Landlords are rent-seekers but fraudulent and abusive tenants are also part of the problem. There are people out there who destroy properties, refuse to pay rent, and then repeat the process in every place they live. Even if a compassionate landlord wants to help people, a renter like that will sour them.

The real problem in this article is imo paying someone to find a tenant and then being told that the person you paid is not responsible in any way for the person they’ve presented as a tenant. Realtors don’t do any work aside from paying someone to take photos, and don’t assume any risk. At least (small) landlords have skin in the game in comparison.

People hate to hear it, but renting is transactional. People provide rental units as an investment, not for funnies.

There’s no magic formula where one can pay less for rent than the monthly fee the landlord pays the bank, city and government for the place.

The alternative is people stop investing in rental units, we get fewer regular people renting out spaces and more large corporations who will do the bare legal minimum to keep the place livable while keeping the rent as high as possible.

The core of the issue is unsustainably high real estate costs, which not only balloons the cost of purchasing a property, but also balloons property taxes as they are based on the estimated value of the property, not the amount paid for it. This means landlords pay higher taxes for the same property year over year, even if the mortgage stays the same.

This, exactly. I am all for universal housing but frankly the cost of a house in materials alone is beyond the ability of many people to afford (tiny homes don’t really work out for people with they are going to have children, and children are the foundation of our future economy.

I think the government has a place in providing housing for those in need, but landlords also have a role.

When people trash rental units or skip out on rent and abuse process - regardless of whether the landlord does their duties - it does not encourage small scale landlords to assume the risk. However, it’s a rounding error to Blackrock.

Industrial scale financialisation of housing is not good for anyone.