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Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by subsubzero on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:23PM (#29086221)
100% agree. Institutional investors are setting themselves up to be landed barons that will seek perpetual rent from working people who can no longer afford housing as the supply has shrunk and housing prices skyrocket. Oh and if these institutions fail they get bailed out by govt(they are too big to fail!). Imagine if these 7000 houses were offered to buyers, this would allow so many families opportunities to homeownership, this whole scenario makes me mad as hell and I hope this practice will be banned in the future.
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by MrKristopher on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:37PM (#29086386)
What would you ban?
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by rozap on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:53PM (#29086570)
No ban, just huge property taxes for non-primary residences.
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by nkozyra on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:35PM (#29087005)
Doesn't this just trickle down to the renter, who has few alternative housing options?
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by thow-01187 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @06:23PM (#29088279)
No. Landlords do not "produce" rooms by taking raw materials and transforming them into goods. In the current market, the rent is determined by how much the marginal renter is able to pay. Increasing the cost to the landlord doesn't magically increase the renter's ability to pay
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by candiodari on Thursday November 04, 2021 @10:20AM (#29107521)
That's true. It will reduce housing supply and drive costs up, but it will take a while to happen.
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by caterama on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:44PM (#29087102)
Costs trickle-down... Profits don't.
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by nkozyra on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:50PM (#29087181)
> Costs trickle-down... Profits don't.

Well, we're talking about costs. That's why I asked.

Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by donkeyd on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:41PM (#29087068)
This guy gets it.
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by djrogers on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:46PM (#29087133)
Since institutional owners like this make up a tiny percentage of ownership, your solution would have a huge impact on small landlords, which would be passed along to the tenants.

Basically you're asking renters to pay for this behavior...

Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by mistermann on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @05:05PM (#29087345)
"A" government[1] could telegraph that major (as major as is necessary) policy changes are coming that will affect SFH investors in a detrimental way, and that it would be in their best interests to prepare accordingly.

If this does not happen, I suspect Mother Nature will eventually intervene, and that usually doesn't go well for anyone.

[1] I do not presume that any arbitrary Western government is actually capable of this in the real world as it relies on many prerequisites, some of them policy, some of them psychological/ethical.

Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by throw123123123 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @07:50PM (#29089172)
I don't get this thinking. What is the difference between one landlord with 2 properties or 2 landlords each with one property? Why is the latter better than the former?
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by camdat on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @08:23PM (#29089488)
Where would these two landlords be living? Both would be exactly the same if the landlord doesn't rent.
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by throw123123123 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @09:23PM (#29090007)
Does it matter? If you want to achieve maximum dwellings for renting, changing the distribution of units / owners doesn't seem like a practical way to go about it.

You would want to make more units, as many as possible.