Do people really not understand how the world works?

[8circles]

We had a school bond up for a vote a number of years ago. We told our renters, "You vote how you feel led, but if the bond goes through, we will be forced to raise your rent. We've eaten the last two bonds and can't eat another." One renter, "But we don't pay school taxes!" SMH!

 

Why on earth would you say anything to your renters about how they should vote? 

[SKL]

Why on earth would you say anything to your renters about how they should vote? 

 

Why should voters not know how their vote is going to impact them?  When I vote on property tax issues, I sure know it's going to cost me if it passes.

 

Back in 2008 or 2012, my sister was informed that if a certain candidate became prez, she would be fired because he proposed to do damage to their industry.  And that is exactly what did happen.  At least she knew to send out her resume.

[8circles]

Why should voters not know how their vote is going to impact them?  When I vote on property tax issues, I sure know it's going to cost me if it passes.

 

Back in 2008 or 2012, my sister was informed that if a certain candidate became prez, she would be fired because he proposed to do damage to their industry.  And that is exactly what did happen.  At least she knew to send out her resume.

 

Informing someone of a rent increase is not the same thing as a veiled threat to vote against a bond. 

 

Why can people not understand that different words mean different things?

[SKL]

Informing someone of a rent increase is not the same thing as a veiled threat to vote against a bond. 

 

Why can people not understand that different words mean different things?

 

It sounded like information to me.  She did not tell them how to vote, only to consider that property tax increases come out of your pocket, as they frankly should.  A tax levy vote is just like a charity solicitation in that sense.  You want to support the March of Dimes, you don't do it by having them send your landlord a bill.  Weigh the pros and cons like everyone else.

 

It was nice of Margaret to eat the last two increases and it was nice of her to give advance warning if she was going to need to pass additional costs through.

Edited December 12, 2017 by SKL

[8circles]

It sounded like information to me.  She did not tell them how to vote, only to consider that property tax increases come out of your pocket, as they frankly should.  A tax levy vote is just like a charity solicitation in that sense.  You want to support the March of Dimes, you don't do it by having them send your landlord a bill.  Weigh the pros and cons like everyone else.

 

This is NOT the same as a renter voting to increase property taxes for a school bond. Don't be obtuse.

 

Nobody needs to remind renters or anyone else that they can vote however they feel led - and if you feel the need to remind people, followed up with consequences of certain votes, then you are going to sound like you're threatening them.

 

So, in this thread we've had landlords state that renters do NOT pay property taxes (which they of course don't pay directly, they don't get the bill) and other landlords threaten their renters with a rent increase when their property taxes increase.

 

Why do people not understand, indeed.

[8circles]

It sounded like information to me.  She did not tell them how to vote, only to consider that property tax increases come out of your pocket, as they frankly should.  A tax levy vote is just like a charity solicitation in that sense.  You want to support the March of Dimes, you don't do it by having them send your landlord a bill.  Weigh the pros and cons like everyone else.

 

It was nice of Margaret to eat the last two increases and it was nice of her to give advance warning if she was going to need to pass additional costs through.

 

If Margaret wanted to be nice and inform her renters of a possible increase, she could have left out the part about a friendly reminder to vote however they felt led.

 

As if she's the one giving them permission.

[creekland]

If everyone can just up their price you must be sitting right at equilibrium where no one has a house sitting empty. Or the landlord with an empty house would want to give a better deal because you lose money when your house is just sitting there empty. I don't think that is very common. Markets are usually moving and people usually don't get to just charge whatever they personally want to charge for something.

 

 

I do hope you understand that there were a couple sarcastic comments in that last paragraph. I wasn't advocating it. I was saying it would be ludicrous to have a food stamp program paid for only by people who used food stamps. I'm pretty sure you got that but....

 

I understood what you meant - no problem there at all.  ;)

 

With our rental places, change of tenants happens quickly when it happens.  I've put an ad on Craigslist and had to pull it off within 24 hours due to too many inquiries.  Just with that short period of time we had three folks we could choose from any of which seemed like decent options.  Yet in our area there are also places that sit empty that rent for less than what we charge.  The difference?  We've bought places we, ourselves, wouldn't mind living in.  Many people buy the cheapest place out there, and it's usually cheap for a reason.  Since the tenants pay the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and projected repairs, (plus profit) it only makes sense (to me) to buy something attractive and price it accordingly.  I have never regretted that decision.  My BIL has chosen the typical route buying cheap... he's had oodles upon oodles of problems with tenants and with the actual buildings.  We've had two bad tenants and learned from each to be more wary in the future.  We made rookie mistakes, not checking credit on one and believing a tale (sob story) with the other.

[KungFuPanda]

This makes me nuts. Do people not see the connection between taxes and their own education? Do they not see the benefits to owning property in a decent school district? Do they think nobody owns the rental properties or that those people aren’t paying taxes?

