Flippanarchy

Builders are doing pretty good. When you can ignore minimum standards and sell a house for a million that you spent a couple hundred thousand to build, you can rake in the cash.

No matter how much builders make, if there is no limitation on the use of housing as speculative investment assets there will never be enough houses because speculative investors don't buy houses for people to live in, they buy houses to ride the price bubble and sell later for a profit.

Just look at what has been going on in London (UK) for more than a decade - certain buildings made for sale to investors are almost empty of residents even though all the units were bought: the buyers simply don't live there and don't even want to rent because they don't want the hassle of tenants or the loss in value from the apartment actually getting used (this is more so in the Luxury segment were there's probably more units than people living in London who can and are willing to pay luxury rents)

With speculative investment the Demand side of the housing market is not limited to "how many people need a house", it's limited by that PLUS "how much money do speculative investors have to invest in housing", so that's basically how much money all high net worth individuals combined are willing to put in it plus how much money can banks lend against real-estate as collateral, and in this new Era of High Inequality the first number is huge and given that banking nowadays operates on Fractional Reserve Banking rules (basically banks can create from thin air up to 97% of their loans) that second number is even more larger.

Investor demand and cheap finance on the Demand side of housing are driving the realestate bubble way more than reduced construction is driving it on the Supply side.

And that goes double for the actual carpenters, plumbers, and electricians that do the actual building.

No I don't think you're a bad person. I don't even think what you are doing is bad. I think with regards to the system, you're right in a sense, but similar to the way that claiming "personal responsibility" can shield the system from responsibility, I think claiming systematic cause when it is actually individual, or even a bit more balanced between the two, can shield the individual from taking responsibility. But I agree that it is largely a systematic issue.

It reminds me of the movie "Sorry to Bother You" (written and directed by revolutionary Marxist Communist, Boots Riley). At the beginning, LaKeith Stanfield's character is jobless, living in his uncle's garage. His uncle, not exactly Mr. Moneybags himself, hassles Stanfield for this month's rent. Stanfield, somewhat sheepishly, but righteously indignant, comes back with like "yeah well you're oppressing be because you're a landlord" and his uncle hits back, "if you don't pay your rent, I lose my house and we are both homeless". Later in the movie, which explores themes of middle-class opportunism, imperialism, chattel wage slavery, genetic modification and billionaire decadence, that early scene looks more like a case of poor people fighting each other over petty differences driven by systems that benefit billionaires.

But I believe that "middle class" consciousness is some stubborn bullshit that comes on quick. We have to be able to check ourselves, our perceptions and evaluations of others. I think its really important for people to stay in tune with their community, participate in mutual aid or poli organizing if possible to keep challenging our preconceptions.

The thing is, being middle class wears you down. I've known lots of small landlords through prior job experience. The most common kind is like you. Works on their own properties, puts their own money up for repairs, hustles. Its much different than how a lot of anarchists and leftists describe landlords as never doing any work. Granted, some of the work they do, like evicting people, is work, its just like evil. But also I've seen absolute horrors wrt trashing out an old apartment or rental property. Like, I fully sympathize with someone who had to pay too much to live in some shitty apartment, not even all the way shitty because it belongs to a slumlord, but because the tenants just trash it. Drug addiction, poverty, economic discrimination, all systematic. But that shit wears people down. The landlord basically have "no choice" but to evict, or they lose the whole value of the house. But, you can see how its turning middle class people against their poorer tenants, and vice versa. I've had many landlords who I'm sure were alright in some other context, but never befriended one. I've known landlords who always "did their best" for tenants, but the best for a tenant is never quite as good as it is for the owner. How can it be? In capitalism, you put people beneath you or you get pushed down, at least, that is the first impulse of the middle class, who enjoys some some human rights as economic freedoms, but constantly feels like its being taken away.

Being a landlord materially sets you against the poor and the left. You come here and everyone says you're evil, go almost anywhere else and people will tell you you aren't doing anything wrong. Its self reinforcing. You don't have to be a bad person to become a bad landlord. The system that legitimizes these contradictory social relations, that compelled you to take one role in the social antagonism while it compels others to assume the other role, will make you a worse person. It will prejudice you and give you good reason to do things you never would have done before, without those pressures.

Frankly, I think owning a single property and renting it is fine as a transitional situation. But transitional to what? You're not really gonna make a "living" by only owning one property, and its gonna end up being more trouble than its worth unless you use it to expand. The more properties someone takes on, the more likely it is to have to do awful shit like call the sheriff to evict somebody. And at every step it will appear like you're not doing anything wrong.

Even of being a landlord doesn't make you a bad person, I believe it will never make someone a good person. If we take seriously the question of "who do I want to become" keep in mind that the unjust system is more than happy to make you or me landlords, because once we are, then innocently defending whatever meager middle class gains we are able to make in our own lives will require making the lives of countless others worse.

I also do yardwork, snow removal, maintenance, and I pay out of my ass when anything breaks because I have an obligation to provide for my tenant and I take that seriously.

You're right, it is the system that is the problem. The relationship between you and your tenant is unequal. There is nothing forcing you to do right by your tenant by performing all of that maintenance work because you have not entered into an equal agreement with your tenant. You could stop doing all those things and your tenant would have no recourse because they aren't paying you to perform any service, they are paying you for the privilege of staying in your property. You may feel that you have an obligation to do those things but you aren't actually obligated by law, and that's a problem.

I superficially agree with you hut find that inconvenient to practice. I'm a good person. So clearly landlords are good sometimes.

Fuck me. Take me now.

So do you think I'm a piece of shit for being a landlord?

If, after all of those expenses (and sure, I guess you can include your labor. If you do it yourself), you are still turning a profit? Yeah, kind of.

Clearly you do

Welcome to Lemmy, where nuance goes to fucking roll over and die. I volunteer teaching English as a second language, and encourage the use of AI as a learning tool, while being very clear about its many dangers, but people here love to crucify me for it.

I have rented for years, because I have always hated living far from my job, and I don't drive. Lots of people here foam at the mouth at me choosing that convenience, and at the fact that I finally got a house, using my life's savings, and now that I am divorced and no longer need that much room, I'm just renting the upper floor.

Same as you, I either fix everything myself, or if I'm not qualified, hire someone to do it. My tenants love the fairly priced apartment, precisely because the price is fair. Cheap enough that them both can work and study, while still being profitable enough for me to help myself pay for the bills, taxes and mortgage.

A lot of people just swallowed the lie whole, thinking that landlords are the scum of the earth, equating it to shit like what Ticketmaster, LiveNation, Blackstone Inc., BP, UnitedHealthcare or Anthem do.

But most of them are just keyboard warriors who won't move a finger to help others in need, believing themselves righteous just because they didn't have the opportunities we had.

And yeah, I charge my tenant well over half the mortgage.

So do you think I'm a piece of shit for being a landlord?

Yes