• @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        45 months ago

        You could, but they aren’t the ones causing the issue, they’re just enabling profits to be made from it.

      • snooggums
        link
        fedilink
        English
        225 months ago

        When scalpers buy all the tickets to a concert in milliseconds, and the only way to buy a ticket is through a scalper, why are you blaming the person who wants to go to the concert instead of the scalper?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          105 months ago

          If we all collectively agreed to not buy from scalpers the ticket sellers would have a real incentive to do something against the scalpers. Right now they don’t have to care.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            155 months ago

            Would thry?

            The ticket seller doesn’t care if there’s an empty hall, he got paid early on.

            You’re hoping that the scalpers don’t get enough return to be able to justify continuing to play their role.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              65 months ago

              You’re hoping that the scalpers don’t get enough return to be able to justify continuing to play their role.

              Yes, that’s what “If we all collectively agreed to not buy from scalpers” would achieve. I get that that isn’t going to happen but it is still our collective fault.

        • chingadera
          link
          fedilink
          25 months ago

          Woah woah woah, we weren’t expecting an easy example to prove us wrong, how dare you.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        85 months ago

        6 as well. Imagine if nobody would buy houses and just expand their parents house by a floor for their own family.

        If that doesn’t work - make the neighborhood criminal by yourself right after those “people” bought houses.

        If that doesn’t work, just purge them.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          65 months ago

          I think that’s what caused the housing market to crash.

          Surely it’ll happen one of these days right?

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            45 months ago

            If my assumptions are correct, there should be a crash of something within the next 4-6 months. My problem is that a new president always means a new unknown variable, like Bitcoin did nearly double its value after Trump won, there will be a still unknown thing once he gets into office.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          85 months ago

          Oh yeah its totally affordable to just expand in existing houses. Why didn’t i think of that?

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            45 months ago

            I didn’t say anything about affordability, just stated that it’s cheaper than purchasing land + house

  • stebo
    link
    fedilink
    595 months ago

    The worst thing about this is that housing is essential, while all the other things aren’t. Scalpers only take advantage of other people’s shopping addiction, while these so-called “investors” take advantage of other people’s basic needs.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      35 months ago

      I’ll add to that: The PlayStation etc scalpers at least give you a still-new product at the inflated price. The landlords rent it out for additional income and THEN sell it at a profit.

      So it’s more like buying a PS5 for $500, having somebody rent to play it for $100/mo, then selling it for $800 after a year

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        25 months ago

        This isn’t even true were I live. Investors will buy new appartments and leave them empty and sell them a few years later. Renting them would decrease the value more than the income is. It’s worse than you thought.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    10
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    I think most of you are underestimating the cost of housing maintenance. We had some bad luck and a couple of structurally necessary renos were bigger than initially thought, or didn’t address the issue as well as we hoped, requiring new renos. In the last 20 years we’ve paid the cost of our townhouse apartment once over, easy. And now the bathroom, kitchen, and flooring could use an upgrade (25-50 years old), which is again expensive. In that time its value has risen maybe 50%, not quite keeping pace with local inflation.

    Not complaining, we bought it for living in and it’s been great for that, and now that everything is at the end of its lifespan is a good time to really make it ours. But house prices aren’t rising insanely everywhere, house upkeep isn’t free (there are always “modifications”), and at least here the average ROI for being a landlord is abt 4-6%, same as stocks lately, and that’s assuming no major surprises.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      35 months ago

      If you only own one house, it sucks to have luck like that. But, it’s like the dips in stock prices - overall, the value of the whole market goes up over time. Those treating homes as investments tend to buy in the demand areas, where a few lofty renovations don’t dent their bottom line.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    28
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    There should be a hard limit of houses you can buy. Two by default (the one you live in and one you can rent to someone, maybe with a requirement that you need to live there occasionally) and an additional one for each child if he or she doesn’t have one yet.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      105 months ago

      First 5 investment properties should carry a 1% property income tax that is directly funneled into a housing development program, then a 5% property income tax on the next 5, 10% on the next 10…

      Realestate is the safest and highest yield investment working people can make to build generational wealth. Dont cut the throat of the guy who can afford a brand new Audi to spite the guy who has to decide between wether his driver fetches the Rolls or the Bentley.

      People should be able to aspire to being rich, just not filthy rich.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        1
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        The problem is the taking beyond their need, not if it’s many doing a little bit each or a few doing a lot each.

