Comment on Is investing in real estate immoral if you use it to buy your first home?
BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 2 months ago
Unless you’re part of a greater organized movement that has the ability to make effective changes, not investing is just screwing yourself over so someone else can make the money. Invest. Buy a home. Save up for retirement. Have nice things. Go on vacations. It’s okay to not be the poorest person on Earth. You are not the problem.
ArchRecord@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I appreciate that take.
I just don’t want to be yet another contributor of many to a problem, y’know? Like how even though corporations are by far the largest contributors to climate change, I still try to reduce the excess emissions I possibly produce whenever I can just to help a tiny bit more.
I’m still investing in the stock market regardless, I just want to make sure that diversifying my portfolio won’t have an outsized negative impact on others since, well, that would suck. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Landless2029@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I believe a single person having two or even three properties isn’t an issue. As long as you’re a fair and honest landlord. Owning isn’t for everyone. Renting is a viable option for many people. Especially if someone is going to live somewhere for only around a year.
There are entire corporations that revolve around slumlording. High rents, poor maintenance, shitty lease terms with hidden fees, kicking out low income renters to raise rates for new tenants, leaving units empty when there are lots of homeless, etc.
John Oliver did a nice episode about these types of slumlords. THESE are the issue. Career landlords. For people owning more than 2 homes if we heavily taxed/fined (like a years worth of rent) empty units (defined as not rented for 4 months out of the year) this would be a start to fix the housing crisis.
Link to episode
BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 2 months ago
Yes, and I appreciate your greater conscience. However, just knowing you functioning with that in mind, I believe you will not be a problem. You will generally behave in a manner that is helpful to humanity. You might make mistakes, but definitely learn from them too.
Also, in my opinion, Lemmy tends to have a rigid all-or-none take on certain matters, such as landlords all being bad. I think that in reality, some people don’t want to own homes. They want to rent. So landlords are not only inevitable, but necessary. The relationship becomes exploitative when the situation starts favoring the landlord too much to the point that the tenant is exploited, such as landlords own wayyy too many properties or properties on sale in the market are too expensive forcing people to rent.
However, if you were a landlord in an equitable housing market and I needed a residence to rent for a while, I’m guessing it would he a mutually beneficial relationship.