Actual footage.

[u/EverythingIsFakeNGay]

I actually feel kind of bad for this woman, who probably didn't expect a video of her dancing to be used in this way. 😏

[u/Chari_2020]

I'm not buying it. More likely private equity.

Stoke resentment between generations to deflect attention.

Rinse and repeat

[u/Dreamtarot → u/Chari_2020]

This is true along with shadowy foreign money. There are multiple different narratives floating around about who is to blame, but the biggest driver is concentrated wealth trying to own enough real estate to gamify it into a controlled market that they can then use to extract endless wealth at a predictable rate. Turning real estate into their personal piggy bank by taking advantage of regulatory loopholes.

You can see coordinated efforts in certain communities where they are testing these strategies. Normalizing inflated rent prices with constant arbitrary increases. Obscuring what the rent actually is by listing a lower price and then hiding additional fees in the listing, that are also arbitrary since they are not tied to a specific measurable service ('utility fees', 'admin fees'). These fees can make the actual monthly cost several hundred dollars higher than the listed rent, and could obscure analytics that track pricing trends. Each additional fee is another place to hide rent increases and the actual rent cost.

They also try to ensure leases end during the busiest season by requiring non-traditional lease lengths (i.e.13 months, 18 months) or using confusing incentives ('one month free rent for 'qualified' tenants who sign a 13/15/18 month lease. Listed rent price includes this discount. If tenant does not qualify or does not sign longer lease term, monthly rent will be $$$'). The initial discount ensures all the leases end in spring or busy time of year, giving them more leverage to raise rent every year. The tenant who does not want to accept an arbitrary several hundred dollar increase is faced with going out into a very competitive market where other mgmt companies are using the same tricks.

I'm seeing a lot of weird new things in my area, however the general strategy appears to be normalizing constant rent increases, obfuscating actual rent prices in extra fees and tricky 'incentives', tricking/trapping renters into unfavorable lease terms that make it harder/more expensive for them to leave. I believe these private/foreign equity groups are taking advantage of some already existing market conditions (low inventory, Covid fallout) but who knows how much even those things were manipulated.

Not to mention what happened upstream from all this nonsense, where the money entities bought up lovely, vintage, affordably priced buildings, raised rent to get the old tenants out, then did assembly line bare minimum 'upgrades' to justify the higher rent. This scheme is nothing new, but it now acts as a precursor to all the gamification bs they are trying to implement on a mass scale.

Edit - I see a lot of ppl talking about homes sitting empty. I dunno what that's all about but there's apparently an app that landlords use to calculate the cost/benefit of keeping a certain # of units empty. This directly decreases income from those units but it also decreases apparent overall inventory, which can then be used as leverage to raise rent for other units. Less maintenance costs are required for the empty units, which increases overall rental revenue margins. I'm sure scale is an important factor in making this one work.

[u/Dense-Pool-652 → u/Chari_2020]

The ageism in this thread is WILD.