Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rent collections are down in New York

politico.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 594 posts

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#201

Post by jandrewrogers »

inigyou wrote: post #157
ekelsen wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only we could all get free protection from economic forces we don't control. That kind of insurance is usually pretty expensive. Why should you get it for free?

Why shouldn't everyone get everything for free that can be provided for free? Forcing other people to pay a cost because you paid a cost is just sour grapes.

It can’t be provide for free, that’s the point. Mitigating risks has costs that you are ignoring. Those costs aren’t cheap and someone has to pay for them.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#202

Post by ekelsen »

inigyou wrote: post #157
ekelsen wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only we could all get free protection from economic forces we don't control. That kind of insurance is usually pretty expensive. Why should you get it for free?

Why shouldn't everyone get everything for free that can be provided for free? Forcing other people to pay a cost because you paid a cost is just sour grapes.

Except it's not free. It's free to you but not others.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#203

Post by halfxing »

klausa wrote: post #186
nikkwong wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just try to be the landlord that I would want to have. I respond to my tenants quickly, always give them concessions, let them pay late, or at a discount when they’re struggling, referred them to work at my companies, etc, etc. it’s not all about the money, it’s also being a good member of the community, for me. This is in contrast to a corporate landlord where your $1500 disappears into a void every month.

Look, I'm sure you're a nice person and a better landlord than many corporate landlords; and trying to do well. I'm genuinely glad you're trying, and helping your tenants when you can; but I think you've drunk a bit too much of your own kool-aid. From perspective of your tenants, that money still goes into a void, no matter how nice you are.

What are you basing your judgment of OP on? He is listing various ways he goes above and beyond for his tenants even though he certainly doesn't have to. Your credit card company doesn't waive your late fees, yet he does when he knows tenants experience hardships. That's pretty awesome.

Also, the money doesn't go into a void: Tenants receive housing in return.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#204

Post by eli_gottlieb »

anovikov wrote: post #114

Why isn't it automated yet? You delay your rent and your door key stops working. Also perhaps there should be a new field for startups (yes i'm aware of 'proptech' but there has to be more than that), that will collect dirt on tenants to threaten them with legal consequences unless they pay.

> Why isn't it automated yet? You delay your rent and your door key stops working.

1) Because screw you, that's horrible and you shouldn't do it.

2) Because all these digital key systems are horrendously insecure and much more open to thieves and crackers than than a plain old door key anyway.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#205

Post by jandrewrogers »

klausa wrote: post #186
nikkwong wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just try to be the landlord that I would want to have. I respond to my tenants quickly, always give them concessions, let them pay late, or at a discount when they’re struggling, referred them to work at my companies, etc, etc. it’s not all about the money, it’s also being a good member of the community, for me. This is in contrast to a corporate landlord where your $1500 disappears into a void every month.

Look, I'm sure you're a nice person and a better landlord than many corporate landlords; and trying to do well. I'm genuinely glad you're trying, and helping your tenants when you can; but I think you've drunk a bit too much of your own kool-aid. From perspective of your tenants, that money still goes into a void, no matter how nice you are.

I literally want to have a landlord. They provide a valuable service. I could afford to buy the places where I rent but actively avoid it.

The idea that landlords don’t provide a valuable service is a kind of willful denial of reality.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#206

Post by halfxing »

lovich wrote: post #178
nikkwong wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its spread across about ~ 6 houses. I'm definitely a small landlord. I deal with all tenant issues myself, handle all repairs, leases, and most importantly for me—maintain a healthy relationship (which has grown to many friendships). I use this term in contrast to a faceless, corporate landlord who owns larger apartment buildings. Small landlords and corporate landlords are nothing alike

Being generous with your ~6 number to be either 5 or 7 houses you have either 7.8-11 people per unit? That's slumlord territory and not any morally better than corporate landlords unless your average unit size is a 4 bed/2 bath. Also there is zero world where you have 6 houses, 50+ people and can call yourself a small time landlord. That's being able to live entirely off of your rental income and a full time landlord…

I'm sure OP meant 6 houses with several units in it each, not 7-11 people per house. Otherwise the distinction between house and unit doesn't make sense.

