Below is just one example of the many websites and forums popping up around the country, depicting landlords as greedy, evil monsters. What's most interesting is the growing number of people that believe housing is a right and it is immoral for anyone to have more than one house.

How would you combat this type of attitude?

Bored Panda: This Online Group Is Dedicated To Shaming Greedy And Delusional Landlords, And Here Are Their 40 Best Posts.

I think the best way to combat this type of attitude is to not fall into the stereotype.  Some of these are probably fake but there are landlords out there who should either get out of the business or hire a PM.  We all love the post we have tenants or applicants say the dumbest things, it is natural for them to have something similar.  If we treat our tenants with respect and give them a safe clean place to live they should have nothing bad to say.  Thats not to say they won't because it is obviously unfair we won't keep giving them extension, putting up with unapproved pets, and letting them live in filth but at least those are self inflicted complaints they would  have on us.  This is also an entitlement attitude and I do in person screening and showing of the house, so I can get to know them.  If they start complaining about the house or demanding things be changed before they apply I can just tell them this is obviously not a good fit and there is no point submitting an application.  I also believe certain regulations incentivize landlords to act more slumlordy.  If I had a rent control apartment and the tenants were way under rent and I couldn't get rid of them I wouldn't be in a hurry to do anything above the absolute minimum hoping they would leave and I could get market rate tenants.  

Maybe because people are starting to understand that there really is something fundamentally immoral and wrong with a system that allows a small group of people who either have tons of extra money or are able to get approved for multiple mortgages to hoard extra property then charge people for a basic human necessity, sticking them in a position of essentially modern peasant who will then almost certainly never be able to save up enough to buy their own home and build equity and enjoy the stability homeownership brings s it stands now, millions of people are stuck in a cycle of paying someone else’s bills and never getting to enjoy any of the benefits of owning a home. Banks make the requirements for a home loan so stringent at times that many people can’t get approved but they are paying more in rent than they would be with a mortgage. All to pay for someone else to have extra homes they don’t need. Or worse. To literally just make the owner even richer for the ones who are. Shelter is a basic human need. It should be an investment for someone to not have to work. 
when people are seeing apartment complexes sending cruel and tone deaf eviction notices and not repairing issues during a global pandemic and young kids in their 20s whose rich parents give them money all the time buying apartment building and rental houses to kick the people out and raise the rents, while evicting people who are a day late and being entitled little d bags about it then yeah. Normal polite Society generally is going to have some issues with that. 

Tell the haters to kiss the rings....

But seriously, I pay it no heed. It's fine if some folks want to hate on slumlords but any jabroni who want to stereotype all landlords are not worth dwelling on in the least. I'll keep improving my properties, treating my tenants well (by respecting them and giving them a nice, quiet, safe place to live) and looking for more properties to purchase. 

Food, clothing, and shelter are human NEEDS.  They are not human rights.

We still live in a capitalist system (at least for the moment) and in that system people that provide a service are rewarded.  The greater the service, the greater the reward.

If they provide poor service, the market will reward them by going somewhere else for the service.  Back before big government programs, poor folks in need could get help from family, friends, or the church (or wherever they worship).  When the government set up a social 'safety net', people started taking it for granted, and it became a way of life for many.  Now many feel that it is their right to have shelter given to them for free.

I guess it's just too difficult for some folks to understand.  If someone works hard to provide a service to the public when they make a profit some see that as obscene, immoral, and just wrong.

Landlords have been looked down upon with a stigma since the first Neanderthal rented out a cave that he dug out with his own hands and club. 

We can only help the poor when we earn a profit and have something left over to give to a worthy charity of our choice.  That does not necessarily include tenants that cannot or will not pay their rent.

That being said, treat everyone equally and with respect. Do not judge them, even if they judge you.  Hold your head up and keep moving forward.

I am all good with my tenants.

I do think that we need to get good local and national representation, I have not been completely satisfied with many of the landlord groups who I have seen in articles.

