To everyone who hates the concepts of landlords and rent, what counts as being a landlord?

Krafty Kactus@sopuli.xyz to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 174 points –

Does having an AirBNB setup make someone deserving of the guillotine or does that only apply to owners of multiple houses? What about apartments?

Please explain your reasoning as well.

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I take issue with the entire concept of renting, from the very core. A landlord is a middle-man between the person living in a building, and ownership of said building. The landlord having to to the maintenance doesn't make living in a rental a better experience, it just means more dealing with a middle man any time you need something fixed. It would be pretty nice if I could just call a plumber when my toilet has issues instead of hoping that the leasing office actually sends a repair-man this time. It's not fun having to pick up mail at the post office for ten months because the leasing office and the post office are arguing back and forth over who's responsible for fixing the apartment mailboxes after they were vandalized. Rentals will charge you money every month for a pool you don't want or use even though it's closed 9 months of the year. All renting has ever meant for me, has been a complete lack of control of what I'm allowed to do in my living space, and a constant fear of eviction should something go wrong, and landlords that do everything they can to never repair anything, or maintain the property at all. But onto the individuals that rent out a house or two, they still aren't adding value to living in a rental. All they do is sit in the middle and collect that extra cash on top. It's not that they're not doing any work at all, but being a landlord is not a job, and it's not doing the people living in that space any favors. People can't afford to buy because companies like blackrock are buying up all the property to make rentals, and upcharging all of the property. I'm not saying, either, that there shouldn't be options for temporary living, but our current rental model is so very clearly not it. Do you have any idea how much it costs to rent month buy month? My 700 square foot apartment is over $3,000 on that plan.

So, who would people who only need to temporarily rent go through? A business instead of an iindividual? How is that better?

I think you're using your bad experience as a template. I have a friend who prefers renting because he doesn't have to deal with any repairs or damage. He just calls the property manager. I guess if they are unresponsive he just moves.

Home ownership just isn't for everyone. If you owned the place you live in you would have had to come up with a larger down payment, qualify for a mortgage, handle every repair yourself and when you wanted/needed to move, sell the house, making repairs before doing so. Plus you'd be at the mercy of your neighbors for your property value to stay up, so you don't lose money. Don't even get me started on HOAs. Home ownership simply isn't for everybody. If you're landlord was more responsive and the rent was more affordable it probably wouldn't be so bad. And that's a different problem than the existence of landlords. It's really more of a BAD landlord problem, I think.