He's getting $375,000/Month and $4,500,000/Year. The loan was $10,000,000. Hes going to have it paid off in 2.5 years and then sell the property at the 10 year mark when all of the warranties expire. Hes going to make pure profits of $33,750,000 for doing absolutely nothing.

holy shit, we live in a society

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Perascamin posted...

Yeah this argument goes work at all. We built apartments for a really rich guy and we estimated what he earns a month; for each building he makes $75,000/Month. There are 5 buildings. He's getting $375,000/Month and $4,500,000/Year. The loan was $10,000,000. Hes going to have it paid off in 2.5 years and then sell the property at the 10 year mark when all of the warranties expire. Hes going to make pure profits of $33,750,000 for doing absolutely nothing.

He's an intellectual con-man.

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Returning_CEmen posted...

Cost of ownership such as rising property taxes and routine maintenance justifies the rent increase.

most land lords dont do anything, mine does no maintenance at all

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skermac posted...

most land lords dont do anything, mine does no maintenance at all

Yup.

Also, when I lived in apartments it was either a small-time place where the landlord did the work himself or had maybe one or two people to help...so no routine maintenance ever got done, youd essentially only see him if it was a crisis situation or new renters were coming in so hed fix up some things.

OR the complex was operated by a larger company and they outsourced the maintenance and usually charged for anything that wasnt clearly a building issue.

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Conker posted...

Yup.

Also, when I lived in apartments it was either a small-time place where the landlord did the work himself or had maybe one or two people to help...so no routine maintenance ever got done, youd essentially only see him if it was a crisis situation or new renters were coming in so hed fix up some things.

OR the complex was operated by a larger company and they outsourced the maintenance and usually charged for anything that wasnt clearly a building issue.

Yeah I mean I lived in an apartment for about 3 years and we repaired a couple things ourselves for maybe $30 total. Like I said, cost of rent astronomically exceeds the cost of upkeep. We paid $800/month to stay there so subtract $30 plus even like $5,000 for repairs after we left (and we left it spotless so realistically they spent $0) and the landlord was clearly taking in an unbelievable amount of money from us for doing absolutely nothing.

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Imo every business transaction is a scam

You should only be able to sell things no one needs and you cant charge money for it
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Shablagoo posted...

Yeah I mean I lived in an apartment for about 3 years and we repaired a couple things ourselves for maybe $30 total. Like I said, cost of rent astronomically exceeds the cost of upkeep. We paid $800/month to stay there so subtract $30 plus even like $5,000 for repairs after we left (and we left it spotless so realistically they spent $0) and the landlord was clearly taking in an unbelievable amount of money from us for doing absolutely nothing.

They could have replaced like three water heaters for that $30
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Perascamin posted...

Yeah this argument goes work at all. We built apartments for a really rich guy and we estimated what he earns a month; for each building he makes $75,000/Month. There are 5 buildings. He's getting $375,000/Month and $4,500,000/Year. The loan was $10,000,000. Hes going to have it paid off in 2.5 years and then sell the property at the 10 year mark when all of the warranties expire. Hes going to make pure profits of $33,750,000 for doing absolutely nothing.

That doesn't sound like absolutely nothing to me

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I was a landlord for a few years, as my job offered me and my wife a live-on position at work so we rented our empty primary home.

One thing you don't hear much about is how scummy so many tenants can be. In the span of five years, we had tenants who:

• took advantage of our kindness by continually asking for rent extensions, the bill kept adding up and didn't pay; when we sent them an eviction warning notice, they added a padlock to the door so we couldn't get into our own house (and a nasty note on the door); once we started court proceedings, they abandoned the property without telling us and left all their crap in there for us to throw out (which included moldy furniture and stains on walls)
• other tenants who destroyed appliances and made holes in the walls and doors and refused to pay for them; the damage was much more than the deposit they paid so that came out of our pockets
• built a counter and made a few other minor improvements in the home (without asking us); upon moving out, charged us for the improvements that we didn't request nor approve; threatened to sue us for the work they did if we didn't pay their asking price
• Couldn't pay rent due to job layoff; offered to do work around the house and property in lieu of rent for a while; we agreed and had new contract made up. Three months later, no work was done and we had to evict him, while making no money during that time.

