> No its the landowners who can hold them over the barrel for their highest overhead: rent. And those same landowners are able to do that because they have enough wealth to wait on the next person who will initially pay the high rent.
Yes and no. There are landowners with a lot of wealth. The majority of landowners have less wealth (and will always have less wealth) than a typical FAANG engineer.
I started looking heavily into real estate last year and got to meet many of these people. The average commercial plaza in most cities? Not owned by a wealthy person - and indeed some of the business owners on the plaza are wealthier. A lot of these owners don't make enough out of it to make a living and still have a full time job.
They do it because it's passive income - almost no effort. Plaza owners typically don't pay for any maintenance. They don't pay property taxes. All this is passed on to the businesses in exchange for relatively low rents. As long as he collects enough rent to pay the loan, and has some extra left over, he's happy. It's free money.
(And 90-99% of land owners don't own the property free and clear. The majority of them owe more than half the value to some bank or other. That should tell you who really is making the money).
Yes and no. There are landowners with a lot of wealth. The majority of landowners have less wealth (and will always have less wealth) than a typical FAANG engineer.
I started looking heavily into real estate last year and got to meet many of these people. The average commercial plaza in most cities? Not owned by a wealthy person - and indeed some of the business owners on the plaza are wealthier. A lot of these owners don't make enough out of it to make a living and still have a full time job.
They do it because it's passive income - almost no effort. Plaza owners typically don't pay for any maintenance. They don't pay property taxes. All this is passed on to the businesses in exchange for relatively low rents. As long as he collects enough rent to pay the loan, and has some extra left over, he's happy. It's free money.
(And 90-99% of land owners don't own the property free and clear. The majority of them owe more than half the value to some bank or other. That should tell you who really is making the money).