Linenoise77 t1_ja8qqwv wrote on February 27, 2023 at 6:01 PM

Reply to comment by nathanaz in Who here owns residential and rents it out? thinking of buying a two-family in Rahway as it is getting very cute there. by [deleted]

Its reddit so its just the loudest voices.

As i said below, if someone pays their rent on time every month, for 12 months, i make EXACTLY 1 month in rent "profit" after paying our note, taxes, insurance, accountant, and putting aside money for capital repairs. My place sits vacant for 2 months, i'm out 2 years of that profit. One tenant trashes the place, and i'm out a multiple of that, and yeah, have fun trying to collect against a person like that.

The real money is in the equity, but even then, when you consider the liability and expense and time sink a small time landlord puts in, unless they are trying to time the market and play the long game, they are better off going to AC and playing blackjack. If they are playing the long game, there are honestly plenty of things i can expect to see the same return on by just setting and forgetting it over 20-30 years.

Real estate SHOULD be just a way of diversifying your investments. Its possible to be an honest and ethical landlord, and i like to think of myself as one, but more and more i'm finding most tenants aren't willing to return the favor. You don't think i know you have 2 cats when the lease said no and you couldn't have even bothered to ask me? That the person you are dating basically lives there when the lease says no? The oil stain on the drivway came from you trying to shadetree oil change your car?

nathanaz t1_ja8v5l3 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 6:29 PM

Yeah, I hear you. I don’t lease property to anyone, but I think I have a decent understanding of the business model, and I don’t think most of the people who express the ‘landlords are evil’ sentiment understand that landlords are risking their personal capital (in the case of non-corporate owners) so there has to be an incentive (profit) or nobody would ever do it.

I definitely believe that there are tons of unethical landlords and tenants, too. We thought about buying a duplex or triple as an investment but I just didn’t want to deal with all the headaches, such as the things you mention above.