Why is rent so expensive?

     Let me guess. You’ve been looking for a place to live: be it a home, a room to rent, or a place to couch surf, and you just aren’t getting any bites on your craigslist ad.

Right?

    I can hear the questions.

Why can’t landlords charge a reasonable rent?
Why do these homeowners have to be so greedy?

Why can’t I find a place to live like I want?

Why isn’t anyone responding to my chill, cool, and really exciting craigslist ad?

        When you were a kid living in your parent’s home, they didn’t expect you to pay for the house. Having children is a huge undertaking.

    It’s not cheap to own a home. Let’s say someone owns a 3 bedroom 2 bath home with a fenced yard.

   They’re advertising for a roommate on craigslist.

    But they want twice as much money as your ad says you can afford. They’re being selfish, right? They are being greedy, right? It’s Not Fair, right? All you need is a place to crash while you: look for a job, get back on your feet, escape a bad situation, just moved here from somewhere else, want a place to be on your own, just want a place to sit back and chill, play your music, be free to be yourself, shack up.  

    How can homeowners be so selfish?

    Allow me to usher you into the Real World.  Allow me to introduce you to what it means to be Grown Up.

  

    In this area, the average mortgage payment for an older, three bedroom home is about $1200 a month. That’s $400 per bedroom, to make it easier.

   Perhaps you didn’t know this, but if you own property, be it vacant land or a house on land, you have to pay property taxes.

    The amount of property tax you pay depends on a lot of things:

Condition of the premises.

Location of the house.

Other amenities such as paved road, city water, etc

Liens on the home.

Assessments made by the country tax officer.

Sales of like properties in the same vicinity

School levies

Aesthetic values, such as a view of the mountains or the sea, established/mature shade trees, proximity to such things as museums, schools, etc.

   So let’s say the taxes on this hypothetical house are $2400 a year. This year. In Washington State, the tax assessment rises every year according to many things: are the teachers striking for more pay? Up go your taxes. Does the UW want a new stadium? Up go your taxes. Did the house down the street sell for twice it assessed amount? Up go your taxes. Once in a great while they go down, for instance, when the Great Recession started, property taxes went down because no one could afford to buy a newer house. Despite the fact that the Recession is still here, (only the rich are getting richer), taxes jumped up again in 2009 and haven’t slowed down yet.

   Everything in the country runs on property taxes. Every tax, every program, everything is funded by the taxes paid by property owners. (NOT the rich, NOT the corporations, NOT the government.) It’s paid by the Home Owner.

   Schools, general administration of the state, pay for state workers, etc. Welfare, food stamps, your student loan. Even the stipend you’re getting and offering part of for rent: all are paid for by the property owner.

   This means the bedroom you’re looking to rent is taxed ~$95 per month. I’ll round that up to $100 for ease.

    Now that bedroom you want to rent is up to $500 ($2400 (tax)/12 (months) / 3 (bedroom)=$95.($100 for argument’s sake.). This is usually the amount you’re offering on craigslist. You’re already tapped out, and I’m just getting started.

   You want things in the house: Electricity. Running water. Indoor toilets.  Wi-fi. Cable. Telephone. Sewer, garbage pickup, etc. These services are collectively called “utilities”.

The average two month Puget Sound Energy bill is, let’s say, $240 for two months. One month per bedroom, then, becomes $40.  Let’s group the other utilities all together and say that is an additional $60 per bedroom. That totals $100.

   Your room is up to $600.

    Nope, not done yet. You have to have insurance on the home, or if you’re renting, you better have renter’s insurance. I have the former. My annual insurance premium is, say, $1200. (it’s higher than that, but I’m trying to keep the numbers workable.) That adds $400 to your room rent, making it $1000.

   Then let’s add in important stuff like: food.

