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There is zero reason for an investor to leave a home empty, you still get the benefit of appreciation when you are making rental income. Its foolish not to rent

There is zero reason for an investor to leave a home empty, you still get the benefit of appreciation when you are making rental income. Its foolish not to rent in that case. All that does is apply the label "foolish" to all the people who buy up property and leave it empty. It seems they don't care about being labelled foolish by the likes of the HN community; they still do it. Perhaps they have different motivations or perspectives on this.

valuearb 10y ago
Sure, there are "speculators" and almost exclusively speculation is foolish. It seems great though during a bubble. The best real estate investors who make the real money over the long haul buy properties where the net rents (after maintenance costs) pay for the purchase costs. Then appreciation is simply gravy.
- zzalpha 10y ago
  Sure, there are "speculators" and almost exclusively speculation is foolish. And yet they do it, and in doing so are driving up home prices in many markets across the globe... which is the core thesis of this article. Your style of argumentation, where you state what people should do, and use that as the basis for ignoring the actual facts, is incredibly ineffective. I understand you have an idealized model of the way capitalism and real estate work. That idealized model does not, in fact, align with reality. In reality, real estate speculation is in fact a real thing, that happens in real places all over the world. So long as demand causes prices to rise significantly faster than those assets depreciate, this type of speculation will happen. Your personal value judgments regarding people engaged in such speculation don't, in fact, cause those people to not exist.
  - valuearb 10y ago
    In fact, there is little evidence many investors don't rent a their investment properties. Stories about how them are almost exclusivily in areas where landlord/renter laws are so onerous in favor of tenants that there are risks in renting if you want to be able sell the property any time soon. But in areas without those laws, no one is going to give up an additional income stream that will increase their returns substantially.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]

valuearb 10y ago

Sure, there are "speculators" and almost exclusively speculation is foolish. It seems great though during a bubble. The best real estate investors who make the real money over the long haul buy properties where the net rents (after maintenance costs) pay for the purchase costs. Then appreciation is simply gravy.

zzalpha 10y ago
Sure, there are "speculators" and almost exclusively speculation is foolish. And yet they do it, and in doing so are driving up home prices in many markets across the globe... which is the core thesis of this article. Your style of argumentation, where you state what people should do, and use that as the basis for ignoring the actual facts, is incredibly ineffective. I understand you have an idealized model of the way capitalism and real estate work. That idealized model does not, in fact, align with reality. In reality, real estate speculation is in fact a real thing, that happens in real places all over the world. So long as demand causes prices to rise significantly faster than those assets depreciate, this type of speculation will happen. Your personal value judgments regarding people engaged in such speculation don't, in fact, cause those people to not exist.
- valuearb 10y ago
  In fact, there is little evidence many investors don't rent a their investment properties. Stories about how them are almost exclusivily in areas where landlord/renter laws are so onerous in favor of tenants that there are risks in renting if you want to be able sell the property any time soon. But in areas without those laws, no one is going to give up an additional income stream that will increase their returns substantially.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]