Landlords exploit property for profit. They hold all power over the tenant.
We need to create organizations in our communities to take power back into our hands.
Abolish private property!
Everyone is so busy insulting the tenant doing the upgrades when it’s the landlord who behaved badly. If all we do is collectively blame victims when they get taken advantage of, society will crumble. This woman wasn’t stupid, she just didn’t have her guard up in preparation for the massive asshole who had power over her. There’s a difference.
When you are trusting, you’re called stupid. When you trust no one, you’re called unreasonably cynical. They’re two sides of the same victim blaming coin. Start blaming the actual problem: predators.
Putting money into something you don’t own is stupid. Full stop.
Never put money into a rental.
Your advice isn’t helpful for people who don’t have the means to own their own home. Being trusting or naive isn’t something that should be shamed. There’s a way to educate people with kindness and compassion. People aren’t born knowing how to best handle the legal end of a renovation. But go on and call her stupid some more, that’ll help the onlookers. You and I and everyone in this comments section will be smart and secure with the claws we have dug into the insides of the pretty housing bubble. Perhaps if we bicker even more, the problem will disappear completely.
Kindness and compassion doesn’t always work. Sometimes the bold truth may hurt but can have more of an effect.
At 400 lbs, you are a bit overweight and that’s ok
Or…reality.
You are morbidly obese and at risk of dying, slchange your life now.
I’ll take blunt and effective over sugar coated nonsense any day.
Rather than pay that much for renovations on something she doesn’t own that would have been a great start for a down payment she could own.
I hate landlords as much as the next guy, but this is the stupidest thing ever. Would you also pay to deck out a rental car? No, you wouldn’t because you’re not the biggest dumbass on the planet.
Like other commenters have stated, there are technically reasons why and how this could work, but a casual verbal agreement ain’t it, chief. Don’t reward massive dumbassery with pity.
A proper comparison here would be more like a leased vehicle than a rental car. It’s not the “stupidest thing ever” for this tenant to believe she would be living there for 1 or more years and wouldn’t suddenly be evicted. Your exaggeration only benefits predators, and your pity is hardly a reward to anyone.
I agree that the landlord is a shitstain, but that tenant is not the best at decision making either. I can understand spending a couple of hundreds if it makes your life better, but she basically handed over a 12k check to that landlord. I can’t see any good reason to do this.
Renting isn’t the greatest decision, either. You’re throwing money at a landlord and gaining zero equity. People often do it because it’s that or homelessness. These systems are in place to take advantage of people who aren’t the best decision makers. Just because they can be taken advantage of… should they be? Or should we be better than this and revamp how we house people so that it isn’t a massive scam with the opportunity for extra side scams like we see here?
If the landlord wasn’t a massive dick, they both could have benefited from this situation. She’d have the renovated bathroom she wanted, and the landlord knew his property was being taken care of without even needing to lift a finger. Instead he got greedy, and rather than blame the greedy jerk people want to jump on the “stupid” victim. Except it’s not her fault her landlord was a prick.
Renting is basically the only way to have housing in certain parts of the world. In large cities too. Not everyone that rents is bad at decision making or on the verge of homelessness…
In this specific case, she was able to blow 12k in renos on a rental and has a Roche Bobois couch that’s worth at least 10k in the setup she has (she mentions this on her twitter feed). To be fair, she also says she realizes she made a terrible mistake and is taking the criticism in stride, so good for her, lesson learned. All this to say, yes she acted stupidly, regardless of how shitty the landlord seem to be.
I agree with you that the housing system needs to change. That conversation has been going on forever. But the solution is not to have everyone strive to own a house.
Renting can sometimes be more advantageous than owning. You don’t have to pay for maintenance and you have the ability to pick up and move a lot easier.
I own now, and even though I own a very small condo and was able to put enough money down so that I don’t have to pay mortgage insurance…owning has been more expensive per month than renting for me… I get that it’s not always this way, but right now everything is shit for everyone.
No remorse.
Not because she spent $12k for the upgrade.
