Local landlord's TikTok exchange with tenant goes viral
MIAMI - Five million views and one angry tenant later, landlord Raul Bolufe is making waves online over his controversial videos about raising the rent.
"I just wanted to show there is a side to us and we're not all of us these like greedy, crazy animals. We actually do put some hard-earned money into these properties," said Bolufe.
In the videos, the Miami-based landlord is seen speaking to tenants on the phone, informing them that he must raise rent due to rising costs.
Bolufe tells us in one case, the tenant was living in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property in the Liberty City area for $1,100 a month.
We checked what places were going for in that area, and on average we found $2,700 was the going rate — much more than what Bolufe was asking his tenant for — but more than double what that tenant was paying.
But they came to a compromise.
"When things like inflation happen in the market and taxes go up, and the cost of you know, living goes up in general, mortgage rates goes up, insurance goes up — when those things go up and we own these properties, and we put money into these properties we have to pay our monthly mortgage and all these types of things, it ends up going to the tenants, unfortunately," said Bolufe.
As inflation continues to slam the housing market, it looks like prices will only continue to rise here in Florida.
"There is no rent control in Florida. There are no caps so they can raise the rent to whatever they see fit and really what we see controlling that is the market," said Jodi Strang, principal attorney at Strang Adams P.A.
Strang adds that landlords cannot abruptly raise the rent in the middle of a lease, but can bump up the price to whatever they wish once that lease is complete.