Food is expensive. It is easy to spend $300 for two people every month for food, and that’s NOT including eating out, having a pizza delivered, or having a six pack in the fridge. No, the landlord won’t buy your food for you. Don’t go raiding his fridge. You can put your food in it, but you have to buy it, cook it, and dispose of the remains.

 There are things that you are expected to provide as a renter: your own food, as noted, but things like laundry detergent, hand soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc. You cannot expect the landlord to provide that gratis. He or she is allowing you to use the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer for free already.

   Have a kid? Oh, no. That’s a whole mess that I won’t even cover more than: it’s your kid, not the landlord’s. Don’t expect free child care. Don’t take care of his kids with the idea that it will be considered part of the rent. In this state, if you do that, you are considered the landlord’s employee, meaning he has to provide L&I and health insurance for you. That’s not cheap, and since I don’t employ anyone but myself I cannot tell you how much that costs.

   A home needs maintenance, all the time. There’s not a price you can put on it, but a home needs work: mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, etc. We’ll assume that you are going to put in your fair share of the labor, every single day: take out the garbage and recycles every week, load and unload the dishwasher (you’re probably going to use the landlord’s dishes/pots and pans, right? So don’t just stuff them in the sink until there’s no dishes left. You used them, you clean them and put them back in the cupboard.). By no means are you going to be able to get away with keeping your empty pizza boxes in your room. Keep it clean. Always.

    You must keep your room clean, using the landlord’s vacuum cleaner; mow the lawn (using the home owner’s walk behind lawn mower), sweeping and scrubbing floors, cleaning a bathroom, cleaning the kitchen after you cook your meals in it, etc. There’s isn’t a price that you can put on this, so we’ll let this go on your tab as a freebie: your labor included in the rent. Yes. Now if you’re in an apartment much of this is covered by the management but it still is included in the rent…which you must cover in your part. It’s more expensive, too.

   Not that it matters in this case, but if you have a car, you need insurance, license plates, license tabs, you need money for fuel, the car needs things: oil changes, new tires, good brakes, working lights.  You can’t hit up the landlord for that. It’s on you.

   Then, let’s say you have a pet. Pets are a hidden cost that includes responsibility on you:  you need to pick up your dog’s poop, walk it every day, train your cat to not claw the furniture, buy its food, pay for its veterinary bills, etc.  Please don’t bring your pit bull. Many places legally prohibit pit bulls for good reason. Don’t preach to me about how good your pit bull is. They have a public and well deserved reputation for being vicious and have killed people. He might be good for you, if you’ve trained him, but most people don’t train any dog, never mind a pitbull.  A pitbull is loyal..if he thinks the landlord is a danger to you, he’ll attack the owner of the house. Think you have money problems now? Huh. You have no idea.

      A landlord can refuse to rent to you if you have an animal, and he doesn’t need a reason. Keeping it outside in the fenced yard is still keeping a pet, although not a nice way. Dogs bark. They dig. They get loose. They jump the fence and roam the neighborhood. Neighbors have every right to complain or even call the police should YOUR dog infringe on his property or privacy.

    Do not expect your landlord to care for your pet. Even if you pay a pet deposit, that’s just to cover the cost of repairing what it destroys. It doesn’t mean the other occupants of the house are responsible for it. YOU are.

    If the home you’re renting a room in is part of a Homeowner’s Association,(which, by the way, the fee for belonging can be part of your rent) that body can have you evicted (and put a lien on the house) if your dog is deemed a dangerous breed or makes a nuisance of itself. Nuisance, in this case, means dogs that bark constantly, dogs allowed to roam in the neighborhood and doing their business on lawns, etc.

    Same thing goes with cats. Cats are not legally allowed to roam. No, I’m not kidding. You cannot legally say oh my cat is an inside outside cat. It’s not allowed to roam free. It is NOT allowed to roam free. I don’t care what you think, it’s not legal.

    If the lease says “no smoking”, that means NO SMOKING. Not on the porch, not outside the door, nowhere on the premises. You want to smoke, go out onto the public street and smoke.

