One observation I’ve made in my rental community is that it does feel like there is a higher turnover in neighbors to whom you might have formed bonds.
For some, it could be attributed to the american dream of home ownership where renting is often a stepping stone, but there is also simply less friction when moving between rentals…. It is quicker to end a lease and is a far simpler process. You’re also not bound by your ability to sell your house in the proper market conditions.
Some of these relationships are more like situationships where you are more connected by convenience and they will be replaced by others moving in, but this isn’t always the case.
Having been on the other side of the own or rent, I am so glad to have gotten out of being a landlord. Immediately on graduating from the UW and landing a real job, my Dad insisted I buy a house. A 3 bed, one bath 1960’s crackerjack box (950 sq ft) for $49,950. My mortgage was $350 a month (interest rates were 7.5% and climbing). Had I kept it, would’ve long been paid off. I lived in it for about a year, got married and rented a duplex in Auburn, closer to work for both of us. Got a deal to buy a family friend’s house with lifetime occupancy (she had terminal cancer). We’d start payments after she passed, owner financed into a joint account with her niece (only living family member) who was a TV News anchor in Japan. She traveled a lot and stopped by every so often to clear out the account. And so 3 weeks before 1st son was born we owned 2 houses and 2 mortgages. Moved to the bigger house and 1st order of business was set up the nursery, paint, furniture, crib, etc. And rent out my original house. Painful as you mention all the things renters don’t care about, the landlord has to take care. Even with my travel for the job; broken front window (kid threw a basketball in the winter), flooded kitchen (lost a knife down the drain which eventually wore a hole in the bottom of the trap), unauthorized cats peeing on carpet (destroyed) and burned the hard wood floors. Replacing the hot water heater, stove, removing unauthorized hideous wall paper in the bathroom, removing unauthorized carport enclosure that now sort of looked like a garage. Having a nice family fully vetted to rent, turn into the father being kicked out by the unemployed with 3 kids ex-wife who couldn’t pay the modest rent by todays standards yet I still had a monthly mortgage. And months before I could get them out. This happened twice and I gave the demon house to my Dad who loved doing rentals since he was retired and had the time. Moved twice more and finally built the house we’re still in. Another story in itself. They say the hardest thing in a marriage is to build a house. I modeled the plans in 3D in “Walkthrough” by Virtus. I was doing a beta test for the Windows version of the original Mac program that was being used in the film industry to set up shots. We adjusted the bedrooms to have exactly the same square footage for the kids. The doors were enlarged to be able to handle a wheelchair if my wife needed one (chronic pain syndrome in leg). And zero stairs., not even the step usually into the garage. Just a slight ramp. We went over budget but I found a way to make it happen. It’s my cow.
Wow. Your rental home ownership experience sounds brutal. Marsha grew up with her folks owning rental homes, and I think it scarred her childhood. The positive is that she is really good at "grout and seal" from this experience!
We also decided to make our home in Newcastle a rental when we decided to move back down to Silicon Valley. There are longer stories here (including a property manager who fell on tough times and used our funds to pay her medical bills), but suffice it to say that we treated owning a rental home more as a good tax write-off than an overall enjoyable life experience! Perhaps that's a story for another Substack post!
Marsha and I have not built a house together. Congrats on making it happen, even if over budget! I am glad to not have that experience to write about... 😅
One observation I’ve made in my rental community is that it does feel like there is a higher turnover in neighbors to whom you might have formed bonds.
For some, it could be attributed to the american dream of home ownership where renting is often a stepping stone, but there is also simply less friction when moving between rentals…. It is quicker to end a lease and is a far simpler process. You’re also not bound by your ability to sell your house in the proper market conditions.
Some of these relationships are more like situationships where you are more connected by convenience and they will be replaced by others moving in, but this isn’t always the case.
Having been on the other side of the own or rent, I am so glad to have gotten out of being a landlord. Immediately on graduating from the UW and landing a real job, my Dad insisted I buy a house. A 3 bed, one bath 1960’s crackerjack box (950 sq ft) for $49,950. My mortgage was $350 a month (interest rates were 7.5% and climbing). Had I kept it, would’ve long been paid off. I lived in it for about a year, got married and rented a duplex in Auburn, closer to work for both of us. Got a deal to buy a family friend’s house with lifetime occupancy (she had terminal cancer). We’d start payments after she passed, owner financed into a joint account with her niece (only living family member) who was a TV News anchor in Japan. She traveled a lot and stopped by every so often to clear out the account. And so 3 weeks before 1st son was born we owned 2 houses and 2 mortgages. Moved to the bigger house and 1st order of business was set up the nursery, paint, furniture, crib, etc. And rent out my original house. Painful as you mention all the things renters don’t care about, the landlord has to take care. Even with my travel for the job; broken front window (kid threw a basketball in the winter), flooded kitchen (lost a knife down the drain which eventually wore a hole in the bottom of the trap), unauthorized cats peeing on carpet (destroyed) and burned the hard wood floors. Replacing the hot water heater, stove, removing unauthorized hideous wall paper in the bathroom, removing unauthorized carport enclosure that now sort of looked like a garage. Having a nice family fully vetted to rent, turn into the father being kicked out by the unemployed with 3 kids ex-wife who couldn’t pay the modest rent by todays standards yet I still had a monthly mortgage. And months before I could get them out. This happened twice and I gave the demon house to my Dad who loved doing rentals since he was retired and had the time. Moved twice more and finally built the house we’re still in. Another story in itself. They say the hardest thing in a marriage is to build a house. I modeled the plans in 3D in “Walkthrough” by Virtus. I was doing a beta test for the Windows version of the original Mac program that was being used in the film industry to set up shots. We adjusted the bedrooms to have exactly the same square footage for the kids. The doors were enlarged to be able to handle a wheelchair if my wife needed one (chronic pain syndrome in leg). And zero stairs., not even the step usually into the garage. Just a slight ramp. We went over budget but I found a way to make it happen. It’s my cow.
Wow. Your rental home ownership experience sounds brutal. Marsha grew up with her folks owning rental homes, and I think it scarred her childhood. The positive is that she is really good at "grout and seal" from this experience!
We also decided to make our home in Newcastle a rental when we decided to move back down to Silicon Valley. There are longer stories here (including a property manager who fell on tough times and used our funds to pay her medical bills), but suffice it to say that we treated owning a rental home more as a good tax write-off than an overall enjoyable life experience! Perhaps that's a story for another Substack post!
Marsha and I have not built a house together. Congrats on making it happen, even if over budget! I am glad to not have that experience to write about... 😅