 

I’d love to see schools restructured. The administrative class in education has gotten out of hand. If decent teachers were rewarded for staying IN the classroom and not motivated by money to become administrators, I really believe we’d see some positive changes at all levels of education.

[SKL]

This is NOT the same as a renter voting to increase property taxes for a school bond. Don't be obtuse.

 

Nobody needs to remind renters or anyone else that they can vote however they feel led - and if you feel the need to remind people, followed up with consequences of certain votes, then you are going to sound like you're threatening them.

 

So, in this thread we've had landlords state that renters do NOT pay property taxes (which they of course don't pay directly, they don't get the bill) and other landlords threaten their renters with a rent increase when their property taxes increase.

 

Why do people not understand, indeed.

 

Well why should the renters not consider that a yes vote could lead to a cost increase?  And, they might not think so if the landlord kindly ate the last two increases.  So yes, tell them.

 

As if nobody ever tells people that elections have consequences.

 

PS since I am so obtuse, please explain why voting for a property tax increase and expecting it to NOT be a cost to you is different from signing your landlord up to make a donation.

 

And why is it a threat to the renters but it's not a threat to me, a house owner, when I see that on my ballot?  It's not a threat, it's a choice.  Many times I choose to vote yes and pay more.

Edited December 12, 2017 by SKL

[8circles]

Well why should the renters not consider that a yes vote could lead to a cost increase?  Who said they shouldn't? And, they might not think so if the landlord kindly ate the last two increases.  So yes, tell them. Who said don't tell them that an increase in property taxes might mean an increase in rent?

 

As if nobody ever tells people that elections have consequences. Which conversation is this relevant to? Not this one.

 

PS since I am so obtuse, please explain why voting for a property tax increase and expecting it to NOT be a cost to you is different from signing your landlord up to make a donation. Well, taxes aren't a donation. And public education isn't a charity. And I guess it would depend on if Quill is their landlord or Margaret, because even the landlords aren't clear about this connection.

 

And why is it a threat to the renters but it's not a threat to me, a house owner, when I see that on my ballot?  It's not a threat, it's a choice.  Many times I choose to vote yes and pay more. I don't even know what this means. Landlords, while speaking to their renters, should not say anything about how said renters vote in any election. 

 

How about, "Hey, renters, just letting you know that rent might be going up on ##/##/#### due to the ballot initiative. Depends on if it passes or not." No mention of how anyone is voting necessary.

 

Edited to fix text color.

Edited December 13, 2017 by 8circles

[Zinnia]

When our property taxes went up, our rent went up. I didn't love it, but it made sense to me. Our landlord isn't renting to us from charity. He raised our rent by the same amount as the increase

[LucyStoner]

Yeah, I can understand that. I do think there’s a difference, though, when you actually feast your eyes on the property tax bill, because there is a line item on some of ours that says “education†and that amount is pretty shocking. Our renters are sort of protected from actually knowing that because all they do is pay the rent we tell them to pay (...or not 😒).

 

I do know all about people whining about paying for services they don’t personally need, though. Homeschoolers are famous for it around here.

High property taxes have a direct impact on rents. Savvy renters know this. Not saying that all renters are savvy just that many renters understand everything that is layered into their rent.

[SKL]

How about, "Hey, renters, just letting you know that rent might be going up on ##/##/#### due to the ballot initiative. Depends on if it passes or not." No mention of how anyone is voting necessary.

 

Edited to fix text color.

 

I dunno, we are talking about adults and there is nothing odd about people talking about how people are voting.

 

To me, if Margaret said "vote how you feel but" that is just her saying she is NOT telling people how to vote, only making sure they are informed of how a majority yes will affect them.  If she'd gone up and said "just so you know, if this passes I'm raising your rent" that could sound more pushy or nasty than what she did.  But either way, we have secret ballots, so I doubt anyone felt she was trying to tell them how to vote.

 

Point is, even with her mentioning this, they still didn't seem to understand that a property tax increase will cost them something one way or another.

[Bluegoat]

The fact that rents don't go up or down in exact proportion to tax changes doesn't mean that taxes aren't figured into the market prices of rents on investment properties.

 

And yes, the fact that sometimes, an investment might be a bad one, that loses money for the landlord, also doesn't mean that generally we would say that renters don't pay property tax.  We wouldn't normally talk that way about other kinds of purchases unless it was in a very specific context - we expect that the buyer of a product or service is paying for all the components which go into their, the provider may make more or less profit.  Maybe even operate at a loss, but that kind of business isn't likely to be around long.  Even if it's a whole sector, it's not a sustainable situation - eventually those landlords are going to sell or go bankrupt.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Bluegoat