it is FUCKING INSANE that apartments get to ask for all sorts of invasive shit like this and that’s just fine. yeah god forbid you take on any risk, we’re only committing to fucking thousands a month, fuck you.
Nowadays too they often require renter’s insurance so they can get money from the insurance company if you leave too many peasant droppings on the floor during your stay.
Naw, tenants insurance is entirely reasonable in my book. That’s not meant for small things. That’s meant for huge disasters like if you cause a fire that burns down the entire building. The liability insurance is the only part they usually care about. Fortunately, it’s usually relatively cheap, too.
If you didn’t have insurance, they’d just need more insurance themselves and they’ll pass that buck on to you. At least with renters insurance, you can get some coverage for your personal belongings, too.
If you didn’t have insurance, they’d just need more insurance themselves and they’ll pass that buck on to you.
I honestly think they should be prevented from just transparently passing every single cost of ownership (as well as most of their responsibilities) onto renters, but I’m also American so I understand what you’re saying here.
I’m curious how you think business works? Like what do you think businesses do, besides passing costs to customers? If they didn’t price their expenses into their products/services the business wouldn’t survive. Preventing them from doing so is just…childishly naive…
It’s true that they have to make more in profit than expenses, but margins aren’t set in stone, except in this country where everyone thinks that not only does already work that way, but that it should.
In a reasonably regulated industry additional costs may have to be absorbed out of the business’s margin instead of immediately being passed onto the customers.
The margins are fucking fat in this country, but that won’t stop them from passing every single additional cost onto you again instead of adjusting their margin.
EDIT: And all of this leaves out the discussion of not only every cost being passed directly onto you, but the responsibilities as well.
The margins are fucking fat in this country
Do you have data supporting this? I took a few minutes to select a few ginormous American megacorps in various industries and asked chatgpt to help select the best non-US analogs to compare to. Then I pulled up their financial statements and compared some key ratios over a few years: net income / net revenue (profit margin), net income / net equity (return on equity), and net income / total assets (return on assets).
I looked at Verizon and Vodafone, and then GM and Toyota, before I decided to actually do some real work on this and put some real data together. My results were inconclusive: verizon is kicking vodafone’s ass, but then again telecom is absolutely fucked in this country so no big surprise there. GM and toyota split the metrics pretty evenly; one better in one area, the other better somewhere else.
So I’m not convinced yet profit margins are abnormally fat in this country compared to international business. It’ll take a lot of data points from a lot of companies over a lot of years to really get a satisfactory picture of whether your point is truly accurate.
I took a few minutes to select a few ginormous American megacorps in various industries and asked chatgpt to help select the best non-US analogs to compare to.
LOL
I looked at Verizon and Vodafone, and then GM and Toyota, before I decided to actually do some real work on this and put some real data together. My results were inconclusive: verizon is kicking vodafone’s ass, but then again telecom is absolutely fucked in this country so no big surprise there. GM and toyota split the metrics pretty evenly; one better in one area, the other better somewhere else.
What the fuck does any of this have to do with the margins in rental apartments?
So I’m not convinced yet profit margins are abnormally fat in this country compared to international business. It’ll take a lot of data points from a lot of companies over a lot of years to really get a satisfactory picture of whether your point is truly accurate.
There’s hardly a more friendly business environment to stage your multi-national from than the United States…and that’s not only because we have people like yourself trying to thoroughly research how good they have it in order to prove a boot-licking point to some random stranger on the Internet, but also because here, unlike in all other countries, if you don’t like the regulatory environment you can quickly and easily buy yourself a congressman (or two)…oh and you can just send any manufacturing costs such as labor out of the country.
I think you’re missing the forest for the weeds here truly. I’m talking about a specific area and you’re trying to extrapolate it to the entirety of the world. I’m sure that there are some industries where the margins in the US are a bit thinner than they are elsewhere (especially when it’s not possible to move your labor too far from your business such as in retail), but what’s truly unique is how defeated and broken and used to giving it up to business we are in this country. Or to add one of my favorite Vonnegut quotes for color:
semi-related Vonnegut quote
America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, ‘It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.’ It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: ‘if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?’ There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.
On the specific point about rental rates and margin, and I’ll go even more specific into the locality…there’s scarcely a better margin business than taking a large complex full of 550 SQ FT apartments in southern california and charging an ever increasing amount of rent, pet rent, shit fees, and requiring more and more other things from renters every year (deposits, pet deposits, etc.).
California, “liberal” state that it is, managed to pass a huge restriction on this though…you can’t raise someone’s rent more than 10% year-over-year without giving the renter in the unit 90 days notice much to the horror of the landlord class who roused every rabble they could in protest.
