I rented a 3-bedroom apartment for $1,500 and charged my roommates $800 per room. I got a $100 cut each month. Was I wrong?

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‘In my opinion, they didn't earn the right to $500. The market rent was $800 for the amenities and the location, and it was furnished.’

He got inconsistent rents via room rentals. Empty rooms paid $0. His rent was $500 per room. I took the entire rent upon myself: $1,500 a month plus utilities. Room rentals in the area were $700. I repainted. I furnished the place. I maintained it.

Here’s the murky part: It’s not transparent. You did not tell the people you were living with for eight years that they were effectively covering your rent. Nor did you tell the landlord that you secretly upped the agreed rent, and skimmed off the top, breaking the “no subletting” rule standard in landlord-tenant contracts.

“I take issue with the inhospitable — possibly even hostile — sentiment: ‘They didn’t earn the right to pay $500 a month.’” You were a fellow tenant who was — as far as your co-renters were aware — on equal footing economically and socially. You held the lease, but you were roomies. There is a pervasive element of subterfuge, especially if you know that there would be trouble and broken trust if they found out.

The Italian-American philosopher Cristina Bicchieri talks of social norms as “the language a society speaks, the embodiment of its values and collective desires, the secure guide in the uncertain lands we all traverse, the common practices that hold human groups together.” Breaking the contract with your landlord and the social contract with your roommates is not showing entrepreneurial skills and showcasing capitalism at its best, it’s using other people’s assets to make extra money on the side without their permission or knowledge. It’s bad form, I’m afraid, and sharp practice.

 

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Did you promise them a full pass through of the rent cost ? Or simply told them renting from me costs $300? Fair game I say as you take on the tenant risk and still have to keep your landlord whole of a roommate leaves

So you’re paying the utilities then? 😎

obviously a future president of Goldmansucks, Smith Blarney, MerylLynchme

Sounds like a good transaction. How about trying to investing that $100 on bitcoin each month? Now that’s some nice return.

When I realized people would pay $800 for a room, I bought an apartment building and raised the rents from $1500 per month to $2400 per month.

thanks

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