> > you'll see a lot of small, private landlords get out, only to leave large corporate landlords who will have much stricter rental policies.
> If this were to happen, it would be a good thing.
Doubtful. For one thing, renting from individuals is far more pleasant than renting from giant housing conglomerates. With an individual landlord everything is negotiable and flexible, it's a person you can talk to. When renting from a corporation, there are strict rules enforced by teams of lawyers and zero flexibility.
> Consolidation erodes the electoral base of rent seekers
You got that exactly backwards. Yes, there are more individuals renting out their single properties each, but those are ordinary people who have no lawyers and no lobbyists and they don't have any coordinated voice and no influence with politicians.
The more rental properties are consolidated to giant corporations, the more outsized their influence in congress becomes as they can afford an army of lobbyists to bend the laws ever more in their favor.
Depends on the individual you are renting from. I learned the hard way to never have a lawyer for a landlord. Landlords shouldn’t be allowed to represent themselves (too bad it’s a constitutional right!). Anyway, come to find out the guy set the deposit amount specifically to make it just enough that even if you went to court to get it back, you’d never get it back because that’s how much you’d spend to get it back.
After randomly running into his ex-wife at a party and hearing that it was all done on purpose, we started to put together a class action with all of his past tenants. Then we moved to the EU instead.
> Doubtful. For one thing, renting from individuals is far more pleasant than renting from giant housing conglomerates. With an individual landlord everything is negotiable and flexible, it's a person you can talk to. When renting from a corporation, there are strict rules enforced by teams of lawyers and zero flexibility.
I've had the exact opposite experience.
> You got that exactly backwards. Yes, there are more individuals renting out their single properties each, but those are ordinary people who have no lawyers and no lobbyists and they don't have any coordinated voice and no influence with politicians.
> If this were to happen, it would be a good thing.
Doubtful. For one thing, renting from individuals is far more pleasant than renting from giant housing conglomerates. With an individual landlord everything is negotiable and flexible, it's a person you can talk to. When renting from a corporation, there are strict rules enforced by teams of lawyers and zero flexibility.
> Consolidation erodes the electoral base of rent seekers
You got that exactly backwards. Yes, there are more individuals renting out their single properties each, but those are ordinary people who have no lawyers and no lobbyists and they don't have any coordinated voice and no influence with politicians.
The more rental properties are consolidated to giant corporations, the more outsized their influence in congress becomes as they can afford an army of lobbyists to bend the laws ever more in their favor.