I’ve got a friend who’s apartment got burned out due to a fire beneath them. She didn’t have renters insurance which has made the whole debacle an even bigger pain in the ass than it needed to be. If she’d had insurance her insurance company would have handled everything, instead she had to fight with the person who caused the fire’s insurance herself. She’s picked it up since then and is paying about $30/month.
Renters insurance is so damn cheap every renter should have it. And for a few extra dollars add on a personal articles policy so if shot gets stolen it’s covered. I had two $2k bikes stolen from an old apartment and insurance paid out full replacement value on them with no issue and I got a nice upgrade.
I don’t think so, when the water line broke in my apartment, my renters only covered my stuff. That’s what they have insurance for
Or burn your apartment down (Christmas lights, for example), which you would be on the hook for without insurance. It also covers your stuff if you get robbed. I personally think that it is indespensible.
Another thing they’ll do is say “oh no, you don’t need renters insurance, we provide you with renters insurance and build it into the price of rent.” And then you read through the lease to see what exactly their “insurance” covers and it’s basically nothing, so you have to get your own anyways, essentially paying for it twice.
Or if you flush a bag of concrete down the loo. People do that. People might be justified.
It’s hard to evict shitty tenants if they don’t cough up rent. So they are very picky about who they rent to because there’s so many good tenants in line behind the shitty ones. Pretty simple explanation really.
Truly insane. What’s next, your healthcare records?
Mandatory “use GIMP: is free and open source” comment
Just pirate Adobe and get the best of both worlds.
I justify the use of Adobe for professional use cases, like “I have to print a label with a specific set of colors and GIMP has bad CYMK support”.
If you have to put a signature where there isn’t one or stuff like that, GIMP is more than good for the job and in the meanwhile you’re helping a community project to grow.I’ll always choose the FOSS option first, but if you want something that does most of what the Adobe products do, has decent CMYK support, and doesn’t charge a subscription, the Affinity software suite (Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher) is pretty good value.
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The only problem with GIMP is that is comes with every sensible keyboard shortcut mapped to some random function you use once in a lifetime.
Can you give an example? The defaults seem perfectly sensible to me.
The other problem is that if it’s on your resume, I’m not hiring you.
It’s not going to be on my resume. Because I know GIMP.
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They wanted to DNA test my dog and keep his biometric data on file as part of the terms of the last lease I was looking at.
I uhh, didn’t fucking sign. The neofeudalist movement is for real.
This so they can fine you when you leave your dog’s shit on the ground for other people to step in. I’m here for it. I lived in a place that did not enforce picking up after your animals and it was absolutely disgusting.
They don’t do that at all anyway, but hey at least the professional landlord class gets to inflict upon you one more indignity for some imagined benefit.
The park adjacent to those buildings has so much dog turd in it you’d think they were purposely producing low quality fertilizer over there.
My tenants wouldn’t pick up their dog shit until I asked them to. They thought I was going to clean it up.
Then they threw unbagged dog shit in the garbage can. That was a nice surprise.
Some people are entitled human garbage. They exist at all income levels. Yea, renters have it tough. You still have to pick up your dog shit.
The imagined benefit of picking up your dog shit is that the lawn gets mowed and people don’t step in dog shit. Imagine that.
For the record I’m not actually pro “leave your dog shit everywhere” I just question both the imposition of the indignity of subjecting your tenants to pet DNA screening, and the effectiveness of it as a mechanism for preventing that.
I actually am pro throw unbagged dog shit in a bag-containing garbage can though, and don’t really understand why anyone would care about that.
I tend to see more of the leaving it on the ground, not even the throwing it in a can.
Edit: Alright, you guys are right, you need at least 2 layers of bags for dog shit. But then I guess triples might be safer, or even quads. Fuck it, every piece of dog shit must be wrapped in at least twenty layers of plastic before it hits the landfill! We need to preserve the remains of this dog shit forever!! It’ll be our mummies!!! Inject it with formaldehyde!!!
Guess your tenants don’t have a working dishwasher and a window that’s been broken since before they moved in that is totally gonna be fixed before they move in?
That’s whataboutism.
Nobody is getting dog shit DNA tested, id bet they do for bites though so the building can say they’re not liable.
I lived in a building where the super would go around and get as many complaints as he could from people who let their dogs go in the lobby. He was great, the building got rid of him because he wanted the building owners to actually keep up the amenities promised to residents.
Hate to break it to you dude
"We are the DNA dog waste management company offering a solution to pet pollution in 7,000+ communities across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. It isn’t just a problem in your community—it’s everywhere. "
And here I thought it was pretty common to have your children and pets DNA tested by your apartment manager. Hasn’t this always been the case?
Well, I guess I was wrong.
I did not know this was a thing
It’s also so they can charge you more money because your dog has pit bull DNA and which results in higher insurance premiums or similar bullshit.
