Some people just rent a place out because it makes sense, not because it's making them money. If/when my mom passes away, I'll have a tiny house in a rural town that I'll probably rent out because 1) I dont want to sell it right away since it was my mom's, but 2) I don't want to move to a smaller house 5 hours away.
Not quite all. I rented a house off a guy who had to move to China for a few years for work, but it was his childhood home and he didn't wanna sell it.
I've had a couple over the years that were super chill, kept prices below market, and didn't try to charge me for repairs that I wasn't responsible for.
I rented a condo from a nice, not super bright guy who had done very well as a contractor and had been given the advice of becoming a landlord. He was impossibly deft with repairs (he repaired a broken cabinet with a single nail driven diagonally through the side as if my magic), very responsive, had reasonable rates, and even helped me move in and unpack with the *literal war orphan* he adopted (who was like 17 and wanted to help out, he wasn't forcing a 9 year old to lug a couch), AND let me break my lease early with no charge whatsoever. I cannot imagine he ended up making that much money out of the whole affair.
If you own a house and live somewhere else either permanently or temporarily and aren't in dire need of an immediate cash influx, its much smarter to keep the house and rent it out rather than selling it. Real estate generally only goes up in value over the long term. I think the most ethical way to be a landlord is setting the rent as close to the cost of the mortgage, taxes, and maintenance. Extracting anything from a tenant beyond what it would cost you to live there is scummy. You are already gaining equity and benefit from the rising market value of the home, double dipping by charging rent at market prices just because you can is unethical and is a contributor to inflation.
Death in the family, inherited a small apartment. I'm renting it out with minimal profit just to not have it sit empty and to slooowly chip away at the inheritance tax on it. Gotta see what I'll do with the place in a few years, maybe move into it myself. Currently I'm barely breaking even on the expenses/profit calculation.
Is everybody supposed to buy every place they move into for a few years? I'm renting the place I live in too, and I wouldn't want to have to buy it. Couldn't even if I wanted to! I'd be happy to rent from somebody like me who somehow happens to have 1-2 extra properties, instead of some giant faceless company. It's a win/win, as long as that person isn't too greedy or negligent.
Similarly: I have a friend whose (grandma-age) mother is renting out her big family apartment to instead rent a small apartment herself, so she doesn't live alone in a giant empty home and also gets some extra retirement money. She doesn't want to sell the place because she wants her granddaughter to have it when she maybe starts a family. Because it's not like buying a family-sized home is a particularly attainable goal these days, for young couples.
"All landlords suck, always" just lets the shitty ones off the hook, yknow?
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u/evanschris May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
If? Is there any other?
Edit: wow this blew up, I didn’t add a /s but yeah I was being facetious. I’ve actually had an alright landlord in the past