I might hate these small time landlords more than I do the big real estate investment corps. Because I know the exact mentality they go in with. Borrow like 5% down from the bank to buy a few houses or a small multi family unit. For someone like a PA or another member of the labor aristocracy making like $125k-$175k a year, they can save that much in a couple years just by avoiding big vacations or something. Very little of their own money in. So they might end up paying $5k a month in mortgage payments but collect $7k in rent. Maybe they pay a management company some of that profit so they literally have to do nothing other than cash a check. And then they start patting themselves on the back for how smart they are. Oh and in 30 years they will own the building free and clear, but their renters don’t own shit.

Notice how the idea of risk never factors into it. I despise the bougie scum who say start a restaurant but at least I find those fucks tend to at least pay lip service to the idea that all this has some risk of not panning out.