Regardless, you will always have nut-bags who think the system is immoral or that it is rigged. They think we have tons of money or have lucked into good credit (?) and don't deserve what we have worked for. They believe it is a landlord's job to charge such low rent so that a tenant can save up for and buy their own house. Of course, we all know it is a fact that unless people consciously change their spending behaviors, they will always spend their excess, be it $100 or $1000 (see The millionaire nextdoor). These douchebags believe all eviction notices are tone-deaf, even after months of non payment or lease violations. What is the tone of an eviction notice supposed to be?

You will always have people who find themselves without wealth. Some, like @Nathan G. will set about on a course to change that. It will be a course of pain, sacrifice and temporary failures... it will be very hard work but will provide rewards that are exponential when done right.

And then you will have others who will look around and only see how unfair the world is. They will cry about parents who share their wealth with their children, perceiving them to be unworthy. They will cry about not having good credit as though it is something they have no control over. And they will never, not for one moment, consider the sacrifices that the many people made to build their wealth. They are bitshags.

Hey @Nathan G. This is definitely a growing trend. I see this attitude everywhere now. Entitlement is at an all time high and the "I am a victim" mindset is on fire.

I personally have a great relationship with all of my tenants luckily. This has not always been the case. I think it comes back to the tenant selection process here, our only real defense. Be very very picky!

This mindset is also funny to me and illogical. The three things a person needs to survive are food, water and shelter. We come in at number 3 on the list of things that are needed to keep a person and their family alive! In what world can talking compensation for that while risking our life savings and opening up our home to the increasingly insane general public be seen as greedy?

I would love to see one of these tenants have an investment property themselves and deal with a nightmare tenant. I wonder how they would react?

@Nathan G. I read that article and found a lot of it pretty funny. There is a leftist media feeding frenzy going on. Mostly coming from libs in UK and NY. Let's face it there are many more tenants (voters) than landlords. Those of us with money and the brains to deploy it are seen as right wing. I have no problem living with myself and my tenants; I largely ignore this entitlement wave.

Originally posted by @Eric Weldon-Schilling :

Maybe because people are starting to understand that there really is something fundamentally immoral and wrong with a system that allows a small group of people who either have tons of extra money or are able to get approved for multiple mortgages to hoard extra property then charge people for a basic human necessity, sticking them in a position of essentially modern peasant who will then almost certainly never be able to save up enough to buy their own home and build equity and enjoy the stability homeownership brings s it stands now, millions of people are stuck in a cycle of paying someone else’s bills and never getting to enjoy any of the benefits of owning a home. Banks make the requirements for a home loan so stringent at times that many people can’t get approved but they are paying more in rent than they would be with a mortgage. All to pay for someone else to have extra homes they don’t need. Or worse. To literally just make the owner even richer for the ones who are. Shelter is a basic human need. It should be an investment for someone to not have to work. 
when people are seeing apartment complexes sending cruel and tone deaf eviction notices and not repairing issues during a global pandemic and young kids in their 20s whose rich parents give them money all the time buying apartment building and rental houses to kick the people out and raise the rents, while evicting people who are a day late and being entitled little d bags about it then yeah. Normal polite Society generally is going to have some issues with that. 

I guarantee you that whoever taught you this line of Communist drivel has tenure and owns a house, while you don't. I hope you're upset with them as well for being total s*** at teaching you how to write for effective communication.

What I'm always dumbfounded by is that people hate on landlords but not grocery stores. You can survive far longer without a roof than you can without food but I've yet to see any angry mobs chanting "cancel grocers."

No other industry I am aware of is forced to continue to provide their service without compensation. You can't march into a store and demand free stuff but you can live on my property and not pay rent and I have to continue to provide you a home? Try stealing a cart of groceries and when the police show up tell them it's not your fault because life is just really hard. Probably won't end well for you.

Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock :

 Priceless!

I gotta tell you- I LOVE the landlord that had a thermostat hanging on the wall by a nail!!! That is gold! And no- it isn't illegal shipdit!

@Nathan G.

