Everyone paints landlords as money grubbing evil people. I own a couple rental houses and set prices so that my return is 7% annually. While that may paint me as the description above realize this; that price was set when I set a tenant and only increases with inflation. The majority of my units are 25% below market rates because once I have a good tenant I don't see a reason to make more work for me. 7% return and I never hear from them is worth it in my mind.
Lemmy can be such a hateful place sometimes. Mom and Pop landlords such as yourself are not the problem. I would assume that most people renting from you are not in a situation where they can buy a house yet. Providing them a place at a reasonable price gives them the opportunity to save for a house of their own. I think just about everybody who has bought a house had to rent first, including myself, without available rentals what would we do?
The only issue I have is with the types that rent part of their house at a price that's well above their mortgage payments. I hate that everyone just shrugs and says "the market has spoken! Some website said I could get 2k for a studio basement apartment so that's the price!"
I can't say I like people buying multiple houses and then renting them so there is less for everyone who wants to buy, but I can be somewhat sympathetic to the idea that there really are people who just want to rent a house for a handful of years and then move on so in that case it really is a service.
My last landlord charged 1200 for a basement... His mortgage was less than $900... Yeah yeah taxes and whatnot, but the point remains that I should not be paying all of your expenses for the "luxury" of renting a basement...