I am a Landlord and a Tenant

Being a landlord makes me a worse tenant, being a tenant makes me a better landlord.

I hate renting. I hate handing someone else money to get literally nothing in return.

“Oh but it’s a place to live!”

Motherfucker, “place to live” is some goddamn hierarchy of needs shit, not a bonus reserved for the “special”. Even without getting into the complete lack of investment most landlords make in their property, what right do they have to determine who gets to live in a building and who has to sleep on the streets?

I bought a house. My monthly payments for mortgage and property tax combined were less than I had been paying in rent. What exactly is my landlord paying for? If this is their investment, why aren’t they fucking investing? If I can afford to pay in rent what they are paying to own the property, why the fuck is it so hard to get a mortgage?

I ended up renting my house so I could move abroad. My current tenant pays exactly the mortgage and property tax amounts that I pay monthly. Effectively this house is operating neutrally. Except I also have an arrangement with my tenant that allows them to both sublet parts of the house and earn equity in the house.

It helps that I am friends with my tenant. It helps that for all intents and purposes I always have a house I can crash land back into. It helps that I really don’t like staying still. It helps that it’s the right fucking thing to do.