this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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Some folks are able to buy a home but choose to rent because they can also afford a landlord that'll actually do the job a landlord is hypothetically there to do and fix the place up if there's an issue
Weird to me how hypothetical a landlord's "job" is compared to, y'know, any actual job.
Yeah they're all parasites unless I'm demanding they fix something then I need them and life sucks unless they do a bunch of work.
People love to trash landlords for not working 24/7 the same way they trash teachers for having summers off, but when it rains it pours for landlords and problems always come at the worst time.
There are good landlords and there are bad landlords. Just like tenants.
The difference here is teachers provide a valuable service, and landlords do not. I don't care how good the good ones are, their entire job is "had enough money some years ago to buy a building, and now lives off other people's income".
In all my years renting from individuals to big property management companies, good and bad alike, never was it easy to get things fixed which is apparently the only advantage to renting. Days/weeks/months go by, all the while I'm dumping money into their pockets for the privilege.
At least when owning, the money I have to spend on my mortgage and repairs is going toward the value of my house, and not the ethereal void that is a landlord.
Landlords do provide a service. You said it yourself, they handle building maintenance. Are they generally lazy and overcharging, also yes
A proper landlord pays someone to maintain their buildings.
The landlord does nothing except sit on their arse and collect money they use to pay the people to maintain their properties.
Even if a particular landlord is a decent person otherwise, landlording is wrong. It is the hoarding of essential resources to for the purposes of being released for profit. If landlording was restricted to renting vacation houses (in appropriate areas) or something it might be OK.
The advantages of a rental (not worrying directly about maintenance, just paying someone to take care of it) can be had with a property management company.
Being a nonprofit landlord is also ok, imo. If you're just charging enough to pay the mortgage, taxes, insurance, upkeep, etc. then you're using your equity or credit score to help another person have a place to live when they wouldn't otherwise be able to qualify for a loan. If I'm ever in a position to be a landlord, I'll probably do it that way; and by the time you pay the equivalent of the cost of the home in rent if you want to own the place, I'll sign it over to you. Kind of a rent-to-own thing.
Teachers don’t get paid for summers off. Teachers often work summers anyway.
Boo hoo it's so painful to own other people's homes 🙄
Wait that's what landlords have to do. Idk how it is in America. But in Europe is pretty much a law
The u.s. mostly only uses civil enforcement. If your landlord isn't upholding their end of the contract then the contract is void and you can move somewhere else. There's rarely any mechanism to make them do anything.
It's law in Canada too, but the Landlord Tenant board is so backed up with complaints that you'll have to wait ages for a response to anything but emergencies
In theory American renters are protected by the contract they sign with their landlord, with some basic protections guaranteed by law.
In practice,
landlords have essentially no competition, since they own many properties in an area, meaning that contract terms rarely differ in any way that matters;
landlords don't compete meaningfully with home ownership (see OP);
alleging breach of contract requires an expensive court case against a landlord who has more money than you and can hire a better lawyer;
those basic legal protections are rarely enforced, and when they are it's in civil court, not criminal court, meaning that they can be ordered to comply, but any penalty is financial (and only a pittance goes to the claimant), considered by many landlords to be the cost of doing business and an acceptable loss.
It is one of the perks of renting the landlords have to fix the place for you. It will not be up to code for them to rent it out.
Unfortunately "up to code" leaves a lot of room for cutting corners. You'll be safe but not necessarily comfortable.
True that is a government issue because they write the codes.
Yea. Except those are also made by people who have money, aka landlords.
Not exactly
Also if you don't want to be stuck in a particular city or neighborhood for long, renting is a better option.
I was happy to rent in my 20s because I'd move to a new town every year, trying to find the one I liked best.