Thats cute! Thanks for the info, its much appreciated .

This is almost exactly how I do it. The only change I would make is the “adjust based on service”. It’s a standard 20% minimum. It can go up if service is great or we’re friendly with the staff, but I don’t decrease it. If something is wrong enough with the food or service that I’m upset about, I’m gonna talk to the manager. I’m really laid back, so something would have to be frighteningly wrong for me to do that tho.

Sheetz heart shaped fish sandwiches 💜

202 Hometown Tacos…excellent place.

Here is some reading

https://nlihc.org/resource/fact-week-federal-budget-authority-housing-assistance-has-declined-more-75-billion-real

https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/trump-budget-unhealthy-housing

https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/congress-prioritizes-housing-programs-in-2018-funding-bill-rejects-trump

https://nlihc.org/federal-budget-and-spending

Thank you for the well thought out response. It's nice to have these conversations and find other like minded people. I can see and agree with all of your points, the issues are deep and complex and there is no single solution, let alone an easy one.

I hold out hope that a lot of it can be tackled methodically with time and concentrated effort, but I worry we wont even start down that road before there is some catastrophic catalyst first.

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I didn't immediately see if either of these were mentioned contributing to the rising rent impact

1. new construction apartments are all upscale/luxury. No one is investing in middle income rental units. The government does require a specific % be deemed "affordable" housing, but that amount is insane,coming from a person who is well above the income limits

2. Airbnb's impact on available rental units, diminishing supply. Not so much an issue in Pittsburgh as other touristy cities, but contributes nevertheless

It’s been debated in this country since the Great Depression and the pendulum swings back and forth over the years for how much people want the government to get involved in the housing market. When blacks were not allowed in public housing, most of the country supported public housing. Once desegregation happened in the 60s many white people switched to supporting Republicans which are heavily on the side of no public housing or rent controls and they seem to keep getting elected so I don’t know what else to do besides vote for a democrat that might try to fix the issue.

I feel bad for you being forced to live in that desirable, historic neighborhood with negligible rent increases, OP, and I look forward to your next post about how your home inspector, the seller and any contractor you hire are all also immoral crooks.

🙄

When Covid funds run out, the world burns. This is just peeking behind the curtain.

Well, to be fair, most the complaints I see are about one of the owners being cruel to employees and his wife, not about the food.

Edit: though a lot people in this thread hate the food apparently. I think their food is awesome. Amazing pickles, great flavors.

We completely agree. Costs have gone up and it is okay for prices to reflect that, However there is importantance in separating cost, revenue, and profit.

Just to spin a hypothetical here are some numbers: I am renting a unit for $100, so I made $100 in revenue. I then paid $60 in upkeep costs so my profit is only $40, but that pays my bills and I'm happy. Next year I find out my costs are going to be $80, I dont want to only make $20 profit so I raise my rent to $120.

That whole situation is fine so long as that $40 isnt my sole income and if the house burns to the ground or the tenant dies, I dont lose everything.

The issue is when the same scenario plays out like this: The next year I find out my costs are going up to $100, so I plan to raise rent to $140, but before i do i find out my friend down the street just built a new unit and rented it for $300. I figure since someone rented that apartment at that price i can ask that price from my renter so i do. They agree to it because their kid just started school and they want to stay in that school district. I bring in $300 revenue, costs are $100, I make $200 profit.

The next year it's the same. Cost increases $20 but another friend has built a new unit and is charging $500. I figure I'll try again since someone rented in the area for that price. My current renter can't afford it and moves out. I lower my price to $450 and get someone who couldn't afford $500, but can just squeeze by at $450. I bring in $450 revenue, costs are $120, I make $330 profit.

I am now an asshole....

Just because I could and someone did pay it I raised my rent enormously and made huge increases in profit.

That's just business, we agree on that, but that was and is someone's home. Legally, I shouldn't be allowed to do that. I priced a family out of their home, I'm making it so it's harder for the current people to save for their own future. If all my friends are doing the same thing we are collectively pricing whole communities out. If the whole country is doing it we are ruining people's chances to have stable housing.

Two things can be right. I don’t know how affordable/subsidized housing works. And the gentrification of neighborhoods often has me wondering, literally, what happened to all those people. And I believe there should be infrastructure in place for access to housing. With that out of the way, real estate is an investment (as well as a place to live if your investment is your house.) and any investment has risks and rewards. I plan on selling my house in a few years. So between now and then I have list of upgrades and improvements I want to make to maximize my return on that investment. Which is moral. And responsible for my family. In the case of your landlord, maybe they are in the same position. They took a substantial risk in investing in that property and now or trying to maximize that return…also moral; also responsible.

