Actual minimum wage worker's thoughts on raising minimum wage

a reply to: CloneFarm1000

James McMillan was right, the rent is too damn high.

Is rent too high or are people’s expectations too high these days.
When I first saw my sons first apartment I was shocked. I couldn’t have even have dreamed of such a place when I was first starting out. (And these are by no means a luxury complex)
Dishwashers in every unit, vaulted ceilings, two bathrooms, washer and dryer in unit)
That’s just for apartments, houses are a whole different ball game.
Starter houses aren’t even built anymore, and in some places are actually illegal to build.

a reply to: CloneFarm1000

Setting rent prices is always an interesting adventure.
Running a small business is expensive.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I have a few rental houses and I'm working at getting rid of them all.
The property taxes and insurance rates are ridiculous.
Throw in the renters who abuse everything and the upkeep is just not worth the income generated...

Credit checks are highly recommended.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JAGStorm

I have a few rental houses and I'm working at getting rid of them all.
The property taxes and insurance rates are ridiculous.
Throw in the renters who abuse everything and the upkeep is just not worth the income generated...

Credit checks are highly recommended.

I would never be a landlord. Very few people are clean, and now too few even want to pay for housing.
People want free free free. Pets are also very damaging and people think they have a right to have a pet in someone else’s property, but that’s a whole other discussion.

I hope you are able to make a profit and probably reduce your stress by 1000%

a reply to: JAGStorm

I too have sold all my rentals as well as the family farm that has been in my family for almost 100years. The profit from the farm barely paid the taxes. Now officially retired but still working.

I tried to be very careful who I rented to; didn't matter, they trashed every unit I owned.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: JAGStorm

I too have sold all my rentals as well as the family farm that has been in my family for almost 100years. The profit from the farm barely paid the taxes. Now officially retired but still working.

I tried to be very careful who I rented to; didn't matter, they trashed every unit I owned.

My husband and I rented for a very short time when we knew we weren’t going to stay in this one location.
The landlords were so shocked and amazed at how clean and well we took care of the property that they actually gave us a break on the rent. They sold the house shortly after we left.

I knew we were in the minority when it came to renters, but that is because we aren’t normally renters, we are usually owners and the mindset is totally different for most.

I do think there is a middle ground we don’t often see in the US other than NY city. Long Long term rentals. They do this in Singapore and other areas where you can have 100 year leases. In those cases people do take care of rentals like a regular house. NYC has some of them too, and the same thing happens, they are much better taken care of because people consider it a home vs a place they are renting.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I have a friend with a unique project. She has invested in a huge, old Hotel/motel convention center and renting it out to artist, writers, musicians, actors, people some how connected to the arts as both studio/retail and living spaces.
The efforts of the "community" have turned it into a beautiful, colorful, exciting place to be. Once the surrounding HOAs tried to shut it down for fears it would turn into a slum. It actually has increased property values because all the other neighborhood retail spaces/restaurants are rented and not boarded up and a destination for tourist and locals as well.

However I have a feeling it will eventually become corporate and drive out longhaired bearded braless residents, like what happens to most "hip" artist communities. Progress...

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: JAGStorm

I have a friend with a unique project. She has invested in a huge, old Hotel/motel convention center and renting it out to artist, writers, musicians, actors, people some how connected to the arts as both studio/retail and living spaces.
The efforts of the "community" have turned it into a beautiful, colorful, exciting place to be. Once the surrounding HOAs tried to shut it down for fears it would turn into a slum. It actually has increased property values because all the other neighborhood retail spaces/restaurants are rented and not boarded up and a destination for tourist and locals as well.

However I have a feeling it will eventually become corporate and drive out longhaired bearded braless residents, like what happens to most "hip" artist communities. Progress...

That place sounds awesome! Yes such a shame that most really good things with real estate are driven out pretty quickly.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: JAGStorm

I too have sold all my rentals as well as the family farm that has been in my family for almost 100years. The profit from the farm barely paid the taxes. Now officially retired but still working.

I tried to be very careful who I rented to; didn't matter, they trashed every unit I owned.

I can attest to that.

Regardless of how careful I have been about renters. They trashed the place every single time.

For the last five years I have had remarkable luck with a family member. I have been burned by them too. But this one is smart. He gets a rental rate that he would not be able to get in the slums. The only catch to the crazy rental price is that he had to maintain the place. He has done an amazing job. He not only maintains the place, but he has put in some really nice, upgrades.

He is making sure he gets the place in my will.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JAGStorm

I have a few rental houses and I'm working at getting rid of them all.
The property taxes and insurance rates are ridiculous.
Throw in the renters who abuse everything and the upkeep is just not worth the income generated...

