• Dkarma@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I find it hilarious when people only do half the equation like u just did and then attempt to justify some kind of rhetorical utopia.

    Finish the equation. When anyone buys a house there’s a person selling. That person often buys a house or starts a small business. The point is you can’t say with a straight face that the money spent doesn’t go towards gdp at least and often times it does stimulate new growth and spending.

    Why do u think new houses are built? Lol.

    People love to trash landlords and sometimes rightfully so, but fuzzy math isn’t fixed by confirmation bias…

    • morry040@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Do you have any data or research on the profile of sellers? I find that there is not a lot of research out there, so I’m curious to learn how I would explore your claim that most sellers use their proceeds to invest in small business. Selling a property just to buy a property helps the real estate sector and some banks, but I think that calling it a valuable contributor to GDP is a stretch.

      What we do know is that people in older age brackets typically own their own home (78%+ for the 65+ age group). However, people in that age bracket also demonstrate a decline in consumption, spending about the same as someone in the 15-24 age bracket. This could be interpreted to show that older sellers are not freely investing the returns from their property sales back into the broader economy. Instead, they are conserving their money to last through retirement.

    • ABC123itsEASY@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not to mention a good (yes, perhaps not even most are good) landlord is supposed to spend money up-keeping, updating and maybe even upgrading residential properties, therefore spending money on goods and services to do just that. There are hard working people who make a living working in industries that come from this market, but providing them some consideration doesn’t mesh with the current zeitgeist.

      • morry040@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        In the 7 properties that I have rented over the last 15 years, I have never known a landlord to just kindly “update” their property. The properties are at an acceptable standard when first purchased and the only way that things change is when something breaks, is damaged, the tenants complain, or the owner is preparing to sell. This is probably influenced by the majority of landlords outsourcing property management to agencies (research suggests ~75%), who are financially motivated to provide the minimum basic standard for maximum financial gain.

        • ABC123itsEASY@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t disagree but having been on both sides of the token (I’ve rented a LOT of properties more than I care to count) I can tell you that homeowners nowadays are doing a lot of work themselves, maybe even work that they shouldn’t be doing themselves. There can be some financially devestating costs to home ownership that people try to maliciously hide from you during inspection unless you’re buying a house brand new. My point being that I’d imagine that at least partially factors into all of this and I’d guess that people renting out houses are more likely to simply ‘hire someone to get it done’ or have a handyman on speedial. Again, clarifying ‘good’ landlords. I wouldn’t saying most are good, about 20% maybe in my experience, but still I do think there are reasonable folk that do a majority of their work servicing rental properties frankly I’d rather buy houses worked on by people like that as opposed to unqualified homeowners neglecting proper upkeep and creating time bombs for people trying to enter the market later on.

        • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          In the US there are city departments that do nothing but examine local housing and notify landlords that things need to be updated. Correct most landlords won’t do anything on their own even if it’s a safety risk.

      • ReverseThePolarity@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        The problem with that argument is that if a house is owner occupied then that still happens.
        If the hot water goes then it doesn’t matter who owns the house. A plumber will get paid to fix/replace it. In fact he will probably be paid more if the owner lives at the property because they will want a better system so that they can have longer showers.