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I am all for holding them accountable.

Obviously there has to be an incentive for Jim-bob to tie up his retirement savings and credit worthiness in a house that he doesn’t live in. You may not like the fact that people have to qualify for bank loans to buy property, but this is the world we live in. Especially if you happen to be an undocumented immigrant.

Oh, your anecdotal evidence about your parent’s home surely beats my Nobel-prize winning economics study citation. Lucky for your parents they didn’t have to sell it in 2010. Because I have anecdotal evidence for someone who bought a house for $400k in 2004 and then later sold it for $280k after the real estate crash.

Also the increasing property value you mention is due to regulatory capture by home owners who prevent the construction of new rental properties for fear it will “hurt their home value.” Combined with a mass exodus out of the rural areas into urban areas that are not building homes or city infrastructure fast enough to keep up with the increase in residents in the short run, which results in increased prices for homes in the city until those issues are addressed.

None of these things are “working as intended.”

No, you get different scam calls which you assume are the same but are definitely not, since these ones just go out to names on lists of property owners, not random residents.

Janitors are only employed in large, expensive apartment buildings. Single family homes don’t use them, nor do cheaper apartments. So that’s not really descriptive of a landlords job at all.

What value does Jim-bob owning 5 homes and renting them out to make a living add to the tenants?

• The tenants are able to live in a house that they can’t afford to buy because they don’t have credit and credentials that satisfy the bank.
• The tenants are able to move out with a couple months notice if they get a job elsewhere. They don’t have to worry about selling the house or finding a way to pay double mortgages when they move elsewhere… Or, worse, taint their souls by renting out their extra house while waiting for the housing market to improve.
• The tenants money is not tied up in a property, they are able to invest it in the stock market which has a higher rate of return than home ownership (which only keeps pace with inflation on average, per Case Schiller).
• The tenants don’t have to worry about having money or credit reserved to cover unexpected costs, like the new water heater breaking a year after it was installed.
• The tenants don’t get constant calls from scammers claiming they want to py your property for CASH TODAY.

Just a few thoughts.

You could just buy a house.

Why don’t you buy a condo?

If the landlord is too cheap to hire enough staff for his company, then he has multiple jobs.

Like a small business?

It really depends on the landlord. I’ve had landlords who did some repairs.

Most people treat it as passive income they spend less than 14.4 hours per week on it, which means the IRS categorizes it as passive income.

I worked in a grocery store, a bar, a coffee shop, a restaurant and a big retail store, so yeah — I’ve “maintained” a property before.

In what position? Did you fix the refrigerator when it broke down? Or did you call a repair company? Did you choose the repair company, or call a pre-approved company? How many quotes did you get before hiring the repair men? Was it prepay, or post pay billing or what? Did you handle licensing and permits and annual inspections? Did you fix the plumbing when it broke? Did you manage the building leases and speak with the property owners? Did you create a budget for repairing? What kind of depreciation schedule did you use? What did you do when the pipes froze?

Janitors are cleaners. Typically the people who maintain apartments are called maintenance workers, handymen, or (old fashioned) superintendent. Sometimes property manager, if they also handle renting it out.