Credit checks are highly recommended.

On top of all that, in my area they make you pay for a license to rent out property. You have pass an inspection, and you have to use the company they choose to make any corrections. I sold that one quickly.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

On top of all that, in my area they make you pay for a license to rent out property. You have pass an inspection, and you have to use the company they choose to make any corrections. I sold that one quickly.

In my area they want us to pay for a dog permit.
To this day not one person can explain what it is for, so I’ve refused to pay it.

PS. We don’t have animal control, so that’s not it.

I think they just come up with these fees and licenses and people blindly pay them. Not saying yours, but a landlord fee seems ridiculous.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

On top of all that, in my area they make you pay for a license to rent out property. You have pass an inspection, and you have to use the company they choose to make any corrections. I sold that one quickly.

In my area they want us to pay for a dog permit.
To this day not one person can explain what it is for, so I’ve refused to pay it.

PS. We don’t have animal control, so that’s not it.

I think they just come up with these fees and licenses and people blindly pay them. Not saying yours, but a landlord fee seems ridiculous.

Punishment for home ownership. They want to own everything, so they make it cost prohibitive, and create creative ways to make sure you are miserable, so that you sell. Then you will have nothing and you will be happy.

Where I live, we also have to have Cat permits.

originally posted by: RonnieJersey
Where I live, we also have to have Cat permits.

We know that this bull crap is never going to stop.

We gave them an inch and now they are no longer satisfied with our first born.

originally posted by: RonnieJersey
Where I live, we also have to have Cat permits.

That is bull, why on earth?

a reply to: JAGStorm

Is rent too high or are people’s expectations too high these days.

Wow says the person who has been making threads complaining about the cost of things and shortage of lumber for the past year!

If a person works a full time job and can’t afford a roof over their head does that make their expectations to much?

I hope you are able to make a profit and probably reduce your stress by 1000%

This the the problem, landlords are only in it to make a profit, that’s all. and making that problem worse is the government stepping in to pay landlords the rent when the tenant can’t afford it. If governments will pay welfare it shouldn’t go straight to landlords often with multiple properties so they can make a profit.

And don’t try telling me how hard landlords have it, they can sell up and invest elsewhere if it’s that bad, simple as that. If the government are going to pay for people’s housing then they should provide that housing, rather than paying a private for profit business too.

All this nonsense is what caused house prices to go so crazy high in the first place. Anyone with any money has invested in property as it’s made those who got in on this game early very rich. Meanwhile many young people can only dream of buying their own home even though the rent they will be paying is higher than the mortgage would have been...

I tell you what is to high these days, pure unadulterated greed.

a reply to: surfer_soul

That is not the case with every landlord. Some of us just want to hold on to a property they have already paid for and keep as a safety net.

I am reminded everyday that my mortgage is the anvil over my head. The bank and the insurance companies seem to be in cahoots to take down every hard working home owner.

If I get pushed out of my house, I don't plan to be living in the streets. I am too old for that. So until this one is paid off, I have to have the rental as a life preserver.

This happened to my neighbor just before COVID hit. If they had not had their rental, they would have been out in the cold.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Pets are also very damaging and people think they have a right to have a pet in someone else’s property, but that’s a whole other discussion.

In my area they want us to pay for a dog permit. To this day not one person can explain what it is for, so I’ve refused to pay it.

So it’s one rule for you and another for those disgusting “unclean” renters? What a hypocrite you are.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

You haven’t addressed my points by relating your own problem, if you’re mortgage is an anvil over your head, that’s the debt you have taken on, and you should have known that before taking the up mortgage. As for your other property do you own it outright? Assuming you have owned it for more than a few years it will have gone up in value considerably so there’s a nice profit there if you chose to sell it either way.

What am I missing about your financial situation?

As for banks, they can lend you the money they don’t even have for a mortgage (up to 10x debt to capital) and then they expect to get at least double the money back over the term. All for doing a bit of paperwork, That’s what I call money for nothing.

a reply to: surfer_soul

Unfortunately, there was no way that I could have known that my case load would be decreased by 80 to 90% for nearly two years.

There was no way I could have known it would have been made legal for the insurance companies to just drop people for made up reasons. That they would increase my insurance from $1,800.00 to $4,000.00 a year, in one jump. That they would include on to of that increase a demand that I completely replace a roof that does not need replacing, and that you would have to replace working air conditioners, and hot water heaters.

There was no way I could known the housing market would increase to the point where home values went from 300 thousand dollars to 1.5 million overnight, making property taxes increase to the level of insanity.

So there is a actually a lot that you were missing but my post was to perhaps get you to look at all sides and not just dump all landlord into the class of greedy entrepreneurs.