'cheswick'

Many smart people are trying to fix the problem but solutions have been elusive. Why haven’t we gotten stronger tenants laws? near everyone hates landlords so shouldn’t that be a popular law to pass? We need stronger measures to police bad landlords. That might help offset the negative affects of rent controls. If you want to get involved this is something good to advocate for. It is an issue that is constantly discussed here in pittsburgh. Oakland student slums and Larimar absentee landlords and abandoned housing in the hill are some topics I’ve heard of.

you addressed that rent controls disincentivize construction of new housing and you mentioned government funded housing to fill the void. One issue with that is government built housing has been some of the worst maintained housing in the city of Pittsburgh and most projects older than that from 70s are simply being torn down and being replaced with smaller amounts of housing like the terraces in the hill district. The federal housing agency is known as one of the most corrupt and poorly run government agencies for handing out sweetheart contracts to political buddys. the housing they build tends to end up more expensive than the housing private developers build on their own.

So after all that is said and done, the simplest solution is to build more housing in neighborhoods where people want to live and that have good transit to jobs. I’m very much in favor of cracking down on bad landlords and the government filling the void with new housing but I’ve lost most faith in the government properly policing landlords and construction contractors so I’d rather focus on supporting more housing in the right places. That’s just my opinion on the issue lately

I really hope you like it there! I really miss Pittsburgh. Don't worry, the snow will come at some point, just maybe not this year. Ask anybody about snowmageddon in 2010.

Think about the consequences of what you think should happen. The housing supply would pretty much be obliterated. No one would have any incentive to have a rental property if it wasn’t for profit. The housing that would be left would be subsidized, but the amount required for this government funded program would be astronomical. It would basically mean that any rental for anybody would go through the government.

I had this when I lived in Tempe, AZ (where Arizona State is). Literally every time a nice band of storms or rain was forecasted to move over my neighbor the system either barely misses my neighbor or the system fucking dies before reaching me.

I had this when I lived in Tempe, AZ (where Arizona State is). Literally, every time a nice band of storms or rain was forecasted to move over my neighbor, the system either barely missed my neighbor or the system fucking dies before reaching me.

I can only speak to my experience.

I've owned a duplex in Pittsburgh for the last 6 years.

It's a 100+ year old building which will always need some degree of improvements/upgrades.

I have never raised the rent on an existing tenant yet, the original lease terms "worked" financially for me but when there is a vacancy, I tackle the top items on the improvement/upgrade list.

Any new tenant, unfortunately pays for part of that work in the form of an updated "market rate" rent.

Right now that has led to the two units being priced radically different as the one unit looks nearly brand new while the other one is extremely dated and mainly in break fix mode as the tenant has lived there for ~15 years pre-dating my ownership.

It's not realistic for me to provide the same quality of living to a long term existing tenant vs a new tenant unless I want to ultimately displace the family with 15 years history.

I guarantee when the long term tenant leaves and I sink $20k+ into their unit, the next tenant will be "screwed" by comparison.

I welcome Federal regulation to some degree since it is definitely a "landlords market" right now but unless the government decides to buy me out, I have an obligation to make a profit else, the place will become uninhabitable.

I like it. Fairly walkable in most parts of the borough, costs aren't extreme, there's an express bus to get Downtown if you have a 9:00 to 5:00 job down there, and drive times to many other places are relatively quick

Pittsburgh is actually in a valley in the mountains. As such, the air rises over the mountains and falls into the valley. This air exchange has a tendency to break weather systems up. There is a rise and fall effect.

The amount of people saying 0 to carry out here is amazing…

1. 10-15ish%
2. also 10ish %
3. depending on level of service, if the restaurant is slammed, etc 20-30%

Some daycares give you a handful of sick days, where they won’t charge if you can’t come…but it’s usually limited to a few days.

The biggest issue is you can’t really shop around as a parent. I had to call over 24 daycares in the area to get one without a 1-1.5 year waiting list. It’s also a 25 min drive for us which sucks…. But it’s what was a available.

If you're willing to dive further, I'm curious what your personal justifications are for your position. What has brought you to your current opinions on the matter of for profit housing?