"Noah": Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing | Hacker News Reader

"Noah": Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing

granolashotgun.com

21 pointsCHB040308548212 comments

> It’s entirely possible to be a landlord and a decent person at the same time.

I know that's true in theory but in practice landlords, as a group, are some of the shittiest human beings I know.

This is a reason I avoided going into real estate because the market of renters... is high risk. You really have to go for scale and play the distopian macro game or its a huge gambit. My sister rented out a house and it was gross... used tampons everywhere.

My landlord was the nicest person! I guess I was lucky…

I would definitely call you lucky.

I'm a good tenant in general and live far below my means (I grew up extremely poor, I generally don't need a lot to be happy). Which means I have far more resources at my disposal than you would assume based upon the houses I rent and the vehicles I drive.

I cannot tell you how many times I've had to get a lawyer involved to protect myself from landlords. They always immediately back off because they're used to dealing with people who __cannot__ protect themselves.

I once had a property manager I absolutely loved and stayed in that house for 5 years. Until the owner decided to change property management companies, I was gone in 2 months. The month I was supposed to start paying them instead of the original property manager, they contacted me 3 days before the end of the month and insisted I would have to pay an extra processing fee to pay them via my card and the only way to avoid it is to mail in a check but if I do that it won't get there in time and will assess a late fee.

I tried to rent a new house from that same property manager but was unable to find something I liked in the right timeframe.

I've always (n = 5) had good landlords and I think the key is selecting landlords that prioritize having good tenants over maximising rental yield. I've had the privilege of lots of external legible markers of success that make me appear as a "safe" candidate for lots of landlords.

2 of the 5 landlords lived in the same building where I lived alone and we became decently close over time and 3 of the 5 we rented the whole house but we were a group of grad students/working professionals that were an attractive demo.

As with anything on the internet, "This went mostly fine" is a perspective you rarely see so the prevalence of problems appears grossly exaggarated.

Either side can make it miserable for the other if they choose to. The market did seem to select for maximally cutthroat landlords though.

Cutthroat landlords naturally outcompete nice ones over time, it's only an expected consequence of the structure of the rental market.

The free market working as intended!

let's see if this guy becomes the first one

My landlord is an accidental landlord and the setup is the best I could hope for. As I understand it he met his wife later in life when they both had their own houses.

I've been here over four years and I've met him twice. I'm paying far below the market rate. Granted, the house is very tired and it's very expensive in terms of energy use, but it still works out far cheaper than the places I see on property websites now.

I absolutely agree with you that landlords as a social class are scumbags. I guess it's the same thing as when people say "all cops are bastards" etc.. Of course not /every single/ cop or landlord is a bastard, but when acting as a group their aims and priorities are in direct contention with everyone else.

I think the moral of the story is that if you are handy around the house, you should exploit the fact that the younger generations are not and scoop up housing for cheap.

Love it.

But in my town the idea that something would sit on the market with no bids is virtually unthinkable.

I probably will do what tfa did, but it's not going to be here.

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