Many of the world’s largest investment firms have launched new funds over the past couple of years aimed at acquiring or building single-family homes to use as rentals. This comes as no surprise considering that the increased cost of buying a home has forced many Americans into being tenants instead of homeowners. Arrived, a young real estate company backed by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, has just announced its entry into the single-family rental fund space. Arrived currently operates a f
    • MajorHavoc@lemmy.world
      11·
      1 year ago

      True. Outright rent-seeking is certainly typically safer than flipping.

      I think the risks that crushed Zillow are still relevant: Trying to do something at national scale requires a situation where lack of local knowledge is unnecessary. And housing has proven a few times not to be that.

      I would bet on Amazon to come up with an “investment” scheme that externalizes the extreme local market risks to their “partners”.

        • MajorHavoc@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          Agreed on all points.

          Some communities pass laws to keep investor landlords out entirely.

          Amazon buying rental property might also be ruled illegal under current anti-trust laws.

          I don’t know the best approach, but I don’t expect good things to come from Amazon getting into the landlord business.