from Hacker News

If y'all are shocked about SBF and the crypto industry misusing customer deposits, I'd like to bring attention to an even bigger fraud of an industry. The rental/property management space is so dirty... less than 5% of the players can even reconcile their books let alone understand that security deposits in their bank accounts aren't funds they can just borrow from to operate their business.

Why do you think every renter has a bad feeling when they move in and hand over the security deposit funds and think "I don't think I'm ever seeing this ever again?" It's cus those funds were used to pay back the previous tenant moving out (at best) or better yet, they return a portion of the previous tenant's deposit while pocketing cleaning and "move out" fees.

Security deposits are the perfect Ponzi scheme cus there's never a "run on the bank" style event where every tenant moves out at once. Even so, every once in a while, the shitty managers dip so low that they can't even refund the <10% of tenants moving out each month.

Anyone reading this want to help me shine a light on my industry, dm or reach out! I'm not hard to find and I'm happy to be an open book. My company (apmhelp.com) helps 1k+ PM companies with accounting, finance, and automation and we see everything.