I don't know exactly where people get this idea that landlords just sit on their hands and collect money for doing nothing. maybe it's a result of the "divergen

I don't know exactly where people get this idea that landlords just sit on their hands and collect money for doing nothing. maybe it's a result of the "divergence of incentives" other posters have mentioned in highly regulated markets. where I live, mortgage payments are significantly less than typical rent for comparable structures, but I am quite happy to pay my landlord the difference for taking the cognitive load of caring for a house of my shoulders. anything goes wrong with the house and I just shoot him an email and his guy fixes it by the end of the week. when we came to see the house for the first time, he was there with his guy scrubbing the floors on his hands and knees. what I'm saying is, maybe an apartment doesn't produce value, but it doesn't maintain itself either.