LogFAQs > #967623767

IdiotMachine posted...

......? Landlords provide a service at risk: by giving you a place to live in exchange for monthly payment without (i) a massive down payment to buy, (ii) no obligation to you to maintain the property, and (iii) leave whenever you want. Hell, you could trash the place and the landlord would be responsible for the bills to clean it up. Sure, you can get sued for this, but what's the likelihood that someone who will trash up a place can ever afford to repay the damages they made?

The alternative is for you to go buy, which requires everything in my 1st post and doesn't give you the flexibility to just leave.

No, they don't. They act as a middleman while passing all of the costs down to you. That down payment is paid for with your rent. The damages are paid for with your rent. Even if those damages never happen, you are paying for them on the off chance they might in the future, or did in the past. Plus an extra markup, because the landlord's goal is not to break even.

Landlords are not renting at a loss, or even to break even. Period. Any "risk" they assume is intrinsically offset by the nature of the business. They are MAKING money, 100% of the time. You, the tenant, are still paying for every single one of those "risks." The best you can say is that it's a deferred payment plan structure.

A structure that would not be needed if you just owned the place, as all those markups and extra expenses would be in your pocket instead of the landlord's. You could afford the down payment if you weren't spending months to years paying for theirs.

That's the point. They are middlemen who offer nothing but lack of ownership and higher prices.