        A swarm of locusts still leaves you with nothing to eat, even if each one only takes a bit (and unlike people buying a handful of houses to profit from merely owning them, the locusts only eat what they need).

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        15 months ago

        They are using advanced algorithms to find the best prices for in demand properties based on profit percentages. Its become so ridiculous corpos are buying houses before individuals can even bid or have access. They buy them in lots at a time. Even using the same algos to place offers on existing properties where people live. Its ludicrous.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        215 months ago

        We should really start by limiting that. If we start treating housing as a basic right, which we should, there’s zero reason a company should be allowed to own housing to profit off of. It’s a far bigger problem than my landlady who owns five flats. We can talk about limits for people like her later.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          45 months ago

          For sure. But we don’t even consider water a basic right and concede unlimited water rights to mega corporations before reserving water access to the local population. So I have no hope for that to happen with housing…

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    985 months ago

    Housing is a basic human need, it shouldn’t be allowed to be only an investment. With the other items, you can just say “so don’t buy it”, which is not possible with housing, you have to pay for it, even of you wouldn’t like to.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      05 months ago

      Honestly, I get what you mean, but it also provides funding for new housing projects to be built first, and if you weren’t allowed to invent in it it would also not really be possible to rent a house, since that relies on someone paying for the house first.

      • lightrush
        link
        fedilink
        3
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Housing construction isn’t funded by existing housing investment. It’s generally funded by debt. Private or public, just like any other capital intensive endeavor. And debt isn’t created by lending people’s savings but by creating new money. By public or private lenders. (Private lenders create money too.) The only thing that is really needed ahead of time is labor, equipment and materials available. Financial capital is created on demand to mobilize those real resources.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      85 months ago

      While not as basic a necessity as housing, live music is also an extremely important thing to many people.

      Just saying “don’t buy it” is kind of shitty and enables the predatory practices of the likes of Ticketmaster/Livenation…

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          15 months ago

          Yeah. Not to mention that a lot of people’s social identity, social activities and sense of community are all tied up in going to concerts together…

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        155 months ago

        I agree that “just don’t buy it” is not that easy for culture in general, it could be applied to hypermonetized events.

        I’m not sure I get your second point. How is Ticketmaster enabled by people boycotting events that get scalped?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          35 months ago

          How is Ticketmaster enabled by people boycotting events that get scalped?

          They aren’t by that specifically, but they are by transferring the blame to scalpers and the victims of both scalpers and Ticketmaster…

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        435 months ago

        I’d bet if you were a lego fan you’d say the same about legos.

        Housing and concerts are orders of magnitude apart in “importantness”. All of the items above are not needed to live. A home is needed.

        • PropaGandalf
          link
          fedilink
          45 months ago

          Define a “home”. A cave? A tent? A huge loft? What is really necessary to survive?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              35 months ago

              I’d add a place where you won’t get attacked or threatened while sleeping, and maybe where you can store your stuff that also won’t get stolen easily

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              15 months ago

              That’s a good classification to have.

              The apartment I lived in until June this year was my or my friends home for 20 years, but I stayed sick after the new neighbors moved in and started destroying the place. I couldn’t have food anymore because of the rodents, roaches, bedbugs and diseased water that started running down the walls and leaking through the ceiling.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          25 months ago

          Housing and concerts are orders of magnitude apart in “importantness”. All of the items above are not needed to live. A home is needed.

          Which I conceded in the very first sentence. Seems like neither you nor the people downvoting paid enough attention to catch that, though.

          Blaming customers and scalpers for a problem caused mainly by Ticketmaster can be a bad thing without it being anywhere near as important as housing or anywhere near as bad as inflating the price of same. It’s not a binary.

        • MrScottyTay
          link
          fedilink
          English
          95 months ago

          People who buy Lego to sell in the future actually do call it investing by the way

          • Yeather
            link
            fedilink
            25 months ago

            It’s scalping if you have a quick turn around, it’s investing if you take care if it to sell farther into the future. Seeing a recently released limited set for double the price on ebay is scalping, seeing a 20-30 year old mint set for double the price is investing.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              15 months ago

              If it’s a limited edition and someone buying it to “invest” denies another person’s ability to purchase and enjoy it then fuck the “investor”.

              If enough are available at the time that anyone who wants it can acquire it then I have no problem with someone keeping a copy in good condition to sell later.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    15 months ago

    you can’t have cheap housing, because it would crash the lending economy. There must always be a motivating factor for you to work for monopoly money that is losing value. That is debt.