I’m someone who believes landlording (and investing in property outside of just the one you live in) is immoral, because it makes it harder for other people to afford a home, and takes what should be a human right, and turns it into an investment.

At the same time, It’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever be able to own a home without investing my money.

And just investing in stocks means I won’t have a diversified portfolio that could resist a financial crash as much as real estate can.

If I were to invest fractionally in real estate, say, through REITs, would it not be as immoral as landlording if I were to later sell all my shares of the REIT in order to buy my own home?

I personally think investing in general is usually immoral to some degree, since it relies on the exploitation of other’s labour, but at the same time, it feels more like I’m buying back my own lost labour value, rather than solely exploiting others.

I’m curious how any of you might see this as it applies to real estate, so feel free to discuss :)

  • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    This is close to my belief. Someone has to own the home and they’re worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (I’m not getting into the overblown values right now, one step at a time). Since most people don’t have $300k+ in cash (US non-metro), then they’re not buying it outright. What’s the difference between paying rent to a landlord or mortgage to a bank? Both are making a profit and both can kick you out for non-payment (again, one problem at a time). So, given the current state of housing, you can legitimately provide housing at a reasonable price that doesn’t require a 50k+ down payment first. I am not a landlord sympathizer, I am not a landlord. I’m just someone still putting 60% of my monthly mortgage payment into the interest accrued just in the last 30 days (read: new homeowner).

    Don’t be a dick corpo fuck that buys blocks of houses and let’s them sit vacant to drive up scarcity. Don’t be a flipper that does a cheap reno to turn $30k of improvements into a $150k upsell. Don’t do the cheapest repairs to meet code for your tenants.