Chances are they're long dead.

Or as I originally heard it, "going to bed is going to work."

I work in government. Biden has an excellent idea of what he's up against. And he saw how Obama and Clinton talked a good game but got out maneuvered by the right. He's an incredibly effective president, vastly better than I thought he'd be. He's managed to get so much done even with the right going full fascist against him, and he's done it without complaint or drama.

I am honestly baffled when I hear liberals complain about him. He's gotten more progressive goals across the finish line than any president since FDR, and he's not even 3 years in. Is he 100% perfect? No. But he's very very good. I'll take very very good over outright fascism any day of the week.

I mean, lots of people do. Just not the ones here on lemmy. But thanks for the compliment!

I'm probably somewhat unique here inasmuch as I'm a real estate agent and landlord and I have made an attempt to get into commercial real estate. But I've also been homeless in my adult life and grew up with very unstable housing, so I get the angst of many people here and don't discount it. Their feelings are completely valid.

I think the two things that people who are concerned about housing prices get wrong consistently are housing supply and the importance of financing.

Left leaning people are forever fighting against landlords and simultaneously yelling about gentrification and development. Here's the thing. Housing was affordable when we let people build densely with relatively few restrictions. Housing today is still most affordable in places where it's easy to build more. If that means the neighborhood character changes, oh well. Anywhere you get liberal people (and I count myself as very left wing) making rules about housing, you limit supply, prices go up. In the immortal words of pogo, we have met the enemy, and he is us. Take a look at Tokyo, the NYT did a great story about it recently, they have no problem destroying old neighborhoods to build more housing. As a result, it's remained shockingly affordable, and has a huge percentage of small businesses because rent is cheap for small non residential spaces, too. We need to stop clinging to our old buildings and allow growth. And I say that as a man who lovingly restored a 175 year old house. It is dumb. There should be 6 families living on the plot I own, but the neighbors would never allow it.

The other thing is financing. Commercial owners have a completely different borrowing structure from owner occupied housing. They don't have 30 year fixed rate low interest loans with low down payments and government programs to help them for x, y and z. Most commercial loans require refinancing every 5, 7, or 10 years. They also cost more than residential loans, both in up front costs and interest. So my personal residence is locked in on a 30 year note at 3%, but my rentals are in the 3.75-6% range and will require me to refinance in a few years at much higher rates. I have one that resets in 18 months. My interest rate is likely to go from 3.75 to 7.75. I owe about 100k on the house. My mortgage payments will go up $4000/year when that happens (on top of a $1000/year insurance hike last month). There's no possible way I can raise my rent enough to cover. So I would be in the hole every month. But the bank won't lend on a property that loses money every month. So either I come up with $100k cash or I sell the house. Sorry tenant, but you're getting kicked out at lease expiration next year because I have to sell the house to py back the lender. If it won't cash flow for me it won't for anyone else, either. So the only possible buyers are home buyers who want to live in it and it needs to be vacant. Yay for a home buyer, sad for my tenant (and for me, now I am out a cash flowing property that I'd prefer to hold). The tenant will yell about greedy landlords when I tell him to get out, but I literally have no option.

Same thing with how all big developments look the same now. All driven by lenders. They won't lend to a developer who wants to take on mom and pop businesses and quirky startups. The building is valued as a multiple of its rents, and so all the money chases national credit tenants or strong local chains that have proven they can oy high rents, and lenders all want to see recognizable name brands in those ground floor retail spaces. Developers hands are tied. Lots of developers would love to do something different but nothing different can get financed.

I could keep going but the text wall is long enough and my thumbs are tired.

Banks don't buy properties, they foreclose on them. They will unload as fast as possible and take a write down.

Big hedge fund and other similar large investors don't hold onto money losers, and they care about maximizing their return. If the spread between rent and sales price is this high, I'd expect some of the ones that bought a while ago to be considering selling and taking their appreciation gains vs holding onto a cash flow that is multiples lower. Plus corporate lending is a completely different animal than homeowner loans and many of these properties will soon be needing to refinance into a much higher rate. Their owners will sell rather than take a huge hit to cash flow. And many of these bought properties 5-10 years ago and did capital upgrades that are now aging. They'll be looking to exit before the next upgrade cycle.

Smaller investors can get pretty badly burned in these markets and may not be able to hold on.

Not saying a crash is inevitable or even likely, but real estate is cyclical and we are almost certainly near the top of our current cycle.

Don't invest in Detroit real estate

I'm not an expert but my general understanding is that its unlikely you'd have both parents be narcissists. A true narcissist is too self absorbed to stay in a relationship with someone else who's also that self absorbed. Narcissists tend to be in relationships with people who have opposite traits, highly empathetic and easily manipulated. Not saying it can't happen but youtube isn't necessarily the best diagnostic tool.

If at all possible, I recommend you see if there are any counseling resources available to you at school or through your local government. Also recommend you read some actual books on the subject, not just get info from YouTube and the internet. Hopefully you live in a place with a public library. Many libraries have a way to check out ebooks and read them on a phone app, which may easier and more discreet.

And I'd urge you to remember two things.

First, it gets better. It can be hard to believe, and it can feel like forever, but it gets better.

Second, narcissism is just another reaction to a traumatic childhood. No one is born a monster. They're worthy of compassion, even if you can't have a functional relationship with them.

This is both terrifying and hilarious at the same time. The last paragraph is so good.

In another indication of the operators working to potentially inefficient quotas, Meta noted that the pages it had on Facebook, with around 560,000 followers, “were likely acquired from spam operators with built-in inauthentic followers primarily from Vietnam, Bangladesh and Brazil” meaning the pages “that mainly posted in Chinese and English were almost exclusively followed by accounts from countries outside of their target regions.”

I love YouTube music. I get all the same songs as the other big services, plus free YouTube premium. Between my jam and habit and my quixotic quest to teach myself woodworking, I watch a LOT of YouTube videos.

We have a reasonable electorate, inasmuch as Trump has no chance of ever winning the popular vote and never did. What we don’t have is a rational electoral system where all votes are equal.

That take is only accurate in a country where this kind of thing is an anomaly. If this is allowed to stand, then it will become normal. I don’t want to live in a country without a free and independent press.

That's a swamp cooler and is very commonly used in dry environments. It will help a lot in Arizona (well, maybe not that tiny thing, but a properly sized one) and not at all in Miami, due to the difference in ambient humidity.