Funny story, we actually have enough housing for everyone. It just isn’t always where people want to live, and corporate landlords would rather leave a space vacant to drive up rents than make all of their inventory available, so there is a shit ton of residential (and commercial) property that is basically abandoned.
Took you that long? Wow. I had lost faith by the late 80s. For context I was only born in the early 80s. Once I went to kindergarten I realized society was awful and this planet sucks.
Unfortunately I haven’t found another planet that hosts life I can move to.
It would have to take into account how long it’s been vacant though.
I don’t want to punish property owners the literal second someone moves out, and it’s technically vacant. I also don’t want to punish them if they need to make repairs or updates to the property in between tenants.
So lets call it a tax forgiveness period of 1 year. I figure thats enough time to get the property renovated, and advertised as being available for rent.
And yes, I’m sure theres going to be someone who abuses the rule by just keeping it vacant for 11 months, and trying to rent it that last month. But here’s the thing. Those minded people will get burned. Because it takes time to rent properties. They’ll find it may take 2 or 3 months to find a tenant. Or maybe on the 11th month, they’ll realize they can’t rent it because in the time the property sat abandoned, uninspected, rats infested the property. Now it needs extermination services and renovations which will take 5 months. Oh well. There’s always SOME delay if you wait until the last minute. Which is why I gave it a generous year. Honest landlords won’t get burned with that grace period. Scammers will.
The problem with that is, sometimes renovations take longer than 6 months. I don’t want to punish honest landlords, because then that incentivizes honest landlords to seek out ways to cheat the system, because the system cheated them.
It’s the same reason piracy is so popular in times when the official sources are either too convoluted or expensive to follow the official way.
Most customers would be happy to follow the rules, but if you want to watch 1 single NFL team through all 17 regular season games, my local team would require you to have access to an OTA broadcast tv source, and 5 different paid subscription services. Most of which are only broadcasting 1 game.
And now the NFL is seeing a MASSIVE rise in piracy. Yeah. No shit.
Same concept here. If you punish the honest landlords for undertaking a major renovation, then you push them to seek out other ways to cheat the system. And once they start, theres nothing saying they’ll stop.
And eliminate corporate ownership of residential property. Tax the shit out of anyone owning more than three residences, and bring property values back down to earth. Bail out homeowners who owe mortgages for more than the value of the properties, and let the market self-correct.
I’d go so far as to attack the idea of a corporation. Letting a business own property or act as a liability shield for human choices is clearly bad for society.
It goes both ways though. I have a corporation for my contracting business to shield possible frivolous lawsuits from unscrupulous people. I do my best to screen clients and not work for wackos, but that’s not necessarily enough to protect myself and family.
Same. Different entities for different concerns keeps each siloed WRT finance and liability. But that should have no bearing on what I believe is true.
TLDR: Thomas Jefferson asked us to “crush” them. Better late than never.
I hope we shall take warning from the example [of the lawless English aristocracy] and crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations (emphasis mine) which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and to bid defiance to the laws of their country.
Spoiler, we didn’t. We just let them bribe legislators to change the laws so they no longer even had to defy them. And of course a few of the largest corporations recently purchased the republic outright for a relatively paltry sum, as if it were a startup acquisition.
It’s obvious to anyone who owns corporations that they make nearly everything easier. So much about the economy and government has been hugely optimized for them, while the real flesh-and-blood citizenry experience greater friction year over year.
There’s also the fact that many of those houses have sat vacant and have been left to rot for many years, meaning that plenty of them need to be demolished and rebuilt before they can be lived in. Small towns have been dying for decades as suburban sprawl consumes ever-increasing amounts of land and bleeds our cities dry of tax revenue, forcing them to continue making more suburbs to pay off the previous ones.
Funny story, we actually have enough housing for everyone. It just isn’t always where people want to live, and corporate landlords would rather leave a space vacant to drive up rents than make all of their inventory available, so there is a shit ton of residential (and commercial) property that is basically abandoned.
Some estimates say there are as many as 12 vacant homes per homeless person
this countryin the United States.Edit: millionaire in OP is from Canada
Last estimates I saw before the pandemic had the rate above 30:1. I haven’t looked since then, but I’m certain it’s only gotten worse.
