#they must be getting some kind of government benefit meant to supplement income while theyre looking for renters or something

[rohirric-hunter]

I see a lot of people, in response to complaints about rent prices, say something along these lines, with varying levels of snideness: “If you aren’t willing to pay the rent the owner has set, then you don’t get to use the property.”

What they never seem to acknowledge is the equal corollary to that: If you aren’t willing to set your rent at a price people are willing to pay, then you don’t get to rent the property. And a lot of landowners don’t seem to understand that: the number of buildings (especially retail space) that I see sitting empty because no one will pay the rent the owner has set and the owner refused to lower it is, quite frankly, astounding.

(There used to be a Barnes & Noble in my town, but the owner of the strip mall raised their prices and Barnes & Noble wasn’t willing to pay, so they packed up and left. The space has sat empty since then, meaning nobody else has been willing to pay either. Out of curiosity I looked it up once and the price of space in that strip mall is almost three times the going rate anywhere else in town. There’s only one store in it, and it’s dying. I don’t understand the logic that leads the owners of property to opt for getting no money and letting their property sit empty for years and years instead of getting some money. But I do think they should get slapped with a fine for letting their abandoned ass building make the city look like shit.)

#they must be getting some kind of government benefit meant to supplement income while theyre looking for renters or something #otherwise i just cant imagine anyone letting it go to waste like that #they wont sell it either people have offered to outright buy it #and let me emphasize again that they are making NO MONEY from renting this space #and havent for over ten years now #arent they being taxed on this property?????? wouldnt any income at all justify itself on account of going towards property tax???? #make it make sense