Landlords beware: Rent-shamers are calling out overpriced listings online

By Jack Flemming, Los Angeles Instances

LOS ANGELES — The Fb put up appeared simple sufficient, providing up a newly constructed ADU rental in Burbank. Two bedrooms, two loos, 1,000 sq. toes. A personal yard. Finishes “you wouldn’t discover in every other ADU.”

The value? $4,500 per thirty days.

“Dam, ya’ll want to relax out!! $4,500 for an ADU??”

“Let the wealthy turn into richer having the poor paying their mortgage.”

“The greed is VERY REAL right here.”

“No surprise there aren’t any footage. Until the home is gold plated, it’s not price it.”

Individuals poured in with feedback and emoji reactions starting from laughing to indignant. Earlier than lengthy, the put up turned a digital dogpile, with customers tagging others to affix in on the enjoyable.

The doomed itemizing turned one other case of “lease shaming” — a contemporary, maybe inevitable, phenomenon that’s sprouting up throughout Fb housing teams and different platforms as lease continues to soar throughout Southern California.

Landlords see it as a headache, a unnecessary pattern of cyberbullying that exacerbates well-meaning efforts to seek out tenants. Renters see it as the next calling — a type of resistance and a option to name out overpriced listings.

“The remark may say ‘BOOOOO’ adopted by laughing and poop emojis,” mentioned Sam Eckstein, a renter in East Hollywood who has voiced his derision for high-priced leases on-line. “What it truly means is, ‘This lease is ridiculous and try to be ashamed of your self for making an attempt to make the most of folks.’ ”

The web has reworked the true property business over the previous couple of a long time, eradicating conventional gatekeepers and permitting sellers and landlords to attach instantly with patrons and tenants. Home-hunters as soon as needed to name the telephone numbers on “For Hire” indicators or rent actual property brokers simply to see what was obtainable, however within the age of knowledge, they will evaluate the costs of every little thing in the marketplace.

In different phrases, it’s a lot simpler to gauge whether or not one thing is a steal or a rip-off. So when the itemizing goes stay on public boards similar to Fb or Nextdoor, folks could make their ideas very clear, turning advertisements into digital battlegrounds between landlords and tenants.

“Your greed is sickening,” a person wrote below a put up promoting a one-bedroom rental in Venice for $4,600 a month.

One person informed a landlord itemizing a one-bedroom unit for $2,200 in Woodland Hills to“take your ADU and firmly insert it into your . . . “

Generally, the feedback are supposed to disgrace a landlord or actual property agent for asking such a excessive worth. Different occasions, they’re making an attempt to guard unwitting newcomers from overpaying.

“I (not too long ago) signed a lease for a full measurement 1br with solely barely much less good home equipment inside cheap strolling distance to the seaside on the west aspect for lower than this,” somebody posted below a list of a 500-square-foot one-bedroom rental in Glendale asking $2,500 a month.“Whoever desires this could negotiate fairly onerous.”

Eckstein moved to L.A. in 2014, signing a year-long lease for a one-bedroom studio in East Hollywood for $2,000 a month — a worth he now realized was far too excessive for the standard of the condo.

“I simply knew L.A. was costly and wanted a spot. I undoubtedly wouldn’t pay that to stay there once more,” he mentioned.

Over time, he’s developed a keener eye for good and dangerous offers. If he sees a landlord on social media asking an excessive amount of for a rental, he calls it out to ensure others don’t fall into the identical state of affairs he did.

Within the decade that Eckstein has lived right here, lease costs have almost doubled. In 2014, the typical worth for an condo in L.A. County was $1,471, The Los Angeles Instances reported. Right this moment, the median lease within the L.A. metro space is $2,796, in accordance with Zillow.

Final yr, L.A. held 18 of the 100 priciest ZIP Codes for renters within the nation, in accordance with a RentHop examine. Typical suspects similar to Santa Monica and Malibu ranked towards the highest, however even supposedly extra inexpensive neighborhoods, similar to Koreatown and Downtown L.A., ranked within the high 100.

Many rental websites, similar to Zillow and Redfin, present rental historical past information, so potential renters can see how a lot earlier tenants paid. Some customers weaponize that info.

“Lil 20% enhance within the lease since Feb. Pretty,” somebody commented below a Fb put up providing a two-bedroom bungalow in Cypress Park for $2,395 in August 2023.

For some, the state of affairs has gotten determined. Tenants enter bidding wars, providing to pay extra per thirty days to snag one of many few good offers in the marketplace. Others write letters pitching themselves to landlords — a observe sometimes reserved for the home-buying market. A person moved into an ambulance. A lady used a loophole in metropolis guidelines to remain in an Airbnb rent-free for 18 months. And squatting has turn into such a nuisance that some owners contract the companies of a person who calls himself the Squatter Hunter.

On social media, the desperation boils over into frustration.

“If I see a put up asking $5,000 for a one-bedroom rental, I’m going to say one thing. And it’s not going to be very good,” mentioned Katie, who declined to offer her final title as a result of she doesn’t need her social media feedback to be publicized.

Katie mentioned the rent-shaming observe is a type of remedy: the plenty coming collectively to inform off folks making an attempt to revenue on housing.

“On the finish of the day, they win, and we lose. We pay for his or her mortgages, they usually get richer whereas we scrape by,” she mentioned. “The least we will do is make them really feel dangerous about it.”

One landlord, who requested to stay nameless as a result of he doesn’t need to entice adverse feedback on his listings, mentioned he’s skilled rent-shaming however mentioned the criticism is misguided.

“A worth is likely to be excessive for somebody however completely cheap for another person,” the owner mentioned. “The indignant feedback simply make it tougher for the individuals who truly need the property.”

Final yr, he posted in a Fb group providing a two-bedroom condo in Glendale for north of $4,000. He acquired a handful of feedback claiming it was overpriced, however discovered a tenant inside every week.

“Individuals worth various things,” he mentioned. “Each rental isn’t one measurement matches all.”

The pattern is bringing drama to a once-perfunctory course of. If the value is a number of hundred too low, renters race to inform the owner that they’re . If it’s a number of hundred too excessive, those self same customers make a mockery of the itemizing.

Some Fb housing posts finish with a brand new tenant. Others finish with an up to date itemizing providing a decreased worth. Lately, many finish the identical: with housing group scarlet letter showcasing that the value was, certainly, too excessive: “(The person) has turned off commenting on this put up.”