Hacker News Reader

Comment by quartesixte | Hacker News Reader

We need landlords to be people, period. Local people, who gained the property through other business means and have decided to make a little bit of extra profit while providing a necessary service to the community. Ideally, they would live in one of the units with the tenants.

My landlord lives in the “best” unit of the apartment. It makes the experience so much better, and a kind of mini-community develops.

Faceless corps becoming landlords and using professional management companies is part of the problem.

View on HN

The professional companies at least usually know and abide by the relevant laws. They have lawyers and risk management teams that make them.

It’s usually the small time landlords who end up deciding they can keep your security deposit because you didn’t renovate the kitchen, or if they want to let their brother in law stay there they can kick you out with no notice or whatnot.

> abide by the relevant laws

This can unfortunately mean maximal increases in rent each year, rather than someone who is just happy to have a good tenant who causes no trouble

I have had the exact opposite experience. Lived with a landlord for a year (he inherited the property as part of a trust), and he was the nicest guy whenever it came time to sign a lease or extension, but as soon as the paperwork was signed he was a jackass to most tenants. It also didn't help that he didn't have a job, and was attempting to pay for all of his living expenses using money from the rent (which led to him trying to nickel and dime the tenants for everything).

My experience with professional companies has been very good. The managers aren't trying to micromanage the tenants, and as long as you're not causing problems they are usually quite reasonable if anythings comes up.

RealPage min-maxing pricing is a large part of the problem.

Every competent landlord is min-maxing pricing. Realpage just allowed incompetent ones to do it too.

Nope. I've rented ~20 apartments in my life, both from individuals and from big apt complexes, the former is much worse. A small landlord worries so much about his precious, a missed payment or a broken AC can mean he has to choose between food or his medication next month. There is a lot of tension, suspicions, emotions involved. They can't hide their racism, prejudices very well. Some very ugly situations ensued. Same goes for airbnb vs hotels.

Adam Smith, is that you?

Nah, Adam Smith hated landlords and almost exclusively referred to them as parasites incapable of productive work.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com