So I was having this discussion with some friends last night. One of my soap boxes is how much real estate has been bought up by people looking to rent out houses pricing people out of the housing market. My parents recently bought a house they are doing a rent-to-own with my brother. He works as a teacher and it's unlikely he'll be able to save up to buy a house on his own in the current market, especially with rent going up each year. This way he is paying my parents the equivalent of the mortgage in rent each year which is a fixed rate and getting ownership with each payment. I'm not sure how it all works legally but I know they had a lawyer draw up the rental contract so it would work that way.
I was telling this to some friends last night and one of them pointed out for all my ranting about landlords I was okay with my parents being landlords. When I said it wasn't the same he said I was using “the only moral abortion is my abortion” defense. This prompted a discussion with all of us there. Apartment owners are landlords but are they pricing people out of the housing market? What about someone whose kids move out and decide to rent out the newly emptied rooms in their house? Airbnb hosts who rent out a home because they traveling for work and want their home to work for them while they are gone vs. Airbnb hosts who own multiple properties that they never live in? What about hotels, bed and breakfasts, or other places meant for short term stays?
So I thought I would ask reddit. I really want the power of landlords to be diminished so people have a chance at owning their own homes like they used to. But how do you define a landlord?