Going to beat the unpopular drum here that you are better off having either the state or a corporation own your rental property. Having to rely on the "mom and pop landlords” of the world is a recipe for paying exorbitant costs for a piece of shit they never maintain
unfortunately true; my sister rented a house with her friends during college because it was cheaper and she had to meticulously record everything that was pre-broken because when she reported something benign to be fixed, the landlord they told her it was her fault and she'd get billed for it 🫤
not super easy or simple to excise them now that they're entrenched, though
Oh, for sure, no easy solution to this problem and when you yourself are in the market for housing you’re just trying to get the best deal you can. Particularly in NYC, SF, and LA.
Upzoning by right would get rid of the majority over ten years.
that seems overly optimistic, and I personally thing there's a lot wrong with corporate landlords too
I think turnover is an attractive option when suddenly it's reliable to build more housing on valuable, in-demand land. I think there would be a lot of holdouts, especially yeah over ten rather than twenty years - but I do still feel that a majority of urban land could be upzoned in a decade.
*could* seems like the operative word here, there's a lot of political barriers to that happening it'd have to start coming from the top down i think. i know the federal government doesn't dictate zoning, but they should start trying
I’m not against the Feds trying to intervene in zoning, honestly. It depends on the state, as well. The reason I thought Harris would be a decent governor of CA is she’d have far better pull than Newsom to force through some more top down measures in the state to break the logjam in local zoning
yeah that was the case for Governor Harris. alas, now we seem to be stuck between Porter (who will have even less clout in Sacramento than Newsom) or Padilla/Becerra (both creatures of the CA establishment, and Newsomites)
I’m still not over it tbh.
Absolutely agreed, yeah, this has to be a dictat from above. State legislatures and then Congress.
President > Congress/Governors > state legislatures, probably
There are absolutely problems with corporate landlords, I don't disagree, I just think voter-renters opposed to a dozen landlord corporations fighting as medium-sized fish in Congress might act more rationally, as opposed to the voter-aristocrats we have currently dominating every municipality.
well yes with any element of corporatization i think they're more liable to act like a rational private enterprise, these "mom and pop" (let's face it, it's just pop) landlord types don't bow to ordinary market pressures in the same way and that's before you add in tenant unions or whatnot
It would be zoning/policy change over time to push them out of the market and probably has to be combined with increased opportunities for development of either private developers or the state constructing public housing
I feel - to be clear - I don't have a study to cite.
You are mostly funding some Boomer or their degenerate kid’s retirement with passive income
This is also the case with “mom and pop” businesses I’ve worked at. One of my supervisors literally complained about the minimum wage being raised IN FRONT OF THEIR MINIMUM WAGE EMPLOYEES
don't the projects historically suck ass though
Agreed!
I was forced onto an odyssey this summer because my small time landlord tried to raise the rent by 33%. I'll take a corporate landlord every time.
oh my God the mom and pop landlord of my building on California st in SF was the absolute worst and screwed every tenant on maintenance and came in our apartments when we weren't home. We all tried to do something but we couldn't afford the expensive and long lawsuit and that's what he banked on
It's the same way you are better off working at a large company rather than a small business.
I said this above, but I’ve worked at both corporate and mom-and-pop. One at the latter literally complained about the minimum wage increasing IN FRONT OF THEIR MINIMUM WAGE EMPLOYEES.
The whole "mom and pop" support small business thing has always driven me nuts. Why? Do they pay their employees better, provide health care? Are they more environmentally friendly? Less likely to be far right wankers?
At least as a tradesman, I can finagle some labor at an exceptional rate. It sucks in literally every other situation though.
Back in the day right next to the university, it was like flop houses galore waiting for one bad fire to kill like twenty students past capacity. Now? Really nice university run 6-7 story apartments. To call it a massive improvement is a gross understatement.