I was looking at the prospect of renting out a second house that I have. The risks with a bad tenant are too high for me. I fully understand why a large number of people are not rented too. The risk is staggering unless you are well funded. I can't afford six months of mortgage payments to evict someone or the potential of the tenant to trash the place. My mortgage payment is quite low comparatively speaking, but there isn't enough gross profit to take the risk. Income subsidized units in this area leave too little in the incomes of most people to be anything other than teetering on the edge of financial ruin. The housing market is fundamentally broken. (I am speaking from Southeastern US perspective).
ryan_lane|1 year ago
The housing market is broken because in most markets there's a company helping landlords price fix the market. Landlords in most of the US have considerably more power than the tenant and this is especially true in the south eastern part of the US where most major cities allow evictions without cause with sufficient notice (usually 2-3 month notice) and extremely fast evictions with cause (~10-15 day notice). Rent control is effectively non-existent.
I sympathize a bit with small landlords in California or New York, but things are rigged in your favor most other places.