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"Why would it make any sense to leave a property in the bay area empty if you can add rent to the benefits of your investment?" A lot of these people are reall
by EliRivers 10y ago
"Why would it make any sense to leave a property in the bay area empty if you can add rent to the benefits of your investment?"
A lot of these people are really rich. They don't think like us poor people.
For many of them, the houses they buy and leave empty aren't investments. They already did their investing and made money. This is a key difference in the thinking; for many poor people, houses are considered an investment. These rich people aren't investing; they're spending or parking some of the money they made elsewhere. Buying a single apartment to rent out as an investment? How quaint. How small.
For some, this is something they buy to park their money in such a way that it can't be simply taken away (bank accounts can be frozen, gold or other such small items can be confiscated, but it's awfully difficult to simply take someone's house when that house is in a foreign country with strong property laws) and is unlikely to vanish overnight.
Secondly, it's my house, for me to live in if I feel like being in the area for a while. It's just nice to have my own place with my own personal belongings that I can leave there, and drop in or let family and friends use whenever I want. Sometimes, hotels just feel impersonal, and they're more public than I'd like, and I'd have to bring with me everything I needed.
What they are not doing is getting into the landlord business. As a very wealthy person with houses all over the world, I wouldn't want strangers living in my house. I wouldn't be able to keep my things there. I wouldn't be able to just use it or offer it to friends whenever I wanted. I could make a tiny bit of extra income by being a landlord? That extra income is worth less to me than having the house empty, available for me to use or dispose of however and whenever I feel like it.
- state_less 10y agoSure leaving a SV house on Marina Dr. empty is nice just in case I want to use it, but we ought not condone or enable this self-serving behavior. It's disrespectful. Why do so many in this country still admire these types of wealthy people?
- HarryHirsch 10y agoPeople have been conditioned to do so. There's no intrinsic reason why property rights should be protected to a greater degree than workers' rights, but libertarianism promotes awareness of one and not the other. It's kind of a circular reasoning, but useful as an observation.
- ende 10y agoThat's an overly broad and inaccurate depiction of libertarianism on the issue. A considerable segment of libertarianism advocates such measures as land value taxation, which places it directly at odds with the land owning class.
- digler999 10y ago> we ought not condone or enable this self-serving behavior. so what do you suggest? make it illegal to not live in your house ? Have a city inspector drive by once a week and see if lights are on and cars are parked nearby ? Every homeowner has to show up every 90 days to get their property ownership license stamped ? sure, having vacant houses is a waste of resources. but having wealthy people actually use their money - even in a wasteful manner - can be a good thing. more money moving through the economy is better than less money moving through the economy.
- fragmede 10y agoYou say that that like it's a crazy idea, but Vancouver's done just that, and enacted an empty house tax[1]. It took effect at the beginning of this year, and it's not a huge amount (~$7.5k) compared to the price of a house. What's interesting is the penalty for lying - $7.5k/day. How this works out remains to be see though. [1]http://fortune.com/2016/11/21/vancouver-vacant-property-tax-rentals/ http://fortune.com/2016/11/21/vancouver-vacant-property-tax-...
- digler999 10y agodid you read the comments yesterday about the traffic-ticket guy ? top comment was someone who was ticketed after he sold the car and SFO absolutely would not accept his indisputable proof of innocence. If SFO can't even apply a rule fairly with a $200 penalty, what do you think would happen if they were entrusted with meting out $7500/day penalties? I also have huge issues with the government deciding what you can do with your property after you've bought and paid for it. If they can change the terms of your contract, worth 6 and 7 figures, that not only erodes faith in the real estate market but it effectively means you never own it in the first place (inb4 the tax-protester argument of "you never owned it anyway because tax". yes I know that).
- EliRivers 10y agoOne part of my personal set of extreme political views is that private ownership of land should be impossible :)