These were all separate tenants with separate issues.

With that being said, we did have a few really good tenants that were great to work with, paid on time, and gave plenty of notice before leaving.

But I can see why some landlords are ruthless when it comes to rent, deposits, background checks, rent increases, and lack of flexibility. They've likely been burned by bad tenants and the law in most states makes it almost impossible to evict someone in a timely manner, costing a lot of money in both court fees and lost rent during the process.

I still think it's scummy what landlords do and the whole concept of landlording when one person owns dozens of homes to rent, but I also have seen the other side and what goes on with so many tenants.

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Im glad Im not dealing with anything scummy with my current land lord. Dude repairs anything that goes wrong, lowered my rent by $25 after signing 2 year lease, and gifts me $100 every Christmas. I only pay $575 a month for a 2 bedroom near the big city.

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Zanzenburger posted...

I was a landlord for a few years, as my job offered me and my wife a live-on position at work so we rented our empty primary home.

One thing you don't hear much about is how scummy so many tenants can be. In the span of five years, we had tenants who:
* took advantage of our kindness by continually asking for rent extensions, the bill kept adding up and didn't pay; when we sent them an eviction warning notice, they added a padlock to the door so we couldn't get into our own house (and a nasty note on the door); once we started court proceedings, they abandoned the property without telling us and left all their crap in there for us to throw out (which included moldy furniture and stains on walls)
* other tenants who destroyed appliances and made holes in the walls and doors and refused to pay for them; the damage was much more than the deposit they paid so that came out of our pockets
* built a counter and made a few other minor improvements in the home (without asking us); upon moving out, charged us for the improvements that we didn't request nor approve; threatened to sue us for the work they did if we didn't pay their asking price
* Couldn't pay rent due to job layoff; offered to do work around the house and property in lieu of rent for a while; we agreed and had new contract made up. Three months later, no work was done and we had to evict him, while making no money during that time.

These were all separate tenants with separate issues.

With that being said, we did have a few really good tenants that were great to work with, paid on time, and gave plenty of notice before leaving.

But I can see why some landlords are ruthless when it comes to rent, deposits, background checks, rent increases, and lack of flexibility. They've likely been burned by bad tenants and the law in most states makes it almost impossible to evict someone in a timely manner, costing a lot of money in both court fees and lost rent during the process.

I still think it's scummy what landlords do and the whole concept of landlording when one person owns dozens of homes to rent, but I also have seen the other side and what goes on with so many tenants.

I'm certain that the landlord haters here would all fail miserably at it.

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Dunno why landlords get such hate, they're providing a to live.

I'll add: you can go a couple years without big maintenance costs and then suddenly have to drop 5 figures on a new boiler, or roof repair, or mold removal etc

Apartments are going to have all that and more
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Literally a Lord in a country that is not supposed to have Lords.

g980 posted...

I'll add: you can go a couple years without big maintenance costs and then suddenly have to drop 5 figures on a new boiler, or roof repair, or mold removal etc

Apartments are going to have all that and more

this is what scares me


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Zanzenburger posted...

One thing you don't hear much about is how scummy so many tenants can be. In the span of five years, we had tenants who:

These are all true. There are tons of bad tenants as well.
I do maintenance work in a lot of apartment buildings and the sorts of things we see are insane. Diapers flushed down toilets to spitefully clog the pipes, holes busted in ceilings into the apartment above, lipstick graffiti in the halls...

That all said, the landlords themselves almost exclusively tend to be scumbags so like... nobody's the good guy in these situations lol. It's like one of the post apocalyptic movies where everyone is a murderer/thief/warlord lol.


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the secret is that you only rent out to students or people with IT jobs

I think the real thing that makes landlords the true bad guy is that they're always the ones in a position of power.

I rent in a nice complex, compared to the places I do work, and all the tenants here are amiable, clean, not destructive, etc... and yet even with good tenants, the company that manages the building is incredibly cheap and slow to help problems because at the end of the day, they don't live here so they don't have real incentive to fix issues in a timely fashion.

Like, great example, the first floor of our building has had issues with the heat pump system for weeks, and then last week it just went out completely. People down there have been without heat during some of the coldest days of the winter. I imagine if there building manager lived here, they would've gotten the HVAC technician over wayyy sooner lol.