Yeah, they do that these days to identify who lets their dogs poop around the property and don’t pick it up.
Nobody’s DNA testing dog stool. They can’t be bothered to even do routine move out cleanings in those apartments. The whole thing is a giant farcical pretendy power game played out by managers far away designing a system for the benefit of their rentier owners to simultaneously rob renters of their last scraps of dignity and every remaining dime they have in the form of bullshit fees.
We are now servicing over 6,000 communities in six countries. We are currently receiving an average of 300+ pieces of poop a day.
I’m aware that the apartment people aren’t running the DNA database themselves. They have some weirdo company that does it. I’m also aware that that weirdo company (or companies) is capable of putting together a website.
I’m saying I live in the same neighborhood (I bought a place). Nobody is going through that park and picking up the dozens of available dog stool and sending it off to some lab to be tested. They just aren’t. The whole fucking thing is a wet dream had by some awful corporate bureaucrat that only succeeds in making renters lives a little more miserable and pads the pockets of some other random, doggy DNA database building weirdo somewhere else.
I’m going to briefly go on a related rant here that you can feel free to ignore.
rant
People in America have this perspective that if somehow you devise a theoretical solution to a problem (especially if it’s fancy and requires “tech” and “DNA” and labcoats) that you will magically have solved the problem. This isn’t actually the case, and it’s shown to not be the case over and over and over again in this country and everyone still seems purposely ignorant to that simple concept.
Things have unintended effects. Systems can have effectiveness issues. System costs (of all types, not just monetary) on all parties involved in the administration of those systems are often left unconsidered because it’s not part of the problem solver’s business model. Convoluted systems will not be fully understood by the agents who are supposed to implement them. Modern, technical solutions to problems are not magically better or more effective than the alternatives that are very often never even considered, simply because it wouldn’t give you a reason to strap on a lab coat, or start up a new SaSS company.
Why do you think that’s unique to AMERICA?
I dunno maybe it isn’t entirely but it’s a very pervasive attitude here.
Look at the COVID death numbers in the US versus some places that had the common sense to just use masks.
Well I don’t know what to tell you. We had a guy two months ago who was arrested because his dog was pooping on the premises and he did not clean it up.
This is a half a billion dollar a year industry.
Arrested? Lol
In my area you can’t even get anyone to care at all.
Maybe if someone’s dog pooped directly in the property manager’s mouth… Otherwise, forget it.
Your experience is an anecdote.
I’m aware that the apartment people aren’t running the DNA database themselves. They have some weirdo company that does it. I’m also aware that that weirdo company (or companies) is capable of putting together a website.
Your conspiracy theory is so stupid it is comical.
You think they have a lab in the apartment complex and they’re doing the testing themselves? 😆
You’re saying the business that the other commenter provided a link to is a “conspiracy theory”?
That sounds a lot like no one.
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Nobody’s DNA testing dog stool.
Yes they are. Pick up your dog shit.
You caught me, I’m complaining about DNA testing of dogs because it’s actually me sneaking out at night and pooping (not even the dog, but me). I shit out there just for you, bud.
You don’t understand, PooPrints has got your number. They ship dog poop around SIX countries, didn’t you read the site!?
It’s frustrating out there, but keep up the critical thinking fight. The ones you reach usually won’t be ones replying.
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Or…They threaten to do this and just keep your $600
It’s really the threat that motivates people, and it’s the free $600 non-refundable deposit that motivates the landlords.
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But if I had a gimp, I wouldn’t be alone. 🤔
Nonono, you have to get adobe. You want a home, you have to build it yourself! With your bare hands!
Or Abode.
Nah, no need for Adobe. Just use https://photopea.com
For whatever reason the nested comments aren’t loading but I’d think twice about uploading my bank statements or anything personal to an online photo editor.
GIMP is a good free offline alternative
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People downvoted you because your sarcasm is too subtle
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Photoshop is an Adobe product. They never said anything about Acrobat.
And then you get bankrupted by the excorbitant creative cloud license costs.
Do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate! 🎶🎵🎶
I remember the first time I ever saw that video was when I tried playing Enter the Gungeon. I didn’t even pirate it. I just screwed up when I was installing some mods lol
[email protected] (Does not work for lemmy.world users)
Also: Doesn’t GIMP also do the same thing?
And this is why I switched away from .world
lemmy.world has a mental health community that used to not allow posts mentioning suicide. Yes, a mental health community. Like wtf man. They only changed the rules because I made a meme criticizing that rule.
Yup. Adobe may not be the ones causing the housing crisis, but all this nickel and diming from other sources is part of the problem too.
Hey Adobe, if you want people to stop pirating your shit go back to a pay-once model or lower your subscription costs. Then maybe use some of that money you’ve got to help us out over here so we can afford to pay you.
