4 ms·
If a landlord does not maintain the property, over the long run they will not be able to charge the same rent versus a similar, maintained unit. I've used this
by lucaspm98 4y ago
If a landlord does not maintain the property, over the long run they will not be able to charge the same rent versus a similar, maintained unit.
I've used this to my advantage before. I moved into a building that needed a fresh coat of paint and had poor reviews of their maintenance and saved ~10-15% from market rent because I didn't care about appearances and am handy enough to fix a leaky faucet, etc. myself.
- ethanbond 4y agoSure they’ll lose relative to the place next door, but they’ll win relative to their same unit 10 years ago because the land underneath their building (and the amenities around it) have increased in value so dramatically.
- dionidium 4y agoRight, but who cares? Are we trying to soak rich people or are we trying to make sure there's an abundance of housing? Are we trying to help the poor? Or are we mostly concerned with knocking the rich down a peg?
- ethanbond 4y agoUhhh, I care that we create incentives that yield desired behavior: building high quality housing that supports growth and mitigates urban squalor. The current state is the actual opposite of that incentive. You can just buy up a parking lot in downtown Manhattan, pay ~$0 taxes on it, and keep it off the market while people continue to struggle to find housing and prices continue to climb. Then when the land has appreciated (through no actions of your own, in fact in spite of your own actions) you can sell for millions of dollars of upside.