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ours goes up $30 per year which is fair

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Returning_CEmen posted...

The astronomical price is set my the market though. If it was truly exorbitant it would stay vacant.

Imagine actually believing this shit. You do realize that in large cities huge amounts of apartments are left off the market with no tenants to generate scarcity?

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Returning_CEmen posted...

Cost of ownership such as rising property taxes and routine maintenance justifies the rent increase.

Routine maintenance is something all property owners need to pay for, if they actually lived there they'd be paying for it. That's the thing though. :l They don't live there but still own it, so it's a basic responsibility of theirs that should not be passed along to the tenant.

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E32005 posted...

ours goes up $30 per year which is fair

what should be illegal is raising the rent by $1000 in one go, ive read about some people having to move because after being there a year their rent shot up $1200 a month or more

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It's literally the scalping of land and shelter. No different from people buying up a bunch of PS5s and creating artificial scarcity and then selling them at triple the price. Hell, at least the PS5 is actually yours.

You're literally paying monthly for something you don't even get to keep.

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If someone held your hand thru the entirety of purchasing a home, yall would understand what goes into it without putting actual work.

If you actually worked towards owning a home then you will really understand.

Same for those who never rented before. You wouldn't understand.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

You're literally paying monthly for something you don't even get to keep.

Yes that is what renting means

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

It's literally the scalping of land and shelter. No different from people buying up a bunch of PS5s and creating artificial scarcity and then selling them at triple the price. Hell, at least the PS5 is actually yours.

You're literally paying monthly for something you don't even get to keep.

Scalping relates more to selling land just like it would selling PS5s. Owners renting their homes out would be like PS5 owners renting out their consoles.

Zanzenburger posted...

One thing you don't hear much about is how scummy so many tenants can be

You shittin me? Insecure landlords like you say this shit all the time

Do people expect them to rent out a place at a loss or something?

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Flauros posted...

Do people expect them to rent out a place at a loss or something?

How about we just stop the exploitation of people literally just trying to have somewhere to sleep at night

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

How about we just stop the exploitation of people literally just trying to have somewhere to sleep at night

You're barkin up the wrong tree dawg. we have like a dozen or something landlords who post here

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

How about we just stop the exploitation of people literally just trying to have somewhere to sleep at night

What. These places are turned into long term homes so many. They require upkeep. That has to come from somewhere.

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

How about we just stop the exploitation of people literally just trying to have somewhere to sleep at night

And instead exploit people who build and maintain houses
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Flauros posted...

What. These places are turned into long term homes so many. They require upkeep. That has to come from somewhere.

Again, the cost of rent far, far, far, far exceeds the cost of upkeep. No one is arguing that the labor used to maintain a home shouldnt be compensated. But I shouldnt have to work hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of hours to compensate a landlords dozen hours of labor.

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g980 posted...

And instead exploit people who build and maintain houses

Landlords don't do any of that. They make phone calls to call people who actually do.

Well, sometimes they call people. Oftentimes they put it off because they don't want to.

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skermac posted...

what should be illegal is raising the rent by $1000 in one go, ive read about some people having to move because after being there a year their rent shot up $1200 a month or more

Yeah, it sucks if you rent in a city that doesn't have rent control laws. For one of my apartments, as soon as the lease ended, the landlord gave 60 day notice that the rent would be going from $1500 to $1800.

But not all landlords are bad. My grandmother is a landlord and she never goes up on her rent. She had tenants that paid the same rent for 13 years.

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Literally no case here, the value of the thing you own is much greater than the collective amount of rent you pay - sure that is paid over time but the amount of risk involved in that investment is twice over than what it is to rent and then some

If your response is well he doesnt have to assume that risk then youre making the same argument for you dont have to live there

People out here really trying to come up with all these egregious ways to make it sound likes its a case of humanity when you damn well know that doesnt exist in money games - this Reddit shit lol

Itd be much different if you didnt have the option to buy, but its literally right there for you - theres absolutely nothing stopping you from doing the same

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Guys why isnt everything free >:(

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We pay all bills and are responsible for like 95% of upkeep on our house. Still dropping 4 figures a month on rent for the privilege of having walls.

I know that's completely normal. Just seems like the world is ridiculous.

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