The new landlord apps.
Before AirBNB there was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.
AirBNB democratized land lording. Got an extra home lying around that you’re not using? Rent it out. And they’re only there for vacation. And you can look at their reviews. You’re a decent landlord, we’ll hook you up with decent tenants who want a vacation. The tenant’s will be able to see your ratings and you’ll be able to see theirs. It became so successful that people started buying properties for the sole purpose of AirBNB’ing it.
The Great Financial Crisis was an excellent time to become a landlord. Lots of homes were being foreclosed on. Wall Street had made a lot of money betting on the housing market crashing (See the movie The Big Short). Now they plied that same money or new money into buying the homes in foreclosure. Blackstone was extremely successful at deploying this strategy. Only recently has the Trump Administration passed a law (or something) that large investing corporations will not be allowed to buy homes.
There are many other smaller landlords too who bought homes in the GFC. I looked into getting some homes myself but never got around to it. I did however give a small lecture on Rich Dad Poor Dad methodology to financial independence at Mercer County Community College after the usual Physics lecture. I had been hired for the summer as a junior Professor.
The idea is not complicated. If you want to be financially free then you need to have passive income or Owner’s Income. You own stuff, then you collect rent. You don’t need to do anything in terms of work. The property pays you. And over time, the property becomes free but you still collect rent. The idea is to try and get a property that will generate positive cash flow of at least 100 dollars a month. Get 20 such properties and you have a neat 2K dollar income per month or more. And the rent continues to payoff the mortgage, therefore building equity in the house. And house prices ALWAYS go up. So rent positive cash flow is Win 1, Mortgage payoff is Win 2, and higher home prices is Win 3. I was trying to teach the kids to think like owners. That’s the Rich Dad mentality.
I was quite young then. I had just started a business and in order to not go into debt I was doing 3 jobs: Server at night, Jr. Adj. Professor at community college and struggling Business Owner. Now? I rarely have enough energy to do a few pushups. I seem to be in some kind of breathshare. Energyshare too. And some of the folks run, others like me just sit. I am not complaining. I appreciate the team that logs in to help. There are simply too many people who try to login because the atmosphere is so party like. I don’t blame those people either. If a person had access to free parties and food wouldn’t anyone go too? Without regard for the cost the login might cost eventually?
As an observer of my own body, I notice when some people login or ask permission to enter. My head nods as my controller allows the entry. I just want you to know that it’s not me. I can’t see any of you. The person who allows you entry is the controller. I don’t know who they are either. None of this was done with my permission. I didn’t agree to anything.
Would I still give the same lecture? No. Back then, I had no idea there was an entrenched System. I had no idea how it worked. I was truly one of the clueless who are the bottom 50% in American life. The folks who go through life without noticing anything at all, they don’t notice the invisible bars, the body language of the System etc. To me a movie didn’t have an entire second language. If homosexuals said they were born that way, I believed them. I thought all the songs after Buddy Holly were just depressed and darker. With the exception of Elvis. And Ricky Martin. There is a difference between stupid and clueless. I was the latter. That sort of stupid. Coffee was simply coffee, an invigoration, a buzz. Looking back, clueless charm was probably what the women liked and disliked - both. Anyway, the point is, I would not give that lecture. I would not say much at all.
Now, shall we get down to the point of the essay? My view now is that being a part of the Owner Class within this System is a choice. Now that I understand the System, if I had the option, I would not choose to deliberately be a cog in the System, imposing on fellow human beings, the right to shelter. With that understanding, it’s fun to see a mega billionaire, who doesn’t need the funds, Jeff Bezos, support a new class of apps, that proclaim to democratize home land lording. The company Jeff supports, called Arrived, allows a person with an investment of as little as $100 to participate in being a landlord.
This then America, is where our country is at. We are encouraging the bottom 50% to turn on each other and use the capitalist dictum of “dog eat dog world”. Judge for yourself if that sounds right to you or not. I tell you what I think, it is your responsibility to examine what I say under a microscope and see if you think it is a true statement within your ethical, moral and economical framework. Presuming of course that you have one.
When you see the video clips below, I urge you to consider that all of these people are simply part of the System. The Democrats and Republicans are the Power, the guys on Wall Street are the money, Military is the forceful projection of Power, Law Enforcement is the implementation of the Power, Media is the Voice and Face of the System, etc
If the readers are hoping that changing the people in Washington DC through elections will change anything, I suspect they will be disappointed.