I get Adobe free through work! Ha-ha! *cries because the job is soul-crushing*
correction, and steal Adobe.
Renting is fucked. Some people probably know about this site but just fyi https://ratethelandlord.org/
Lol that place is something else
“Written Review WORST FUCKER AND PROPERTY MANAGER IN NW CALGARY. SHE IS A WHORE AND ASSHOLE LADY WHO FUCKS TANANT’S SOUL”
… 4 stars.
Nah that’s just your average landlord
I am willing to take her word over the landlord’s.
It’s land ownership laws that’re fucked. Here’s the original game of Monopoly before it was stolen by a capitalist- The Landlord Game, a teaching aid for workers to understand why land owners are the problem. It’s a pretty old problem.
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/lg-1903_arden-board.jpg
The absolute necessity squares are too real. Land ownership is evil.
Lol @ “goat alley”
Get pirated adobe or use gimp
Updoot for FOSS (and high seas)
Yeah I’m pretty based
Ok I woke up the gimp, now what?
I “forged” documents with gimp once — needed to print out and sign something for a wire transfer when I was abroad. I pasted in my signature and sent it back, but they said it needed to be print out, scanned, and sent back. So I opened it in gimp, added noise and rotated it by a degree or so to look like it was scanned — and they accepted it, no questions asked. So…I forged my own documents.
Banking in the US is sometimes a bit humorous. (Meanwhile, in the country I was staying, at the end of the night someone picked up the tab, wrote down their bank account number, and said “transfer me $XYZ thanks” — was pretty great.)
krita
You don’t even need photoshop. Just use the inspect function in your browser and edit the values directly in the HTML. Free and much easier to not fuck up the formatting.
Works if your statements are in a web format. But most of this stuff is a PDF you download.
No one going to bring up the fact that adobe is an anagram of abode?
They got their abode with adobe! This is no coincidence! I’m inclined to say this goes all the way to the top!
I recently read about an Adobe alternative called abode
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Meanwhile Adobe: “Hello, I like money!”
Meanwhile in the Czech Republic…
Hi, is it still available? Yes. When I can move in? Tommorow. Thx, see you tomorrow then.
How much is the rent? 50 square m?
Czech Republic is a great country. They seem to have life down.
There is no issues getting a rented place cause not many people can afford to live there, especially if you are without a partner. Most of the young generation about to start family life (20-30y) rather live with their parents. After the revolution many poeple started building two-generetional houses so it’s manageable as long as you have good relationships in family.
Oh I am fully aware capitalism has fucked the planet, but you guys at least seem to have the idea of good life down. Sure AF beats Sweden.
I can’t speak for the whole country, but renting in the places I’ve lived in the USA has been scarcely more complicated than that.
I haven’t rented for a long time, but I have a funny story along those lines.
I was renting a place with two other people. When we applied, we did some amount of contract signing and such.
So one of the people decided to move to another state in the Spring of 2001, but we got a replacement tenant. We walked down to the rental office and mentioned that this new guy was moving in and asked if there’s any process to take care of. The office said “it doesn’t matter so long as the checks come in”. Ok.
So on September 12th, all of a sudden they come to our door and demand why we didn’t file paperwork (they noticed in the wake of September 11th that an arabic guy had been writing them checks and knew they were screwed if someone came auditing).
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, but can confirm: plenty of shoddy landlords that won’t check anything. If you want to live in a good (read: expensive) place, though, usually they do.
I mean, that’s fraud, but you gotta do what you gotta do, housing is ridiculous now. How is there no legislation or anything being done to fix this? And how convenient is it that all of this is happening after we had a President who makes money off of real estate?
I’d do it too. Rent requirements are unrealistic as is general housing. There has to be more homeless people than ever now.
The one and only “accomplishment” I can think of in Trump’s four year term is passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the end of 2017. Literally the first (and only) thing the guy does in office is pass massive tax legislation giving a gigantic sloppy blowjob to the real estate industry. There’s so mcuh in there for RE, it’s so transparent. Didn’t build a wall, didn’t persecute gay/trans via legislation or whatever, didn’t drain the swamp, but massive tax legislation.
The “culture war” stuff is just their bread & butter for the base that will get them motivated to vote, but their real priority will always be making more money for the investor/owner/donor class. I’m sure this made Trump a heap of money as well, but apparently he needed that sweet sweet classified documents payout on top of that.
It might work for a small time landlord, but larger real estate agencies have other ways to check your income.
This is from my work:
I seriously have no idea how people are getting away with lying on the app. More power to em I guess
Bruh, I had one property, and I still did more thorough work than this. The credit unions offer it as a service. It’s like 0 work to do. These people, lol.
My company uses that too. You need to earn five times the salary that we offer for a new hire in order to apply for a job here.
So if you can check… why ask in the first place
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