My kids, who are in their 20s and very progressive, almost fell over backwards with shock and shame when I told them I was planning to become a landlord. I said, “Well, consider a world without landlords. You’d either be living at home forever or under a bridge.” I suspect they would choose the bridge. :)

The only reason landlords get tax benefits/ tax write-offs are because their doing the government job by providing housing. Without landlords the government would be responsible for providing housing across the country. Are we going to ignore the 12 month delay for a $600 stimulus check in 2020? Only imagine the delay for providing citizens housing. Ignore the people who are talking bad about landlords they are unhappy with where they are in their lives. There are a lot of people with regret and jealousy. 

@Greg Powers That is funny, Our 10 and 13 year olds are constantly reminded of what our buildings provide them.

Meanwhile, my large, leftist family are constantly nipping at me behind my back! We were at a family cookout 2 years ago, all around talking when a tenant called to tell me they locked themselves out of their apartment. They were so impressed when I told the tenant not to worry, I would be over in 15 minutes. "Oh that is so nice!" they all said in one form or another. I looked at them and said, "sure, it's an easy $50." They had this absolute look of horror on their faces and as I walked away I heard my wife saying "Of course he's serious! He's leaving this family get together on his time... shouldn't he get paid?"

God I love her!

Meanwhile, if any company called a worker in on the spot, on their day off, those same family members would be bemoaning the injustice, organizing a strike and demanding 3x pay.

Love it.

Perhaps start with changing the term and soften it from landlord to affordable housing provider. Less hate for housing providers.

Originally posted by @Eric Weldon-Schilling :

Maybe because people are starting to understand that there really is something fundamentally immoral and wrong with a system that allows a small group of people who either have tons of extra money or are able to get approved for multiple mortgages to hoard extra property then charge people for a basic human necessity, sticking them in a position of essentially modern peasant who will then almost certainly never be able to save up enough to buy their own home and build equity and enjoy the stability homeownership brings s it stands now, millions of people are stuck in a cycle of paying someone else’s bills and never getting to enjoy any of the benefits of owning a home. Banks make the requirements for a home loan so stringent at times that many people can’t get approved but they are paying more in rent than they would be with a mortgage. All to pay for someone else to have extra homes they don’t need. Or worse. To literally just make the owner even richer for the ones who are. Shelter is a basic human need. It should be an investment for someone to not have to work. 
when people are seeing apartment complexes sending cruel and tone deaf eviction notices and not repairing issues during a global pandemic and young kids in their 20s whose rich parents give them money all the time buying apartment building and rental houses to kick the people out and raise the rents, while evicting people who are a day late and being entitled little d bags about it then yeah. Normal polite Society generally is going to have some issues with that. 

I grew up on government cheese, powdered milk, and hand-me-downs. My dad died when I was six and my mom raised four kids on her own. Christmas presents included fun things like 12-packs of socks and a stocking full of nuts and oranges. My aunt and uncle still live in the trailer I was raised in, a regular mansion of 800 sq.ft. I served in the military for 21 years because I couldn't afford college. Then I started a business and worked 70-80 hours a week building it into something profitable without any help from government or anyone else. I didn't take on debt, bought only things I could afford, sacrificed and saved. Then I bought an investment property. I continued saving and investing.

Somehow I'm privileged? Somehow I owe free housing to people that grew up better than me, have more education, and work half as many hours?

Tell me, are you willing to plant a crop, nurture it, harvest it, and then give it away for free?

Are you willing to work 40+ hours a week to save up money, purchase a property, and then allow others to live in your investment for free?

Water is a more basic need than shelter or food. Are you willing to collect water, purify it, and then give it to people for free? Because I know an entire continent full of people that would appreciate your selfless sacrifice!

Originally posted by @Shawn L. :

What I'm always dumbfounded by is that people hate on landlords but not grocery stores. You can survive far longer without a roof than you can without food but I've yet to see any angry mobs chanting "cancel grocers."

No other industry I am aware of is forced to continue to provide their service without compensation. You can't march into a store and demand free stuff but you can live on my property and not pay rent and I have to continue to provide you a home? Try stealing a cart of groceries and when the police show up tell them it's not your fault because life is just really hard. Probably won't end well for you.