But because she also paid for Twitter, or X or whatever dumb name it’s called.
Horrible. Now that the property is more valuable due to the upgrades the landlord knows they can charges a higher rent for it. The real mildly infuriating part is the fact that we as a society reward this behaviour. Sociopathic behaviour is actively encouraged under capitalism.
Not even close to a sane take. If you look at the text exchange is clear it was done without the owner knowing. As an owner the renter could have cut all sorts of corners… you’d have to tear it all up just to even make sure its water sealed properly just so that your house doesn’t rot the through because some rando renter made choices about your property. If your going to drop 12k on a reno of a bathroom… drop it on a down payment instead.
12k is upgrades is both enough to potentially have the landlord owe additional taxes if they are assessed and not enough to be able to increase amenities enough to meaningfully raise rent.
The real issue here though is that you don’t go altering someone’s property without their consent. I don’t know how that isn’t the obvious answer here. The amount spent doesn’t even really matter (although I’d argue more spent is even worse, considering it implies greater alterations without consent).
Landlords can be and very often are terrible. But on a base level if I own a piece of property for which I am ultimately responsible, I see no justification for being ok with someone else making thousands of dollars of changes to that property without getting my ok first. It seems incredibly basic that I as owner should have a say in it.
She could have used that $12k as part of a down payment on her own place… what on earth is she thinking.
Might’ve been financed on credit - but even still, it takes a lot more than $12k for a down payment.
Assuming the median price for a home is $500k, you’d need $100k for a traditional 20% down payment. Sure, $12k is 12% of the way there… but it’s nowhere near what is needed for an actual down payment.
I doubt your pulled out of ass price for a house. And you don’t need a 20% down payment. The highest down payment minimum is like 10% and most people don’t need that much. All depends on the type of loan though.
The reason why people go for the 20% Mark is because once you clear 20% then you don’t have PMI, or private mortgage insurance. That typically runs three quarters of a percent of the purchase price of the house until you have 22% of the house paid off, and you have to pay that on top of your mortgage, the interest, and the taxes and insurance.
For every $100,000 you finance that means that if you pay less than 20% down you will have to pay an extra $750 a year just as a “couldn’t afford 20% down” fee.
And typically to get the first quarter of your mortgage paid off takes 10 years, so for many people that will be $7,500 per $100,000 they borrow to buy a house as the poverty cherry fee on top of everything else.
Assuming the median price for a home is $500k
Depending on where you live that’s way too high. That’s like an NYC price or something.
Also depending on where you live that’s way too low. Median home price in California is almost $800k.
https://www.redfin.com/state/California/housing-market
Almost like $500k is a good rough number used to make a point.
There are also closing costs and other fees. I bought a house in 2020 using the native American home loan program.
I had to put down two and a quarter percent as a minimum and on a $500,000 house that should have been $11,250, but the total to close was actually a touch over 20 grand.
It took me several years to save up that money and it disappeared in a flash.
Nah you can put lower you just need mortgage insurance so you’re paying a bit extra on mortgage due to not having to save up for 5 years to afford it (which would mean the price probably rising by enough in those 5 years that you’ll need to save up for another year and now you’re 6 years behind on a payment lol.) if you’re saving up while renting you’re probably paying close to mortgage for rent (or more if you’re in certain areas) plus putting more aside to save for that down payment so you should be able to afford the slightly higher mortgage until you get to that 20%.
FHA loans need 3.5% last I checked. So her $12k wasn’t far off for a $500k dollar place. Yes they also require PMI for a bit, but better putting money into something that causes gains for yourself than for a landlord. As this article so clearly proves.
People will often ignore FHA offers or take lesser conventional offers. FHA loans fall through more often and have additional requirements on the property. I’ve worked in mortgage for years. Took an offer for 5k less when I sold my first home to take a conventional loan offer…
Anyone who’s dealt with real estate knows how much more likely the conventional offer is to close. In a seller sided market no one wants to take government loans.
It’s not far off but in the current market someone will just offer more than you and you won’t get it anyway.
