Reason I’m asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say “city” think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn’t seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I’m not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don’t overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.
I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don’t see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.
Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the “landlords are bad” sentinment?
Are they renting out for as cheap as they can afford? Modest profit aside is fair.
If they’re like “oh wow. I can raise from 1800$/mo to 2500$/mo bc everyone else is”. That’s where it’s concerning.
Personally, if I was in their shoes, I would interview and find a struggling family and subsidize their rent from the other tenants for two of the 5 houses for as long as I could afford to.
(I own nothing right now, it’s looking bleak)
Edit: I might not be remembering all this accurately, but the numbers I remembered overhearing them talk should be mostly correct.
Right now, listings typically start at $1600/mo with average looking at around $1800 and there are even some at like $2000 up to $2400 all the same 3 bedroom 1 bathroom houses.
I think her properties (again, I only heard her and my parents talking, a young adult like me don’t typically talk about these stuff) are from $1300-$1500; with tenants that started renting maybe 2-4 years ago at the lower end of that range, and the tenants that started renting eaelier this year in the higher end of the spectrum. I think I heard her saying she had a tenant at around $950 when she stsrted doing this like maybe 7 years ago, and she didn’t really raise rent much because she didn’t want to lose tenants, and they oay on time, so she kept it at $950 while everyone else raise their rent. Then like 5 years after their lease, she raised it like like $50, then a year later raised it another $50. So at like $1050, meanwhile, the starting price that year was $1400 with average at $1600 and others even higher. I mean, the new tenants she got that year, she priced it at $1300, but she didn’t raise those old tenants, at least not very much.
I don’t know if she did this because out of the kindness of her heart or not, but mostly because she didn’t want to lose tenants so she priced it about $100-200 below the market’s lowest price, then keep the price mostly unchanged until the tenants decide to move out. Then start the new lease at $100-$200 below market’s lowest price of that year. That seems to be her MO.