Would some sort of national rent control be feasible? Like, a certain % of apartments in any given town or city would be required to have rent people can actually afford?
I struggle with this type of stuff because my father-in-law is a landlord. He started investing in real estate 40 years ago. He is a retired general contractor who still does pretty much all the work himself at 70+ years old. Many of his tenants have been in place for 10+ years and he rarely raises rents, meaning that all his properties are significantly below market. But during the pandemic when eviction moratoriums went in place, some people chose to stop paying rent, some properties were destroyed to the tune of 10s of thousands of dollars, which would have been much more if he wasn't bringing them back to habitability himself, plus lost rent.
There are definitely issues with slumlords, but a lot of these policies have actually encouraged consolidation to the worst corporations, because they're so big they can absorb the costs across their massive portfolios, while the small landlords you'd actually want to own your rental have been forced to sell because they can't deal with this shit.
I also lived abroad for several years, and as a home owner now, I really miss renting in places with decent protections and not having to deal with all this shit myself. Home ownership should not be a measure of anything. It's complicated, expensive, and really limits your mobility.
So maybe let's not shit on the concept of landlords, but instead on the fact that the government has abdicated its responsibilities from regulating markets.
Another thing I consider a junk fee is being charged $5.99 to get a pizza delivered. I’m not talking about a sit down restaurant who decided to start delivering during the pandemic, I’m talking about a business that was created to deliver pizzas but now wants to charge us for that.
For example Dominoes, Papa Johns and many other pizza delivery joints that don’t have sit down restaurant areas. The nerve of that is infuriating.
I managed a major pizza chain for a decade and we didn’t do that back then. What we did was give discounts for carry out orders. That incentivizes people to come in rather than the new business model that punishes everyone else who wants their pizza delivered by the pizza delivery company.
1992, in Grungelandia, aka Seattle, my GF of 2 years and I had to part and leave our Capitol Hill residence. With $250.00 in my wallet I went for a stroll & about 6 blocks to the south spotted a For rent sign in the window of a three+ storey brick apartment building built in 1922. Rang the buzzer, was shown a 1 bedroom for $350.00/m by the live-in building owner, gave him my money, shook hands and I lived there for close to a decade.
Ten years later In Olympia WA I had pretty much the same experience. A one bedroom in downtown in a building erected in the 20's by the Odd Fellows Lodge as a retirement home. Again, rent was $350.00 The property manager met me, took a credit check deposit which he returned a few days later when we signed the rental contract. The refund was b/c the credit check company had not gotten back to him.
I was pissed because our complex had tacked on some bullshit fees like "storm water fee" and "rubbish fee" and "monthly maintenance fee," but since we live in MN maybe that legislation will make them knock it off.
I pay $22/month for my trash to be picked up, a mandatory charge. The complex has an outside company do it. They don't pick up Friday or Saturday nights, which is usually when I have a full trash bag. The dumpster is very close, though, so I will do it myself sometimes.
I just figured out how to go back and read replies to my comments that I missed when they came in. A troll with “bear” in his/her/its nom de guerre asked me if the A in AIB stood for Abdul. Ah ha ha ha ha ha. Pathetic throwback to the 2000’s. Embarrassing admission: I took and nearly failed a year of Arabic in college. The consonants defeated my hearing. Two s’s, t’s and d’s and five consonants in the k/h range. But it’s fascinating to study a language built on a different grammatical structure.
I disabled notifications for every time I got a "like", now I only get them when someone replies. Big difference. I think that you can disable all notifications if you want.
If using a browser, the icon/avatar in the upper right, with three lines next to it. Click that and select settings. From there, go to the second section, notifications. Turn them all off.
Would some sort of national rent control be feasible? Like, a certain % of apartments in any given town or city would be required to have rent people can actually afford?
I struggle with this type of stuff because my father-in-law is a landlord. He started investing in real estate 40 years ago. He is a retired general contractor who still does pretty much all the work himself at 70+ years old. Many of his tenants have been in place for 10+ years and he rarely raises rents, meaning that all his properties are significantly below market. But during the pandemic when eviction moratoriums went in place, some people chose to stop paying rent, some properties were destroyed to the tune of 10s of thousands of dollars, which would have been much more if he wasn't bringing them back to habitability himself, plus lost rent.
There are definitely issues with slumlords, but a lot of these policies have actually encouraged consolidation to the worst corporations, because they're so big they can absorb the costs across their massive portfolios, while the small landlords you'd actually want to own your rental have been forced to sell because they can't deal with this shit.
I also lived abroad for several years, and as a home owner now, I really miss renting in places with decent protections and not having to deal with all this shit myself. Home ownership should not be a measure of anything. It's complicated, expensive, and really limits your mobility.
