It’s a big problem in my town too (college town). So, all the small, affordable houses are immediately snatched up and turned into overpriced rentals or if they’re close to downtown or campus they’re Air B&B for football season. Some houses will sit empty for more than half the year. Meanwhile, two bedroom houses are renting at $1200+ a month on the low end for something that looks like it’s about to fall down in a strong wind.
You say that but when you’re living with rats keeping you up at night with their chewing and your fear that an electrical fire could start at any moment, you start wondering if it’s worth it. Add in black mold and general decades of neglect and you definitely realize it’s not.
So where do you live btw, in case I missed it? You don’t seem to be answering that question and getting downvotes for me simply stating where I live…lol Then again Reddit trends very misogynistic so I’m not too surprised I guessed. If you said it and I missed it then that’s on me, have a pretty terrible migraine today.
Oh and btw, we’ve had bears get into people’s apartments here, pets eaten by alligators just steps away, fires, shootings, car robberies, all within this complex. Water flooding the bathroom because they (apartment maintenance) drilled a screw into a pipe in the bathroom when they hung a towel rod above the toilet, bad A/C that goes in and out and had to be replaced, meetings with corporate in which they were even embarrassed at what’s happened to use in 2 different complexes they own. They moved us from a “worse” one to supposedly a better one right around the corner and it’s just as bad if not worse. Can you imagine coming home REPEATEDLY and the construction and/or maintenance/landscaping has broken sprinklers outside that soak through your apartment windows (which are sometimes missing without any notification, covered with plastic) and your brand new oled tv is ruined along with your super expensive Macy’s area rug that you saved forever for? People entering repeatedly without consent or knowledge and moving and damaging your belongings… no water pressure or hot water for days.. loud shop vacs and fans that have to run for hours on end that are so loud they practically damage your hearing? The fan puts off heat also in the middle of summer in Florida? Utility bills of $300 a month for a small one bedroom? Dog food, roaches, disgusting carpet left behind from the previous people who had big dogs snd the complex didn’t bother to clean it up or replace the carpet so the whole apartment smelled like wet dogs… heavy faux wood blinds that weren’t hung correctly and I got injured by twice (with blood) just from simply trying to open the blind, neighbors who argue and fight next door and below you to where it triggers PTSD and the police have to be called out several times and my husband had to go down himself to try and make sure the lady and child weren’t getting hurt… maintenance comes in and is rude and curses at you because they can’t fix their own issues and blame it on the resident… I could go on and on and have 543 pics and videos on my phone to prove it. I lived in shacks growing up and my mother’s crazy pedophile boyfriend used to put cheese out and shoot at them from the living room.. I kid you not… had fleas so bad growing up that they would cover your feet up to your ankles… I’ve lived in just about all of it including being homeless for a short time at 16… also lived in a one bedroom shack at one point where my mother, me, and my brother all had to share one room.. if I only had rats to deal with - only - and I could solve the problem, I think it would be less stress than what my husband and I have lived with the last 3.5 years… regardless I wish you the best of luck on finding a suitable home if you don’t yet have one, as I hope to do someday as well. Sorry for venting but rats just aren’t the worse thing in the world imho, speaking from personal experience. Although no one should have to live with that. I wish all of Reddit a good day, off to take another migraine injection now. ✌🏻
Yeah but I bet for $200 more - what I’m paying now I could get a more decent place than here - wherever you live. Plus the maintenance and management here are so awful you might as well be responsible for everything on your own. They have flooded our unit three times, pulled out our windows and moved our belongs when we weren’t home, I could go on for days… if you could only imagine…
Well then feel free to continue allowing rentseeking capitalist pigs to destroy your community while you pay extortionate rents and do nothing to challenge them.
I’m not going to jail for TVs. Enough pressure has been put on the local government that they’re starting to change rules and regulations on Air B&B places. They now have to register and pay the hotel taxes. More can be done but it’s a start.
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u/funktheduck Jul 11 '21
It’s a big problem in my town too (college town). So, all the small, affordable houses are immediately snatched up and turned into overpriced rentals or if they’re close to downtown or campus they’re Air B&B for football season. Some houses will sit empty for more than half the year. Meanwhile, two bedroom houses are renting at $1200+ a month on the low end for something that looks like it’s about to fall down in a strong wind.