> Sure, but are they doing $1k+ worth of maintenance work a month per unit? There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. In a market with units for sale and for

> Sure, but are they doing $1k+ worth of maintenance work a month per unit? There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. In a market with units for sale and for rent, prices tend to reach an equilibrium. The only difference is that rent includes a premium for the relative ease with which one can move. Another way of looking at it is that traditionally it was considered reasonable for annual rent to be 1/20th of the purchase price of a property. Likewise, 5% annual maintenance was considered reasonable. Unsurprisingly … 1/20th == 5%. > Many landlords probably spend more time sending out bills than they do on maintaining the property. That was certainly not my experience when renting. My most recent apartment had multiple full-time employees maintaining it and had an annual improvements budget. I won't claim that it had all the amenities I would have liked, but the landlord was definitely not just letting the cash roll in.