actionjackson posted:

fortunately she has amazon RSUs to help with the down payment

AnimeIsTrash posted:

They make so much money, it's impossible to compete with them if you don't have one of those sick FAANG jobs.

euphronius posted:

that’s a huge bathroom

Crusty Nutsack posted:

joepinetree posted:

Reminds me of this place my cousin lived in in the bay area, which was one of those old townhomes divided into 4 apartments. So he had a kitchen/bathroom. In that his corner of the house turned apartment had no kitchen, so they put some appliances in the bathroom.

quote:

I am a landlord, and I absolutely refuse to participate in the emergency rental assistance program. It is likely that in some cases it would make more financial sense to waive all the late fees and costs, and to accept the partial payment offered by the government, if the tenant has no assets I can take in a lawsuit, but the purpose of the program is to prevent eviction, and I want to evict everyone who even tried to take advantage of the moratorium.

It is important to note that while the funds for the pandemic rental relief come from the federal government, it is all distributed locally by states and municipalities, so terms will vary. However, in every area that I am aware of, the government decided to use the program to extort landlords by attaching unread strings to the payment. Not only are we required to fill out a bunch of paperwork and wait for months to learn if our tenants are even approved, but we have to agree to sign away many of our rights to receive the money. Typically landlords must waive all late fees and costs other than the base amount of rent, and in most cases they will only get a certain percentage of what they are entitled to. Still, if I know that there’s no way my tenants will be able to pay me the $15,000 they owe, I might have chosen to take the $8,000 I’d get from the program – if not for the final, most onerous requirement: That we promise not to evict for some period in the future, even if the tenant stops paying rent again.

Most landlords are far from wealthy, and many have gone bankrupt after they were forced to pay out of pocket to house their deadbeat tenants. Landlords who worked all their lives in middle class jobs and invested their lifesavings in a rental property, to stretch it into enough to fund their retirement, first depleted their savings before they took out loans to cover property taxes, mortgages, insurance, and maintenance. When they maxed out their credit, they lost both the rental as well as their own home, all because their tenants couldn’t be bothered to get a lesser job or move to cheaper housing. No one should have been protected from eviction at their landlord’s expense, and no one *needed* to be protected after the first month or two of the shutdown. Stimulus checks and unemployment went out and should have been used to fund moves to more affordable homes where their new minimum wage jobs could have covered the rent. Businesses were hiring, and people could have moved into shared housing or extended stay motels. It would not have been easy and it would not have been fun, but you shouldn’t get to steal housing from someone else just because you want to avoid unpleasantness.

I firmly believe that 99.9 percent of the people who used the moratorium to avoid eviction were scammers. They see themselves as victims, and they whine about how horrible it is to expect them to go to work at Walmart or to move into a single bedroom rented in someone else’s trailer, but the obvious truth is that this doesn’t matter. They are renters, they had a legally binding agreement to pay rent in exchange for the right to occupy a home, and this agreement was never contingent upon their financial stability. If they genuinely couldn’t pay rent or go anywhere else, one might possibly forgive them for staying a week or two until they could get into a shelter, but only if every penny they got their hands on went to the landlord until their debt (including late fees) was paid. If they still couldn’t find somewhere to go, they would have to vacate regardless, because you don’t get to steal someone else’s home just because you’ve lost yours. The government should take care of people like that, but unless you have several homeless families staying in your own home, you cannot blame landlords for evicting tenants who don’t pay.

This whole situation is even more simple, because we aren’t talking about people who had nowhere to go. These are people who did not want to downgrade their lifestyle, who felt entitled to continue living in homes they couldn’t afford. They might have had to stop paying all their other bills, but they could have found somewhere else to stay if they’d used their unemployment and stimulus checks as intended. You read stories about the “poor, victimized renters” whose landlords were desperately trying to evict them, and it’s always all about how they had to keep paying their cellphone bills and car notes, so they couldn’t pay rent. I will never understand why they thought it was okay to force their landlords to pay instead, when it might mean that the landlord would then be unable to pay their own bills. People bitch about the crappy jobs available, and they think they shouldn’t be expected to take them when they were accustomed to better things. They complain that they would have to move their entire family into a studio apartment, not caring that they are costing their landlord her home.

Like all the rest of them, those among my tenants who took advantage of the CDC eviction moratorium lied on their hardship declarations. They had to be unable to pay rent after doing all they could, they had to pay as much as they had, and they couldn’t have any other housing options available, but they were not required to show proof. All they had to do was sign a declaration under penalty of perjury, and they apparently didn’t give a poo poo about lying on a sworn statement. One couple who claimed hardship still had their full base income, all they lost was the bonus pay one of them usually received. With 80 percent of their earnings still coming in, they absolutely ought to have been able to pay rent in full and on time if they cut some other expenses – or if they’d used their stimulus checks!

