Is your standard of living (measured by the quality of your primary residence/neighborhood) any higher, lower or about the same as the houses that you rent to your tenants?

If you only buy rental properties that are within your own 'comfort zone',...then you end up buying in the same type of neighborhoods that you would personally live in.

To answer my own question,...I live in a Class B house located in a Class A neighborhood. However, all of my rental properties are Class C located in Class C hoods. I consider my standard of living about 2 notches higher than my tenants.

Now,.. how does your standard of living compare to your tenants?

I'd say about the same as you. Except I'm out in the country a bit -- so whether or my neighborhood is probably "Class B" also.

So, Class B house in a rural neighborhood with similar Class B houses is where I live. My rentals are probably all Class C -- although a couple of the houses are also in Class B neighborhoods. :)

- John...

John,

My typical rental is 2/1, 800-900 SF, one car or no garage. Central heat, window AC. 50-100 years old.

My home is 5/3, 3,400 SF, 2 car garage. 20 years old. Central HVAC with a wet bar. Surrounded by homes of like construction.

Sid,

Roy,

Maybe. I don't know, nor do I care. I consider my chain sufficiently jerked by a friend.... ;-) Now I'm gonna jerk back a little in a friendly and (I hope) thought-provoking way.

First, I think the word we're describing is envy, not jealousy. I know the two are often used as synonyms, but what we're discussing here is do tenants feel that what a land lord has is "unfair" and/or that they covet the land lord's material possessions? At least, that's the way I took the discussion. If I'm correct in my thinking, then the appropriate word is envy.

Our (paid off) house is nice in many ways. It came from a laser-focused financial plan over 10 years in the making. To achieve it, we had to make many sacrifices and build a plan.

My tenants cars are nicer than mine. Their TV sets are bigger. They have 200 more cable channels than I do. They've had the latest i-Gadgets for the past 8-10 years, and I have a 3-year-old baseline Samsung J3 that is my first ever "smart" device. It cost $169 brand new. They sleep in until 9 or 10 AM most weekends and are watching TV when I stop by to do my tri-annual inspections.

Am I envious of their possessions and lifestyle? Nope. My priorities and the actions that flow from them are different than their priorities and actions. Do I expect they are envious of me? I don't give it a minute's thought. Envy is it's own punishment. If they are envious it hurts them, not me.

Ever seen a car dealer's house? My tenants should be more upset about that, especially since the typical "Buy Here, Pay Here" rates make my humble rents look cheap by comparison!

I live higher than my tenants, but not just neighborhood. It's what I have and how much I pay for it, due to different money management skills and priorities/goals. I'm truly happy with a simpler life, ie: older furniture, smaller TV, small car, etc.

What I mean is: I would have a "higher" standard of living even if I lived next door.

To go with the flow:

My sfh rental is 610sf, 1925, 1/1 on a street that has some old multi-fam rentals as well as church and newer, big (2K ish sf) sfh. Supposed to be a community center built there - someday, so considered an improving area.

My rooming house is on a street with a poorish, so-so reputation for crime. Surrounded by apartments, 7-11 store, beauty shop. 1/2 mile from central bus hub for the city.

I live in a blue-collar neighborhood, where you see many work truck/vans parked, one of the better High school zones, but the lower half standard of living for that school zone. I have 4/2 and a family room, laundry room, corner suburban lot. On a monthly basis, my housing expenses are less than even my roomers (PITI vs Rent).

I've been there 22 years.

BTW: I would like to get more SFH that are similar to my own neighborhood.

In fact, there is one for sale a few doors down......I'm tracking it - listed for way too much now.

Sid,

Your rebuttal is well taken and I agree with you on the Envy word. I was not trying to rattle your cage though.

Sid's post reminded me of a friend of mine. She and her husband are both nurses high up on the salary scale, so their income tops $180K a year. Their children are grown but they hold on to their big house on 10 acres. She bought a $40K Toyota 4 Runner last year (literally off the show room floor) because she likes to go hiking, and needed a vehicle to get her to the trailheads. She complains about her $600 car payments.

She HATES her husband. He is withdrawing money from their joint account and hiding it; he blames her for not being able to afford to retire. She is having health problems and he wants her pick up more hours at work, while her doctor tells her to scale back. Their marriage has been a mess for years, and they are each locked into retaliatory spending to hurt the other. They have a deadbeat adult son who requires financial bailouts.