This is a small time landlord. Large landlords have easily over 10000 units, and he is one half of a percent of that.

I hope he is able to live off the rental income. It's a big job to manage 55 units and keep everything in shape and administratively going, deal with turnover and so on.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#207

Post by lovich »

halfxing wrote: post #206
lovich wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being generous with your ~6 number to be either 5 or 7 houses you have either 7.8-11 people per unit? That's slumlord territory and not any morally better than corporate landlords unless your average unit size is a 4 bed/2 bath. Also there is zero world where you have 6 houses, 50+ people and can call yourself a small time landlord. That's being able to live entirely off of your rental income and a full time landlord…

I'm sure OP meant 6 houses with several units in it each, not 7-11 people per house. Otherwise the distinction between house and unit doesn't make sense. This is a small time landlord. Large landlords have easily over 10000 units, and he is one half of a percent of that. I hope he is able to live off the rental income. It's a big job to manage 55 units and keep everything in shape and administratively going, deal wit…

nah, having 6 buildings(not houses, if were being precise with terminology here) with multiple units in each, is not a small time landlord. If you can live entirely off the rental income then you are a full time landlord and can at best claim that you aren't a large corporate landlord, but you don't get to invoke the idea that you are some sort of mom and pop situation renting out a spare unit, which is what people assume when you say "small time landlord"

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#208

Post by klausa »

tyre wrote: post #199
klausa wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, I'm sure you're a nice person and a better landlord than many corporate landlords; and trying to do well. I'm genuinely glad you're trying, and helping your tenants when you can; but I think you've drunk a bit too much of your own kool-aid. From perspective of your tenants, that money still goes into a void, no matter how nice you are.

What exactly are you asking for? They clearly are expressing empathy for others’ situations. I live in a managed building that is completely soulless. I needed to extend my lease by one month before moving out. They wanted me to sign a new 12 month lease at a higher rate, break it, and pay a two month penalty for terminating early. This took over a month to get to something remotely human. There is absolutely a diffe…

“Money into a void” is the exact phrase that the _person I’m replying to_ used when comparing themselves to a corporate landlord.

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#209

Post by throwaway27448 »

epsteingpt wrote: post #198

For those looking for the actual data. It's from 2024 - says nothing about the current situation. * ~37K affordable housing units (baseline) across ~400 projects * 89% rent collection rate (down from 90.6% in 2023) * That's 600 units that went 'delinquent' in 2024 - assuming a $24K 'base' rent (just a guess) that's $15M in lost rent. * Deeply troubled projects (that can't survive without this rent) are at 11% - seems…

I don't understand why we can't just copy another country's housing strategy. There are many countries in the world where housing is affordable, relatively high quality, and the homelessness rate is low. What are we doing that makes this problem so seemingly intractable? Why is our approach to public housing seemingly worse than any other approach in history?

Re: Rent collections are down in New York

#210

Post by halfxing »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #92
cyberax wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are such people. I have a unit in Seattle that sits empty because I don't want to risk getting stuck with such tenants. In Seattle, you can't: 1. Evict people from November to April (it's "winter"). 2. Evict people with schoolchildren during the school year. 3. Run background checks on prospective tenants. 4. You _must_ rent to the first qualifying tenant. 5. You must offer 3 months in rent as compensation if y…

Apart from maybe being a little more flexible on evictions, none of the other reasons seem problematic. For instance not renting to the first qualifying tenant is a common root for discrimination. Why wouldn’t you rent to the first qualifying candidate? The giving tenant three month rent thing is for a very small circumstance - for example huge rent increases if the tenant income is low, condo remodeling, etc. The wo…

Are you also wanting a company to have to hire the first qualifying candidate and immediately stop all hiring? That is nonsensical. A landlord and a tenant should be free to contract as both parties wish.
Post reply on HN