> "But my rent certainly went to pay his mortgage on the property" Um, yeah. That's the way it works for property investors. Find a property, borrow money to p

> "But my rent certainly went to pay his mortgage on the property" Um, yeah. That's the way it works for property investors. Find a property, borrow money to purchase, rent out property to cover mortgage costs. This happens at low scale (individuals) and high scale (property investment companies, REIs, etc.). > "I now have nothing to show for the $thousands I paid him" Presumably, you had a job at the time, for which you decided it was an equitable trade to have the job and not buy a property to live. You made a choice, and the outcome from that choice is what you have to show. You do the math on the rent/buy decision. In places like New York, San Francisco, etc. it's very common to come out on the side of renter instead of buyer. If you're in the mid-west, you are probably buying. But don't say you didn't have nothing to show for the rent.