[cj]

This may be hard for HN readers to believe given the anti-employer sentiment in many threads here, but...

My friend owns 15+ apartment buildings in "not so desirable" neighborhoods. He deals with a lot of tenants who don't pay rent and eventually he has to evict them.

3 months ago he was evicting someone for not paying rent for 12+ months, and a week before the police were going to help get the tenant out of the apartment, his employer stepped in and paid the landlord his back-rent in full.

The tenant was employed at a local roofing company. Apparently he was a good roofer, and the owner of the company didn't want to see the worker homeless, so he stepped in and paid a year of the guy's back rent. (And here's the twist... after his employer stepped in and settled his back rent, the tenant still refuses to pay rent, and will be evicted again 6-9 months from now)

Maybe debt collectors have had similar luck as the landlord in this story, but that's probably a secondary motivation. Primary motivation for the debt collector is intimidation. Debt collection agencies are ruthless in all ways imaginable.

[flangola7]

Landlords that own entire apartment buildings are parasites, so there's not going to be very much sympathy. Most parasite species are mitigated much more directly once detected by a human host.

[wongarsu]

It can be a mutually beneficial relationship: you want to live somewhere, but with the flexibility to be able to move on relatively short notice with minimal hassle, and without all the work, capital requirements and risk that comes with owning a house or condo. Somebody else owns an apartment building, and is already taking care of maintenance, paperwork etc. A perfect match.

The problem in the current market is that in many places there's far more demand than supply, so there's little pressure on the landlord to actually be a good landlord. If people could actually find other apartments at a similar price point in the area, people would just move out when the landlord doesn't uphold their part of the bargain, and competition would drive prices down to a point where the financial difference between buying and renting is a reasonable fee for the conveniences and flexibility of renting. But that's not the world most American cities live in. Instead tenants are stuck because there are no viable alternatives on the market, and some landlords shamelessly exploit that.

[antisthenes]

What's your address and how soon can I move in?

DM is okay, if you don't want to post it on the internet.

[orestarod]

Why should they welcome you in the house they use to LIVE in? As opposed a house they use to make money out of, without contributing anything to society, like landlords do?

[eadmund]

Landlords contribute plenty to society: they provide optionality. Without landlords, folks would be forced to pay or borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of time to build or purchase homes[0]; they would be forced to incur more severe transaction costs (having to sell) when moving; they would be forced to find the funds to handle maintenance issues; they would be forced to have a significant portion of their net worth tied up in housing. A tenant avoids all of that: he only has to make a relatively small deposit; he can leave relatively quickly and easily; he can rely on someone else to handle maintenance; he doesn’t care if housing prices decrease. Those benefits are not free, of course: they cost money, because they have value.

Indeed, given how many people flat-out couldn’t afford to buy in a world without landlords, landlords prevent homelessness. Just like farmers, distributors and grocers prevent starvation.

[antisthenes]

There are plenty of live-in landlords that rent rooms to people and live in the same house.

Many renter commenters assume that anyone owning a house automatically owes the society to provide housing to those that don't. Of course such people don't actually like taking care of the house or pretend that depreciation and maintenance don't exist.

You should probably fix that also, no? Unless you want all housing to look like abandoned blocks in Detroit.

[BasedAnon]

I'm kind of tired of this thinly-veiled socialist sentiment.

[aaomidi]

Then offer a proper argument that supports making profit off of owning property.

[BasedAnon]

i have the power to do so, and i like to do so, so i will do so. what's your argument for stopping me?