Exactly. Milk costs money and goes up in price over time. Nobody starts a hashtag to attack the milk industry or threatens to kill dairy farmers and take everything they own. It's unbelievable how ignorant people are.

And I can assure you, the vast majority of these people are low-wage earners because they spend their days bemoaning successful people while squandering their time watching Dances With The Stars and spending money on fast food, cell phones, $200 tennis shoes, and booze while blaming everyone else for their lack of success. Meanwhile, an immigrant from Ghana shows up with $9 in his pocket and broken English and he's somehow able to buy six investment properties in ten years? He must be privileged!

Originally posted by @Eric Weldon-Schilling :

Maybe because people are starting to understand that there really is something fundamentally immoral and wrong with a system that allows a small group of people who either have tons of extra money or are able to get approved for multiple mortgages to hoard extra property then charge people for a basic human necessity, sticking them in a position of essentially modern peasant who will then almost certainly never be able to save up enough to buy their own home and build equity and enjoy the stability homeownership brings s it stands now, millions of people are stuck in a cycle of paying someone else’s bills and never getting to enjoy any of the benefits of owning a home. Banks make the requirements for a home loan so stringent at times that many people can’t get approved but they are paying more in rent than they would be with a mortgage. All to pay for someone else to have extra homes they don’t need. Or worse. To literally just make the owner even richer for the ones who are. Shelter is a basic human need. It should be an investment for someone to not have to work. 
when people are seeing apartment complexes sending cruel and tone deaf eviction notices and not repairing issues during a global pandemic and young kids in their 20s whose rich parents give them money all the time buying apartment building and rental houses to kick the people out and raise the rents, while evicting people who are a day late and being entitled little d bags about it then yeah. Normal polite Society generally is going to have some issues with that. 

And from another post:

Eric Weldon-Schilling

replied about 3 hours ago

A person should have to somehow show hardship. Just not wanting to pay is wrong. I think our entire system of renting and landlord is immoral and traps millions of people into a situation where they are paying some one else’s bills and will never ever be able to own anything themselves because of it, and I think using a basic human need like shelter as an investment is disgusting, but I made sure my rent was paid in full and on time all during the pandemic. If you can, you need to because there are some people who are good decent landlords and if they get taken out of the picture then all that will be left are soulless corporate residential management firms that do not give a s*** about anyone or anything but money.
it’s so dumb to just assume you can keep getting away with not paying. At least get assistance. I won’t lie I’m currently taking advantage of the unemployment benefits and using a rental assistance program gnat pays 6 months rent for people who are hiv positive. But I’m not doing it to sit around the house and play video games. I’m doing it so I don’t have to work and can focus really hardcore on school. This is the first time I’ve been able to just focus on that and it’s great. I’ve wanted to be an emt since I was 19 but having to work 50 hours a week and stressing over all of it meant I never had the time to dedicate to the course. 90 days of Monday through Friday 8 to 5 was just out of the question. And now it isn’t.
but I also absolutely made sure that rent was taken care of first. Because I’d rather be paying the man I know and can send a text to and see face to face than some soulless Wall Street coke head

Thoughts:

1. Most tenants and landlords get along with each other just fine. These kinds of sites are nothing more than the social media version of Fox, MSNBC, OANN, CNN, etc. The idea is to make everyone think there's a dichotomy of interest out there, that each side hates the other, mostly to drive traffic and sell advertising.

2. There are crappy landlords and crappy tenants. No group has a monopoly on being an ***.

3. Many of my tenants prefer to live in a rental rather than buying their own property. When the heating system goes down, I fix it. When the shingles blow off the roof, I fix it. When the house needs a new water heater, I buy it. A couple of weeks ago my furnace at home bit the dust. A new furnace & ac unit cost me $5600. There's a good number of lower-income homeowners that would just have ended up with a pile of junk in their house because something like 40% of Americans can't come up with $1000 in an emergency.

4. There's nothing shameful or embarrassing about renting. I've owned houses and I've rented. Each has their place in time and life. The renter isn't geographically fixed. If the neighborhood turns bad, the renter can leave. If they need to find better work somewhere else, same thing. If they have temporary needs, same thing. Renting a house is really no different than renting anything else. Sometimes you don't want/need to own something.

