I’m someone who believes landlording (and investing in property outside of just the one you live in) is immoral, because it makes it harder for other people to afford a home, and takes what should be a human right, and turns it into an investment.
At the same time, It’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever be able to own a home without investing my money.
And just investing in stocks means I won’t have a diversified portfolio that could resist a financial crash as much as real estate can.
If I were to invest fractionally in real estate, say, through REITs, would it not be as immoral as landlording if I were to later sell all my shares of the REIT in order to buy my own home?
I personally think investing in general is usually immoral to some degree, since it relies on the exploitation of other’s labour, but at the same time, it feels more like I’m buying back my own lost labour value, rather than solely exploiting others.
I’m curious how any of you might see this as it applies to real estate, so feel free to discuss :)
Yes, and I appreciate your greater conscience. However, just knowing you functioning with that in mind, I believe you will not be a problem. You will generally behave in a manner that is helpful to humanity. You might make mistakes, but definitely learn from them too.
Also, in my opinion, Lemmy tends to have a rigid all-or-none take on certain matters, such as landlords all being bad. I think that in reality, some people don’t want to own homes. They want to rent. So landlords are not only inevitable, but necessary. The relationship becomes exploitative when the situation starts favoring the landlord too much to the point that the tenant is exploited, such as landlords own wayyy too many properties or properties on sale in the market are too expensive forcing people to rent.
However, if you were a landlord in an equitable housing market and I needed a residence to rent for a while, I’m guessing it would he a mutually beneficial relationship.