There were tenants who legitimately lost income, but they still lied when they sought eviction protection, because they absolutely hadn’t paid everything they could. The requirement was that renters put everything they had towards rent, except what they absolutely needed to survive. You weren’t meant to use the moratorium to stay caught up on your credit card bills or other poo poo, it was meant to be a last resort. So why did I watch on the security cameras as a family that had only made a token payment brought in bags of Christmas shopping, as well as an enormous box with a brand new Christmas tree? Why did tenants who owed rent get food delivered? Why did one get a new cellphone? One person actually bought a car, and another kept up with their car payments, all while I had to dip into my reserves to pay the expenses. These people were not unaware of what their thievery was costing me, as I had already sent out letters warning everyone and explaining why I was taking that approach: I don’t even owe money on my properties, yet I still only get to take out 40 percent of the rents as profits. The remaining 60 percent goes towards all the bills I have to pay to own and operate rentals, so when a tenant doesn’t pay their $2,000 rent, I lose $800 in income – and at the same time I have to come up with $1,200 just to keep them housed.

The moratorium only prevented immediate eviction, and renters would owe everything back that they missed, with no extra time to pay it back. Landlords could add late fees, they could refuse to renew leases, they could report to credit bureaus and sue without delay for the money owed, and they could of course be evicted as soon as the ban was lifted. I made it clear to all my tenants that I would take all these steps if anyone tried to use the moratorium, because that act in itself was a violation of our contract. If they wanted any leeway on payments, they’d need to come to me and work something out, without a CDC declaration to tie my hands. Fortunately my state isn’t as hostile to landlords as some, so the courts here made it possible to challenge a tenant’s CDC declaration. Two households did the right thing and worked out a payment plan with me, and they remain my tenants to this day. As for those who handed me a CDC declaration, they were either evicted during the moratorium when I challenged their right to protection, or when it ended. Even though I had told them over and over again that all that money would be due, they apparently didn’t believe it until they were about to get kicked out, so only a few tried to apply for rental assistance.

I am suing everyone who owes me rent, even if it takes me years to collect, because that is money that I am owed, and it’s why I pay a property manager and an attorney. It isn’t too costly to file compared to the money at stake, and my units are all rather expensive which means that my tenants made good money at some point, or I wouldn’t have accepted them. It’s not exactly easy to collect on the judgments, but my chances are better than some landlords’. Of course I would much prefer to just take a simple payment from the government, even if it had the downside of bailing out the deadbeat tenants who really ought to suffer the consequences of their own actions. I mean, it is grossly unfair that good people who worked hard to keep paying their rent gets nothing but poverty while the scammers who wasted their money gets their debts paid by the taxpayers. To me it feels like I’m getting hosed over twice, first when they screwed me on rent and now when my taxes are bailing them out, but I’m not that vindictive; I would gladly take the money if it wasn’t for the strings. Like I said earlier, it’s possibly a more sensible choice to take the lower sum offered by the government than it is to seek out a judgment for everything you’re entitled to, but I am not compromising on the eviction. Anyone who used the moratorium must go.

I am not going to lie. Branding these people is a motivator, because I don’t want them to do this to someone else. They did something selfish and bad, and they ought to feel some consequences for that. It has long been tough to get a rental unit with an eviction on your record, but now that we know that our government might decide to prevent eviction again, landlords simply cannot take any chances. We must weed out anyone who might be inclined to take advantage of such opportunities, so we have to carefully screen applicants to make sure that they paid rent throughout the various moratoria. Now even small “mom and pop” landlords screen for evictions, with a zero tolerance policy, but these measures are no good unless we as landlords look out for each other and take the scammers to court to create a record that will serve as a warning to others.

More than anything though, I want these people gone because I don’t trust them. They took the first chance they got to violate our contract when they thought they could get away with it, and none of them had any regrets until it came back and bit them in the rear end.

Dr. VooDoo posted:

That sure is a lot of words to say “I’m a leech on society, suck suck suck”

El Mero Mero posted:

is this the new landlords.txt thread too?

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-landl...swers/309780880

quote:

Stimulus checks and unemployment went out and should have been used to fund moves to more affordable homes where their new minimum wage jobs could have covered the rent. Businesses were hiring, and people could have moved into shared housing or extended stay motels. It would not have been easy and it would not have been fun, but you shouldn’t get to steal housing from someone else just because you want to avoid unpleasantness.

El Mero Mero posted:

is this the new landlords.txt thread too?