5. If you wanted to be an EMT working 50 hours wouldn't make any difference. I earned a doctorate working a full-time job, teaching part-time, and running a rental business. It took me 3 1/2 years but I did it because I wanted to do it.

Anyway, the bottom line is that there's nothing to be served by keeping this false narrative going that tenants hate landlords and vice versa. Maybe there's more of that in low C-D class housing but in the houses I rent I have good tenants who pay their rent and are happy to have me as their landlord. Several of them have told me they don't *want* to buy a house because the only responsibility they want is to go to work and make their pay. They don't want to repair gutters or water heaters or even cut the lawn (we include lawn service in some properties).

PS: Like Nathan G, I apologize for nothing. I grew up in a ghetto. I ate government cheese (pretty good) and government powdered milk (disgusting). Had no electricity for stretches. Rarely a telephone. Homeless with my single-mother and 3 kids family as a teenager for 4 months living in a tent. Ended up in the military, worked my *** off, borrowed money to go to college, got a job where I could make more money, saved that money, almost went bankrupt building, recovered, and eventually started buying cheap houses for cash which I then fixed up nicely and rented out. Just like an immigrant's story, except I could have just as easily been part of the poor slob excuse-making American story instead of the immigrant story.

Just like Jimmy Cliff said: "You can get it if you really want it". 

@Nathan G.

I feel there are two types of REIs, those who only seek profit and those who seek profit with a purpose. Meaning that people who jump into REI often do not have a clear direction and will purchase homes with no clear avatar in mind or crystal clear criteria established. They only see the potential to make money (often doesn't happen) at the expense of tenants that have to live in poor conditions. I remember during my college years that our landlord allowed a human-size hole in one of the rooms exposing the elements. During winter, it would dip into the '20s or '30s; I fully acknowledge it was college. This type of landlord is where the stereotype comes from.

I always look for homes that provide the best possible amenities and conditions without compromising my renters. Entrepreneurs in the REI space provide flexibility to millions of Americans with short-term housing. Housing is not a right. However, it is a necessity. More is needed to provide less fortunate individuals with quality rental and primary finance education. If individuals were more educated on managing money, the majority of issues in our society would be easily mitigated.

"solely my opinion."

Sincerely, 

Josh 

@Nathan G. I believe you will always find people that feel entitled and believe anyone that owns any more than they do should have it taken away. These people have existed in every society from the beginning of time and I doubt they are going anywhere soon. They never take into account how long someone took to get where they are or how hard they worked to get there. They just see where they are at after decades of work and sacrifice and think somehow all of this was bestowed on them by a fairy god mother or how "lucky" they must be.

However having said all of that I think many landlords/tenants get along just fine and the relationship benefits both parties for many of the reasons cited here already. I had a blower motor go out in one of my properties back in October which was $900 to replace. That was followed by a garage door that needed replacing ($750) and a dishwasher drain pump that took a crap ($275). All of these happened over the course of 3 months. The tenant didn't have to come up with the money for any of it. I did. We save the capital to invest from our labor and take the financial risk to grow it into something more. I will never apologize for that.

One way to limit or reduce the number of people that think this way that you will have to deal with is investing in a bit nicer properties and renting to people a little higher on the economic curve of life. Second, screen them and set standards. If you do all of that I would say you reduce *some* of your risk of having a tenant like this. Certainly you will never eliminate it because as you said this seems to be growing trend.

@Eric Weldon-Schilling based on your post I am a bit confused why you are on a site that exists for the sole purpose of supporting investors that invest in real estate.

Originally posted by @JD Martin :

I ate government cheese (pretty good) 

Truer words have not been spoken. :)

How to combat it-- easy.   Do the right thing, and treat tenants how you'd want to be treated.  People>Profits.

.... but on the flipside, the moment you start worrying if tenants like/dislike you, is the moment you're in the wrong business.    I got trashed on social media a few years ago, shake it off. lol 

In the words of the great 50 Cent, if they hate then let them hate and watch the money pile up!