Timsup2nothin
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2013
- Messages
- 46,737
Hobbs is in California, and in a fairly affluent part of it to boot. His landlord likely has dozens of applications per suite available. This highlights a pretty clear issue with low vacancy rates: Bad landlords are still successful because they have their choice of tenants, while this isn't true the other way around. A tenant who is difficult can be replaced in the blink of an eye, but how easily can a home be replaced?
While this is true, there are different levels of landlording. It is possible that a landlord with every intention to offer a good property with amenities like a gym and pool could be operating at a reasonable profit and not really be in a position to just lower everyones rents just because through no fault of their own they are temporarily unable to provide them. For some landlords an across the board rent reduction would just mean lower profit. For others it might mean short term losses they can afford. But for any that were actually being reasonable to start with it could mean that ownership of the property becomes non-viable.