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-landl...swers/309780880

iCe-CuBe. posted:

Yes, I am affluent today, because I saved, worked hard, and made smart investments. I am not going to apologize for having turned the money my husband earned serving in Afghanistan, and what I earned as a teacher, into several successful businesses. I had to move in with my in-laws when my husband was first deployed, when financial setbacks meant I couldn’t afford rent. I dealt with the consequences, I took every penny that passed through my hands and used it to pay my creditors, and I rebuilt.

quote:

MONTH-OVER-MONTH

Before seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a -1.1% month-over-month decrease in August, while the 10-City and 20-City Composites both posted decreases of -1.6%.

After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a month-over-month decrease of -0.9%, and the 10-City and 20-City Composites both posted decreases of -1.3%.

In August, all 20 cities reported declines before and after seasonal adjustments.

MickeyFinn posted:

Home prices are on the way down in the 20 largest markets.

https://press.spglobal.com/2022-10-25-S-P-CORELOGIC-CASE-SHILLER-INDEX-CONTINUED-TO-DECELERATE-IN-AUGUST

Please keep raising interest rates and slowing/stoping QE, Jpow.

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

IIRC that's a change in the rate of increase, not an actual decrease in prices. they're still up 12% YoY on a national level.

bawfuls posted:

yeah we aren’t getting real price drops without significantly more supply. High rates make builders slow down since it’s more expensive to finance their work, making the supply issue worse.

joepinetree posted:

Honestly, I think its a heads I win tails you lose situation for institutional investors,

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

Not really. At the end of the day there's only so much desirable real estate and once it's yours to rent out it's yours forever.

Paradoxish posted:

Prices will absolutely come off the peak for a while, but anything short of a large double-digit drop is essentially meaningless. There also need to be large and substantial drops outside of the hottest markets, because a lot of less attractive markets have been slowly and steadily climbing this entire time.

It's not so much a question of it's "enough" or not, it's that a few percentage points down isn't really anything happening at all. That's basically just an indication that prices will shoot back up the moment rates become affordable again.

joepinetree posted:

Absent regulation, institutional investors holding property will become the norm. All the things that work against the average home buyer (high transaction costs, lack of liquidity/finance to snap up undervalued properties, personal attachments/need a place to live preventing you from selling overpriced property, high degree of uncertainty to manage selling your current house and buy a new one) makes it an ideal market for institutional investors. And to the extent that individuals will still buy and sell property, I imagine that more and more of those "sell your house to us at a deep discount, but get cash now with no need to show or deal with buyers" business will emerge.

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

https://www.truehold.com/

joepinetree posted:

Absent regulation, institutional investors holding property will become the norm. All the things that work against the average home buyer (high transaction costs, lack of liquidity/finance to snap up undervalued properties, personal attachments/need a place to live preventing you from selling overpriced property, high degree of uncertainty to manage selling your current house and buy a new one) makes it an ideal market for institutional investors. And to the extent that individuals will still buy and sell property, I imagine that more and more of those "sell your house to us at a deep discount, but get cash now with no need to show or deal with buyers" business will emerge.

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

https://www.truehold.com/

quote:

I finally called corporate and was told they don't do homes over 500k! I never read that nor was I told this at anytime during this proces

quote:

The process began with a valuation of our house. Granted our house is older, however they lopped 60k off the price based on the inspection. One of the issues cited was our four year old deck that was built by a licensed contractor and approved by a county inspector. We planned on doing the leaseback program so I asked if the rent could be made lower since the house value was lower. They said no because the work would go back into the house. So then we counter-offered. We needed **** more for the deal to work for us so that we could pay off our debts. They seemed agreeable to that, but the next thing we know they wanted is to sign an agreement to pay a years rent in advance. We were going to have to come to closing PAYING them 7k to buy our house.

External Organs posted:

I did learn this year that reverse mortgages are a thing. But that looks different / worse

wikipedia posted:

Reverse mortgages allow older people to immediately access the home equity they have built up in their homes, and defer payment of the loan until they die, sell, or move out of the home. Because there are not required mortgage payments on a reverse mortgage, the interest is added to the loan balance each month. The rising loan balance can eventually grow to exceed the value of the home, particularly in times of declining home values or if the borrower continues to live in the home for many years.

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

https://www.truehold.com/

iCe-CuBe. posted:

You can get an affordable house in large parts of the country currently, but those opportunities are drying up quickly. I watched supply in the <100k bracket drop across huge swaths of the Midwest because investors are buying them up to rent.

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

https://www.truehold.com/

joepinetree posted:

Absent regulation, institutional investors holding property will become the norm. All the things that work against the average home buyer (high transaction costs, lack of liquidity/finance to snap up undervalued properties, personal attachments/need a place to live preventing you from selling overpriced property, high degree of uncertainty to manage selling your current house and buy a new one) makes it an ideal market for institutional investors. And to the extent that individuals will still buy and sell property, I imagine that more and more of those "sell your house to us at a deep discount, but get cash now with no need to show or deal with buyers" business will emerge.