Quick summary: I own my house. It's a 3 br, 2ba home, and I only use one bedroom and bathroom for myself. Recently a friend of mine proposed moving in. I've thought about it, and decided to offer them the other 2 rooms and bathroom to them for $500/month + half utilities.

I told another friend of mine (someone not directly involved) about this in passing, and they began to personally attack me for being a sham of a communist, and being a capitalist, and a landlord. They claim that what I'm asking for is steep. I understand essentially the place where their criticism is coming from, rent is a system of accumulation whereby I would be gaining wealth, and my friend would be receiving merely the permit to exist in my house. So on some level I understand and agree with the fact that this arrangement is essentially at odds with my beliefs.

Does this make me a sham? Brutal honesty please.

  • LibsEatPoop3 [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    IMO, just do your best to not exploit them. If your paying mortgage then rent can be a way to help you pay that off. But if you don’t even need that cuz you literally own it then what’s left? Property tax? Utilities? Get them to pay some of that. You also have to make sure they don’t exploit you obviously.

    • gonnaburnthisaccount [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I still have a long way to go on the mortgage. However, even having said that. Their payments to me go toward equity on my house, whereas they don't get any sort of equity in return. So rent is all around exploitation no matter how I slice it.

      • LibsEatPoop3 [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Okay, remove money from the equation for a bit. You’re helping your friend big time. In our ideal world that’s all there would be to it. Now, if you need something from them, then your friend will help you too. That’s on them. So, if that need of yours is money (~$500 a month) then they give you that of their own free will to help you out. Maybe you don’t need any help right now but will later on and they can help you then.

        Essentially, try to not “commoditise” this relationship and think about how it would work in a better society. Then just try to enact that right now.