I guess it really depends on whether or not the landlord is a slumlord or not.
Home ownership is not easy. Homes and properties require constant care and maintenance, for those who care about them. Having two properties can easily eat up 2-3 days a week, year round.
Absolute bare minimum I put at least $10,000 into my house every year, and that’s if I do all the work myself and nothing major breaks.
Paint, decking, siding, roof, furnace, plumbing, electrical, lighting, exhaust fans, yardwork, insulation, windows, doors, cabinetry, appliances, replacing sewer lines, cleaning french drains, gutters, etc etc. They may not all need work in the same year, but they do all need work and some of those jobs are a major time and money commitment.
To say property ownership is a passive income is ignorant at best, but more likely disingenuous. If it’s truly passive, it’s only passive for a short period of time before the costs catch up to you and your “investment” is ruined.
mke_geek@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Providing rental housing is a service. It’s a job, like being a waiter or a flight attendant.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 1 week ago
Note that being a waiter or a flight attendant requires activity which directly affects the client – just like other services. Not true of landlords.
Owning a property and renting it out does not intrinsically equate to providing a service. In fact, the only activity one has to do (in many cases) is collect rent, which is a service to the landlord only. Landlords can offer services – improving the property, for example (though it’s a service which does also benefit the landlord) – but this is not intrinsic to property renting in the way of any service you mentioned.
And it certainly isn’t a job, in the traditional sense of having a boss and a schedule etc. I guess in some sense it is closer somewhat to independent contracting, except that you ultimately get to kick out your “clients” if you want to, and you don’t have to do anything they ask. Even by that interpretation, it’s money for nothing. “Job” suggests effort.
I assume you’re about to try and claim that paperwork and government hoops that landlords may have to work through means that they must, by definition, be a service. And to that, I would say: things that give you income are meant to require effort. But I’d gladly take over the paperwork for my landlord if it meant I didn’t need to keep giving him half of my active income every month for doing literally nothing, and I don’t think I’m alone in that at all.
mke_geek@lemm.ee 1 week ago
You are mistaken regarding the activities that landlords do. And the lower the income of the tenant, the more work the landlord has to do.
Paperwork and dealing with government bureaucracy is part of the job.
Landlord activities directly affect the “client” which is the same in any service industry.
Being self employed still means having a job. Some people only know what it’s like to be an employee. They don’t know the ins and outs of running your own business. Perhaps that’s why you don’t understand the job of being a rental property owner.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 1 week ago
Again, all those things you mention directly impact your profit as a landlord. They have nothing to do with your tenants. It is not a service.
If I want to be able to drive a car, I have to get a license. But that doesn’t mean that getting a license is a service to anyone who might ride in my car. It’s overhead that I have to perform in order to drive a car.
Hearing landlords complain about paperwork while sucking up their psssive income calls for the tiniest violins ever.