So maybe let's not shit on the concept of landlords, but instead on the fact that the government has abdicated its responsibilities from regulating markets.
Maybe stop building huge solar farms and put solar on everyone's apartments, and require the landlord not just sell it to the power company.
Another thing I consider a junk fee is being charged $5.99 to get a pizza delivered. I’m not talking about a sit down restaurant who decided to start delivering during the pandemic, I’m talking about a business that was created to deliver pizzas but now wants to charge us for that.
For example Dominoes, Papa Johns and many other pizza delivery joints that don’t have sit down restaurant areas. The nerve of that is infuriating.
I managed a major pizza chain for a decade and we didn’t do that back then. What we did was give discounts for carry out orders. That incentivizes people to come in rather than the new business model that punishes everyone else who wants their pizza delivered by the pizza delivery company.
1992, in Grungelandia, aka Seattle, my GF of 2 years and I had to part and leave our Capitol Hill residence. With $250.00 in my wallet I went for a stroll & about 6 blocks to the south spotted a For rent sign in the window of a three+ storey brick apartment building built in 1922. Rang the buzzer, was shown a 1 bedroom for $350.00/m by the live-in building owner, gave him my money, shook hands and I lived there for close to a decade.
Ten years later In Olympia WA I had pretty much the same experience. A one bedroom in downtown in a building erected in the 20's by the Odd Fellows Lodge as a retirement home. Again, rent was $350.00 The property manager met me, took a credit check deposit which he returned a few days later when we signed the rental contract. The refund was b/c the credit check company had not gotten back to him.
Life was so much saner not that long ago
I was pissed because our complex had tacked on some bullshit fees like "storm water fee" and "rubbish fee" and "monthly maintenance fee," but since we live in MN maybe that legislation will make them knock it off.
I pay $22/month for my trash to be picked up, a mandatory charge. The complex has an outside company do it. They don't pick up Friday or Saturday nights, which is usually when I have a full trash bag. The dumpster is very close, though, so I will do it myself sometimes.
Good. Squash these bastards.
I want a fresh apple fritter. Why is there no apple fritter here?
Because it is strawberry season. Wait for September.
Obviously Picard forget to deliver your replicator. He's falling down on the job.
That sounds absolutely scrumptious.
This fresh fritter deficit MUST be addressed!
Love it!!
OT.
"Chandrayaan-3: Historic India mission enters Moon orbit, aiming for south pole"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66402526
"Gunga Din, you're a far, far better rocketman than I."
-- Rudyard Kipling
Strap on boosters!
*swoons*
I just figured out how to go back and read replies to my comments that I missed when they came in. A troll with “bear” in his/her/its nom de guerre asked me if the A in AIB stood for Abdul. Ah ha ha ha ha ha. Pathetic throwback to the 2000’s. Embarrassing admission: I took and nearly failed a year of Arabic in college. The consonants defeated my hearing. Two s’s, t’s and d’s and five consonants in the k/h range. But it’s fascinating to study a language built on a different grammatical structure.
What's wrong with Abdul? My daughter's husband's name is Abdul.
I took arabic too.
I actually could pronounce the three "k"s - all the way to the throat click found in Iraq
Show off. 😉 We’ve all gotten to hear people trying to pronounce the Q in Qatar.
Queateher?
I see past replies under Activity. Is there another place?
Also, I haven't found a place where I see all my comments.
Click the red number on the upper right and then on the next page click the red number again.
HUGGY BEAR! 🤣🤣🤣
This is such good news.
I wish I could figure out how to convince substack to not email me.
I disabled notifications for every time I got a "like", now I only get them when someone replies. Big difference. I think that you can disable all notifications if you want.
I tried, but it doesn't seem to work. so weird.
My problem is that it makes me sign up all over again every time I come here. 5 times now, I think.
If using a browser, the icon/avatar in the upper right, with three lines next to it. Click that and select settings. From there, go to the second section, notifications. Turn them all off.
Turn off the notifications in settings.
I did, but oddly enough I still get emails.
Somehow I am getting a lot less emails than in the beginning. So I call it a win.
"Pet Fees" was arguably the worst Beach Boys album.
But Rock's first "concept album." Sorry, Beatles, but Sgt. Pepper wasn't the first. Especially the hit called "The Landlord Only Knows."
Pet Feces was worse.
That's the one that had "Kokomo" on it right?
God Only Knows.
Gee, none of the states listed that are already taking steps to help renters are red states. Surprise, surprise, surprise, as Gomer Pyle would say.
There's a guy on MSNBC called Charlie Dent and every time I hear his name my brain says "Dentcharliedent."
Any relation to Dent, Arthur Dent?
Oh yes, Charlie Dent. One of the "good" former Republican Reps from Penn that all the antitrump republican pundits wish would actually win.