Same goes with drinking, and drugs. All drugs, not just the newly legalized ‘personal use of marijuana.”

I know. Here in WA and in CO, it’s now legal to use SMALL amounts of marijuana.

But that doesn’t mean that you can do so in your rented room in someone else’s house.

Even if you claim to be a ‘medical marijuana patient’.

    It shouldn’t surprise me that the vast majority of ‘medical marijuana patients’ are 24 year old punks who claim to need the weed for an invisible and undocumented “disability”. Hey, I know how you do it. Find an unethical doctor on the take who will sign off on your complaint for a hefty fee and voil’a, you’re in. It’s a damned shame.

    The law for MMJ was intended for people suffering from cancer who can’t eat due to the effects of chemotherapy or who suffer intractable pain. Every MMJ user I’ve met leads a perfectly normal life, can do things such as skate, party, ride dirt bikes, and other physically demanding sports. Every one I’ve met smirks when I ask him what he’s on MMJ for.

Because I know what it’s for.  It’s to get high. That’s not a reason. It’s a cop out.

     I know it’s legal here in WA, but it’s still considered illegal in every Federal jurisdiction…meaning yours. Many insurance companies will refuse to insure a home if they learn there’s marijuana or other drugs being used in the home OR ON THE PREMISES. You want to grow it? That’s illegal, too, federally, and marijuana grows destroy homes like you wouldn’t believe. The humidity alone will melt sheet rocked walls and grows mold like it was on steroids, never mind the high electricity usage. If you claim to be a MMJ patient, you’d better hope that your landlord has an understanding insurance company. I cannot think of one that allows it.

    Don’t forget that weed attracts pests of both the insect and human form. Don’t deny that there is a criminal element out there who is more than willing to follow you to your rented room and steal your weed…and everything else in the house.

    Given the admittedly guestimated amount of money a landlord needs to break even from you: $1000, now do you understand why your offer of $500 is unrealistic?

     Even should someone really want to help you get to your feet, help you start out a new life, etc, you shouldn’t expect him or her to give you a room for less than what it costs him to own the home. He’ll be giving you a lot of intangibles for free whether you know it or not.

    If you’re a good renter, you’ll pay your rent on time every single month. You won’t revert to the habits you had while living at home as a child, those of expecting your mom and dad to do all the work while you supposedly go to school. No, you’re an adult now, and are expected to pull your share, if not more than.

    You won’t be a nuisance, wanting to party, play your music till midnight, and have a girl (boy) friend sharing a bed with you, (unless, of course, they start paying part of the rent.) You won’t expect the landlord to be a ‘friend’, someone to ‘chill with’. He might go that route, but you cannot demand it. You must obey the laws he sets for you.

    You won’t bring a pet. You will work a job or go to school instead of hanging around the house. You will understand that not only is the house not yours, it’s not your parent’s either, and you don’t have the rights and privileges of a home that you had when you were in your parent’s home. You will have renter’s insurance.  You will do much work: on keeping your room clean, help with cleaning the house in general, sharing the workload. You will understand that the television is NOT part of your room, that the Internet is shared.

    You will also understand that being a renter, the landlord can also decide that it’s time for you to leave. If you pay your rent in full and on time, he must allow you to stay in the room you paid for the length of time it’s good for, i.e, monthly. He can’t lock you out. But he can tell you to leave at the end of the month or rental period and you must leave.

    Don’t leave a thing when you move out. If you leave a toothbrush, it’s considered your stuff and if it’s there on the first of the next month, you’re legally obligated to pay the entire month’s rent. He’s not a storage facility manager. He isn’t obligated to give you anything more than a 30 day notice to vacate.

   No, you don’t have to like this essay.

But it’s real world. It’s reality.

Get used to it. Now that you’re Out On Your Own, your free ride in everything: housing, food, clothing, school..is done. Finis. Game over.

You want to be treated like an adult?

Start acting like one.