I don't own a house that I wouldn't live in myself. In fact, I have occasionally lived in one of my rentals and perfectly happy with it.

In terms of houses, I live in a 2/1 built in 1910 and in a B neighborhood while my rental is a 2/1 built in 1930 in a B- or c+ neighborhood. Both houses are craftsman style and around 1k sgft.

In terms of vehicles, there's are usually newer than mine but mine are much better maintained and cleaner. My work truck is 17yrs old.

I have antenna TV they have cable. I have starter internet they have high speed. They have the latest phone mine is very outdated. Same with computer.

I try to live efficiently they do not.

My typical rental is a 2 bed 1 bath, C class in C neighborhood.

My house is B class in small rural town, 5 bed 2 bath 120 year old Victorian that I am slowly remodeling.

Most of my tenants are low income & think where I live the streets are paved with gold.

We stumbled onto our primary home purely by accident. It is probably considered Class B in that it has central HVAC, it's with 175 feet of waterfront, and decent sized yard.

It was 1980s dark wood paneling with orange shag carpet when we bought in 2004 at the height of the market for maximum price, but it's unique and we are not sorry we paid what we did for it or that we revamped the interior so much.

Especially since our downstairs apartment pays for all the basic housing bills (and no mortgage anymore.) Do we need to rent the downstairs? No, but we would almost never use it even when family comes to visit we have enough space - we simply don't need that much house. Our plan is that someday we will move down there and one of the kids will move upstairs to take care of us LOL!

My std of living is my business, not my tenants'.

TEX:

At this point in my life, my standard of living is much higher than that of my tenants. However, that is due to my husband and I spending 35 years in our chosen career fields, and the past 20 years building our property business. I would say we live in a class A area and our homes are in a B- area.

I rented one apartment and then two houses before I bought my first home. They were similar to what my tenants live in now.

A few of our tenants have the potential to work their way up. Most probably will not, based on the fact that several have been renting from us for 10-15 years.

This is one of the many reasons I do not share my home address with the tenants.

LOL - oh come on, you know me. I live well. Heck, even when I lived on the beach in FL in my VW van, I lived well! Ten cent oysters at happy hour in Daytona Beach, camping on the beach and surfing at dawn. Those were the days!

We currently live in what I'd rate a B+ or A- community. Our home isn't big, just 1,400 sq ft, but we have an amazing 40 mile infinity view. Neighbors include a fire captain, a police lieutenant and several small business owners. Rest are vacation homes or retirees. About half are original owner/builders. Probably 10% are former students of mine. Homes are mostly professionally landscaped and well maintained. We have the HOA "weed and trash can nazi" who drives through and issues fines. Like any HOA we have a couple of scofflows and why they moved to an HOA is beyond me.

I find it amusing because both myself and my spouse are artists at heart and more like the person you'd expect to find living in a yurt or on a houseboat (already done that) not a stucco and tile ranch house with a 3 car garage and a "fire feature" in the patio. It surprises friends when they come over for the first time and see that we actually live like "normal" people and not in a bunker with gun turrets. LOL

My rentals were in C- to D (F-)? areas. Never again. I don't associate with such people in my daily life, I will never do it again professionally. Since we sold our apts I've hardly been in that part of town.

We retired early, about 4 years ago. For 20 years we lived in the same neighborhood as many of our rentals, solid class B. We also have several MHs. They are all nice and on private lots, but because they are MHs I'm going to say they are class C.

All our rentals have central heat and air. The oldest is a 72, but it was just totally remodeled and brought up to modern standards.

About two years ago we moved to a newer, nicer house, closer to town. Since we are retired, we are looking at ways to simplify. We are now within 5 minutes of 90 percent of our regular travel locations. The newer house is no bigger than our old one, but it is one story and handicap friendly. Neither of us is handicapped...yet...but we are planning ahead.

Our standard of living is low. Our house is one of the nicest ones in a B class neighborhood. We have rentals in the same area and we have upper B class lower A class rentals also.

Our tenants drive newer cars and have the latest gadgets. My car is 26 years old (bought 7 years ago with 45,000 miles on it). Our first flat screen TV was given to us less than 6 months ago.