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Seattle's push to add additional regulation, compliance, fees and inspections has resulted in an exodus of small landlords, which are down anywhere from 19% to
by pnw 13d ago
Seattle's push to add additional regulation, compliance, fees and inspections has resulted in an exodus of small landlords, which are down anywhere from 19% to 22% in four years depending on how you slice it, and an explosion in large landlords which are up 77% in the same period.
The city has basically consolidated the rental market so it works best for large corporations. Was that the intent?
- tonyhb 13d agoSmall landlords don't own apartment buildings. They buy houses/units to rent, lowering availability for buyers. So, you'd at least want to look at the number of new apartment rentals available plus the number of first time house buyers to get a better picture.
- dmitrygr 13d ago> lowering availability for buyers This makes an unsubstantiated assumption that everyone would rather buy and can afford to, ignoring that people have reasons to rent.
- tonyhb 13d agoNo, it doesn't. It states that if a landlord has 3 houses and exits the landlord market, those houses are either kept unused or sold and are available for new buyers.
- dmitrygr 13d agoSold...to a large landlord company... yes That is what happened in Seattle
- InitialLastName 13d agoAssuming the same homes, which group do you think is larger: A) Households who are currently renting who would prefer to own their home B) Households who currently own who would prefer to be renting I'm going to guess A >>> B, but I've never seen the data.
- dmitrygr 13d ago"prefer" is irrelevant. I prefer to be a billionaire and own an island. Question is of ability.
- standeven 13d agoSmall landlords also rent out basement suites and carriage homes on their own property, no? Those may very well sit empty if the return isn’t worth the risk. Editing to just add: I absolutely support transparent pricing for rental properties.
- EA-3167 13d agoThey don't own the buildings, but it's frequently part of a condo association and they own a unit or two.
- tonyhb 13d agoYes, this is the same as buying a unit and renting as in my original post.
- pishpash 13d agoCausation or correlation (if that)? I doubt small time landlords are charging these fees anyway.
- deleted 13d ago[deleted]
- dghlsakjg 13d agoCan you cite what laws you are talking about. The one being discussed here does not seem to target small landlords, but big predatory ones. There aren't any additional fees or inspections and compliance is as simple as only charging one amount for rent and not tacking on additional fees. My experience when renting in Seattle a decade ago was that it wasn't particularly hard to find a place, and that the only places that dealt in these bullshit fees were the big corporate landlords.
- gs17 13d agoI think this might help small landlords out a bit. Big corporate landlords can easily add nonsense fees to make the rent look low. Small landlords wouldn't bother charging you to use your own mailbox and usually don't have common areas to charge you for access to. With things made transparent, the small landlords can simply offer a price, and be on a more level playing field.