Yeah, we were gonna do that anyway. After covid, I lost faith in humanities ability to be decent.
Took you that long? Wow. I had lost faith by the late 80s. For context I was only born in the early 80s. Once I went to kindergarten I realized society was awful and this planet sucks.
Unfortunately I haven’t found another planet that hosts life I can move to.
Well, I wasn’t alive in the 80s, so hard to lose faith in humans pre-emptiness. Lol
You weren’t alive in the 80s? Oh man. You missed out. There was cocaine EVERYWHERE!!! Just in the air.
What we need is tax on vacant property. Make it a ladder system so its worse based on number of vacant units and value.
It would have to take into account how long it’s been vacant though.
I don’t want to punish property owners the literal second someone moves out, and it’s technically vacant. I also don’t want to punish them if they need to make repairs or updates to the property in between tenants.
So lets call it a tax forgiveness period of 1 year. I figure thats enough time to get the property renovated, and advertised as being available for rent.
And yes, I’m sure theres going to be someone who abuses the rule by just keeping it vacant for 11 months, and trying to rent it that last month. But here’s the thing. Those minded people will get burned. Because it takes time to rent properties. They’ll find it may take 2 or 3 months to find a tenant. Or maybe on the 11th month, they’ll realize they can’t rent it because in the time the property sat abandoned, uninspected, rats infested the property. Now it needs extermination services and renovations which will take 5 months. Oh well. There’s always SOME delay if you wait until the last minute. Which is why I gave it a generous year. Honest landlords won’t get burned with that grace period. Scammers will.
I’d say 3-6 months vacant is considered empty. Especially in high COL areas.
This forces property owners to lower rent to get the property filled if they can’t get a tenant. Thus bringing down rates.
The problem with that is, sometimes renovations take longer than 6 months. I don’t want to punish honest landlords, because then that incentivizes honest landlords to seek out ways to cheat the system, because the system cheated them.
It’s the same reason piracy is so popular in times when the official sources are either too convoluted or expensive to follow the official way.
Most customers would be happy to follow the rules, but if you want to watch 1 single NFL team through all 17 regular season games, my local team would require you to have access to an OTA broadcast tv source, and 5 different paid subscription services. Most of which are only broadcasting 1 game.
And now the NFL is seeing a MASSIVE rise in piracy. Yeah. No shit.
Same concept here. If you punish the honest landlords for undertaking a major renovation, then you push them to seek out other ways to cheat the system. And once they start, theres nothing saying they’ll stop.
If it were to actually roll out it’d start as a full 1 year with no leased tenant.
And eliminate corporate ownership of residential property. Tax the shit out of anyone owning more than three residences, and bring property values back down to earth. Bail out homeowners who owe mortgages for more than the value of the properties, and let the market self-correct.
I’d go so far as to attack the idea of a corporation. Letting a business own property or act as a liability shield for human choices is clearly bad for society.
It goes both ways though. I have a corporation for my contracting business to shield possible frivolous lawsuits from unscrupulous people. I do my best to screen clients and not work for wackos, but that’s not necessarily enough to protect myself and family.
Same. Different entities for different concerns keeps each siloed WRT finance and liability. But that should have no bearing on what I believe is true.
TLDR: Thomas Jefferson asked us to “crush” them. Better late than never.
Corporate entities in the USA are out of control and absolutely must be reigned in at every level of government. Their overreach is not a new problem. Thomas Jefferson said it had already begun in a letter from 1816:
Spoiler, we didn’t. We just let them bribe legislators to change the laws so they no longer even had to defy them. And of course a few of the largest corporations recently purchased the republic outright for a relatively paltry sum, as if it were a startup acquisition.
It’s obvious to anyone who owns corporations that they make nearly everything easier. So much about the economy and government has been hugely optimized for them, while the real flesh-and-blood citizenry experience greater friction year over year.
Edit: TLDR because no one reads walls of text
There’s also the fact that many of those houses have sat vacant and have been left to rot for many years, meaning that plenty of them need to be demolished and rebuilt before they can be lived in. Small towns have been dying for decades as suburban sprawl consumes ever-increasing amounts of land and bleeds our cities dry of tax revenue, forcing them to continue making more suburbs to pay off the previous ones.