Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

TheSpektrModule t1_j41ls4v wrote

Reply to comment by EfficiencySuch6361 in What does eviction prevention accomplish. by LongjumpingShot

We looked into becoming landlords a few years ago when moving. Did some informal risk/benefit calculations and nope, not worth it. Sold the old house, threw the money into an S&P 500 index fund. A house that could have been a very reasonably priced rental property stayed off the rental market. Turns out there are consequences to having a system that's unfriendly to landlords.

7

superdreamcast64 t1_j41ubs6 wrote

> A house that could have been a very reasonably priced rental property stayed off the rental market.

i don’t really see why this is a bad thing? rather than becoming a landlord’s 3rd property and sucking up tons of tenant money, the house went to someone who actually wants to own the home and live in it. we need more houses that people can buy on the market rather than forcing everyone to rent.

8

TheSpektrModule t1_j4217hc wrote

Re: why it's a bad thing, buying a home in Baltimore is already relatively affordable compared to renting. That suggests that we need more rental homes, not more houses available for sale.

There are many reasons you want a robust rental market. Buying a house is not always better. The general rule of thumb is that you need to live in a house for seven years in order for the transactional costs to be worth it. Lots of people are not staying here for that long. Baltimore has a lot of grad students, medical residents, nurses working at big hospitals for the first few years of their careers and just people who don't want to stay in the city after having kids. People have become more mobile in general. If you want those mobile people to be part of your tax base for at least a few years then they need to have decent rental options.

4

EfficiencySuch6361 t1_j41ufca wrote

It’s certainly not as lucrative here in Baltimore as some other places. It’s pretty standard especially in the pricier areas to only get 0.8%-1% of the purchase price as monthly rent, which is at the very bottom of the 0.8%-2% range that makes rental economics work. And if u can’t handle property management and at least 80% of the maintenance then it really becomes unprofitable quick. It’s not passive income I’ve discovered 😊 hopefully u feel good about the choice u made (which sounds very responsible)

2

TheSpektrModule t1_j421bh2 wrote

> hopefully u feel good about the choice u made

I wake up every morning thankful that I did not become a landlord.

9