Hook

I mentioned earlier that I am the current landlord of this duplex and I basically have been trying to fix the damage that previous landlords and tenants did before anyone else lived here. Being a landlord is pretty controversial so let's talk about how I got here. To be clear, I think that owning a single family home and renting it out is unethical and contributes to the unaffordable housing crisis, which of course is exacerbated by corporate real estate investors. I live here, this is my home. It was a single family that was converted into a duplex and had a granny unit added on a while ago, so it's not one of those duplexes that can be split up as two separate properties. Back in 2021, the housing market was crazy. I was getting outbid left and right and I got really lucky that my real estate agent connected me with the previous owner and we did an off market sale so I got to skip the bidding war. It's in an amazing neighborhood and at the time, two of my siblings were partially financially dependent on me, so I thought worst case scenario, they could come live with me in the extra units and best case scenario, I could make some extra money from rent. Boy was I wrong. There were two catches. The house was a fixer upper and there were tenants in place, one who had lived here for over 20 years and another over seven. I didn't want to kick someone out of their home like that, so that's literally how I became a landlord. Luckily, the two bedroom side was vacant so that's the side I live in. I work my 9 to 5, log off, go work on renovating my side, eat dinner and then go to bed. And the crazy thing is, worst case scenario did actually hit at some point. My siblings were living with me and my partner in our cozy two bedroom, but things have gotten better since then. As for the rent, I kept it at below market rates so I do not profit off of rent at all. It all goes towards their utilities and other bills. To be honest, I really hate being a landlord. I'm too much of a pushover for this to be worth my time and energy. The only reason why I do it is because at this point, I feel like it's my social duty to provide affordable housing since I have the space and means to do so.
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