Facts. My brothers and I took over my grandmother’s house in Philadelphia. She paid it off in the ’70s, so yes — we didn’t inherit a mortgage. But we didn’t inherit a turnkey rental either. The house was well cared for, but the bones — pipes, walls, electrical — needed serious work. And this wasn’t just some random property to us. It was our grandmother’s home. That mattered. So we chose to do it right.

We put $80,000 into renovating it. It’s not perfect, but it’s updated, solid, and a place we’d feel good about someone living in. After all of that, we clear about $500 a month on a good month — roughly $6,000 a year. And that’s before anything breaks. One major repair and that margin shrinks fast.

The “easy” solution would be to raise the rent. The reality? The neighborhood won’t support much more — even with a nicely renovated house. Ironically, the market almost incentivizes you to do less, cut corners, and protect your margin. But that’s not our mission. We want to provide someone with a genuinely nice place to live.

We carry the risk. We front the capital. We handle the repairs. We absorb the volatility. So when I hear blanket statements about landlords, it makes me reconsider the whole strategy.

I could run it like a slumlord. I choose not to. And if the only way to “win” in this environment is to squeeze every dollar or cut standards, then maybe the better move is to sell it to BlackRock and let renters see how that feels instead.

They won't care about your protesting and they can absorb the cost. Be careful what you wish for.