Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
I routinely pass on property tax increases directly to my tenants. As well as all other costs. I keep my rents to the point where the property shows a reasonable profit, adjusted for risk.

In a reasonably-normal market, renting doesn't get you out of paying for many costs, you just don't see them broken out as line items.
Well it probably depends on what your overall housing expenses are as a landlord and if the rental market can bear all those costs. If your rental property is paid for or has a fairly low mortgage then adding in the extra cost of prop taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc to the tenents monthly rental is doable. But if you have a high mortgage and taxes like Cathrines $7800 annual tax bill, it would be hard to expect to get all that paid in a monthly rent. For instance, if someone wanted to buy a house in my SoCal 'hood as a rental property they can expect to pay $400K to buy. And even with a 10% down payment and low interest rates, their mortgage would be much higher than the approx. $1800/monthly rental rate that places go for. And then if you need to add in another $500/month or more to have your tenant cover taxes, insurance and maintenance the price would be well beyond what the rental market would year. So the landlord would have to pay a big portion out of pocket. And, as Zoebird pointed out, it would cost a person much more to buy a place here then to rent. Buying may mean $3000 - $4000 a month with every thing included for 30 years - as well as having to come up with the $40K down payment and the closing costs, where as renting the exact same place will cost $1800/month with no up front expenses. Now for someone like me who has a paid for house, being a landlord and including all my house expenses in the rent would be a good thing. And of course I'd also have to consider how much it would cost me to live elsewhere if my place was rented.