4 ms·

Well rent doesn't create any wealth either, you're just paying monthly a landlord so he doesn't have to work. If you want to create value, you should make sure

Well rent doesn't create any wealth either, you're just paying monthly a landlord so he doesn't have to work. If you want to create value, you should make sure that housing prices (both renting and buying) stay low. This way not only wealth can go to other investments, but more people can take the risk to start a business if they don't have the risk to be unable to pay their rent or mortgage.

cesarbs 10y ago
> paying monthly a landlord so he doesn't have to work. Try telling that to a landlord. Being one is a job in itself - or you have to pay someone else a good chunk of money to do the work for you.
- justincormack 10y ago
  That's because it is an amateur business with people doing it in a way that does not scale. Large scale renting is vastly more efficient.
oldmanjay 10y ago
I suppose that it's emotionally satisfying to denigrate people for having something you want, but does it truly make a useful contribution?
ythl 10y ago
Being a landlord sucks, you don't know what you are talking about. Tenants are terrible for wear and tear on your house. Since they don't own the house they don't treat it with care. Lots of maintenance and tenant problems that need solving.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  That's one good thing about large-scale home-ownership: people tend to take better care of things they own, so overall costs to society for housing may be lower that way. It also makes people more invested in their communities, in theory. I was a landlord for a while during the realty boom. It really did suck. However, it varied wildly by tenant: some tenants took good care of the place, others didn't. So when a tenant left and I had to get a house ready to re-rent, some were a relative cakewalk, while others required a ton of work (like one idiot who drilled a bunch of giant holes in the walls for cables for their A/V equipment). The worst part about it was being on the hook for major repairs, and having them happen at unpredictable times.
- analog31 10y ago
  I have friends in some of the rental neighborhoods in my locale. How do tenants destroy the outside of houses, make roofs leak, or fail to turn on the heat?
  - Jack000 10y ago
    oh I have some experience with this. The answer is a marijuana grow op - it was my dads place but I don't believe we were ever compensated after the police raid... Bad tenants are probably over represented in the rental pool since they're looking for a new place all the time.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  $2400 a month for a 1br apt built in the 60s covers a lot of wear and tear, especially when you have maintenance staff making $10/hr doing all the work. If I add up all of my maintenance costs over the past 5 years, I'd be very surprised if it totaled over $1k (paint that they charged me for, a small window, a small drywall patch, carpet that they charged me for) . It's also hard to feel bad for home owners renting half of the property they live in to cover their mortgage while their property values increase 10% a year. Apartment residents meanwhile are building zero equity and eroding their chances of ever owning property. Real estate is a hugely profitable business due to the perpetual license granted by the government to extract infinite rent from the property. I have friends who just pay professional management companies to do billing, maintenance, and lease management for their properties. All they do is write a check to the management company and they get to keep all the profits. No, I don't think what they're doing is a real job, they just happened to have enough money to afford a few down payments on houses, and now they're getting something for nothing.
walshemj 10y ago
In the UK a mortgage if you can get one is way cheaper than renting for the equivalent property.
- nvarsj 10y ago
  Not in London.

cesarbs 10y ago

> paying monthly a landlord so he doesn't have to work. Try telling that to a landlord. Being one is a job in itself - or you have to pay someone else a good chunk of money to do the work for you.

justincormack 10y ago
That's because it is an amateur business with people doing it in a way that does not scale. Large scale renting is vastly more efficient.

oldmanjay 10y ago

I suppose that it's emotionally satisfying to denigrate people for having something you want, but does it truly make a useful contribution?

ythl 10y ago

Being a landlord sucks, you don't know what you are talking about. Tenants are terrible for wear and tear on your house. Since they don't own the house they don't treat it with care. Lots of maintenance and tenant problems that need solving.

Grishnakh 10y ago
That's one good thing about large-scale home-ownership: people tend to take better care of things they own, so overall costs to society for housing may be lower that way. It also makes people more invested in their communities, in theory. I was a landlord for a while during the realty boom. It really did suck. However, it varied wildly by tenant: some tenants took good care of the place, others didn't. So when a tenant left and I had to get a house ready to re-rent, some were a relative cakewalk, while others required a ton of work (like one idiot who drilled a bunch of giant holes in the walls for cables for their A/V equipment). The worst part about it was being on the hook for major repairs, and having them happen at unpredictable times.
analog31 10y ago
I have friends in some of the rental neighborhoods in my locale. How do tenants destroy the outside of houses, make roofs leak, or fail to turn on the heat?
- Jack000 10y ago
  oh I have some experience with this. The answer is a marijuana grow op - it was my dads place but I don't believe we were ever compensated after the police raid... Bad tenants are probably over represented in the rental pool since they're looking for a new place all the time.
seanp2k2 10y ago
$2400 a month for a 1br apt built in the 60s covers a lot of wear and tear, especially when you have maintenance staff making $10/hr doing all the work. If I add up all of my maintenance costs over the past 5 years, I'd be very surprised if it totaled over $1k (paint that they charged me for, a small window, a small drywall patch, carpet that they charged me for) . It's also hard to feel bad for home owners renting half of the property they live in to cover their mortgage while their property values increase 10% a year. Apartment residents meanwhile are building zero equity and eroding their chances of ever owning property. Real estate is a hugely profitable business due to the perpetual license granted by the government to extract infinite rent from the property. I have friends who just pay professional management companies to do billing, maintenance, and lease management for their properties. All they do is write a check to the management company and they get to keep all the profits. No, I don't think what they're doing is a real job, they just happened to have enough money to afford a few down payments on houses, and now they're getting something for nothing.

walshemj 10y ago

In the UK a mortgage if you can get one is way cheaper than renting for the equivalent property.

nvarsj 10y ago
Not in London.