{"id":280335,"date":"2025-07-21T16:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T16:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280335\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T16:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T16:12:12","slug":"im-inheriting-a-house-that-i-will-need-to-generate-income-is-it-ever-ethical-to-be-a-landlord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280335\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m inheriting a house that I will need to generate income. Is it ever ethical to be a landlord?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pay Dirt is Slate\u2019s money advice column. Have a question? <\/strong>Send it to Kristin and Ilyce here<\/strong><\/a>. (It\u2019s anonymous!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Pay Dirt,<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the next decade, I will be inheriting a paid-off house. I\u2019d originally assumed I would sell this house once I inherited it, but some changes in my situation are making me seriously consider a troubling alternative .<\/p>\n

I currently work full time and am paying a mortgage on my own house. But it is likely that in the near future I will have to become a full-time caregiver to my disabled sibling. When this happens, I will need to significantly cut my hours at work.<\/p>\n

Since that will also mean a cut in pay once I take over caregiving full time, I\u2019m now thinking I should rent out the house I will inherit instead of selling it. I don\u2019t feel great about the idea being a landlord. But I like it better than not having the money to take care of myself and my sibling. I assume I would get a management company if I do decide to rent the house since I won\u2019t have the time to fix things myself.<\/p>\n

When the time comes, I\u2019d like to be able to make the transition as smoothly as possible. Are there any resources I should be looking into now? How can I plan for this when it seems so overwhelming? Is it ever ethical to be a landlord?<\/p>\n

\u2014Apprehensive Potential Landlord<\/p>\n

Dear Apprehensive Potential Landlord,<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, there\u2019s nothing unethical about being a landlord\u2014or any other sort of business owner. You just have to figure out what kind of landlord you want to be.<\/p>\n

Everyone needs a place to live and if you\u2019re offering them a clean, safe place to live that\u2019s properly taken care of at a fair price, then everyone wins. If you charge them sky high rent and in exchange give them a pest-infested trash hole of an apartment, well that feels wrong on many levels.<\/p>\n

Being a landlord is great. My husband and I have had rental property for years. But given everything else on your plate, wouldn\u2019t you rather have an income stream that\u2019s less work than owning and managing rental property? Even if you hire a management company, which would eat into your revenue, there are other ways to make your money that are less work.<\/p>\n

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    Let\u2019s start with the property you\u2019ll inherit someday. If you inherit this home, current tax law allows you to have a stepped-up basis. That means, you inherit the property at its current market value as of the date of death. You could sell the property, likely pay zero tax, and invest the proceeds in a number of different ways that would generate revenue. Even if you just put it into a high-yield savings account paying 4 percent, that would be a far easier way to make money than owning, maintaining, and renting out a home. You might even generate the same return. If you invest more for growth, you\u2019d likely generate an even higher return.<\/p>\n

    Owning investment property is a great idea, for some people. When you\u2019re doing full-time caregiving, it\u2019s a lot of work. Since you\u2019re in the planning stage, sit down with a few fee-only financial advisors<\/a> and see what their recommendations are for generating income with your inheritance. Talk to some friends who own investment properties to learn more about how much it costs (in time and money) to run them. Spend time with your accountant or tax preparer to understand what the numbers look like. Go online to websites like BiggerPockets.com<\/a> to hear from investment property owners and managers and get additional resources.<\/p>\n

    When the time comes to make a decision, you\u2019ll be well-prepared to make the right one for where you are in life and the responsibilities you\u2019re managing.<\/p>\n

    \u2014Ilyce<\/p>\n

    More Money Advice From Slate<\/p>\n

    We rented a beach house for a week and invited our neighbors, \u201dGlen and Gina,\u201d across the way to spend a day or two with us since they mentioned they didn\u2019t have the funds for a vacation this year. Our two kids and their three kids are around the same age. They get along and have had sleepovers before. It was fine the first day, but on the second, Gina and I took the kids down to the water and there was an ice cream truck. I didn\u2019t have my wallet on me, so I asked Gina if she minded including my kids in getting ice cream. Gina gave me a dirty look but did it anyway.<\/a><\/p>\n

    The latest sex, parenting, and money advice from our columnists delivered to your inbox three times a week.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pay Dirt is Slate\u2019s money advice column. Have a question? Send it to Kristin and Ilyce here. (It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[4376,51,474,2499,224,17966,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-280335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-relationships","13":"tag-slate-plus","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114892108356372952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}