But that’s not what we’re talking about - mom and pop won’t live on your sfd property. They may not even live in the same state.
For every good landlord there‘s a shitty one. The guy in my hood handles everything through a management company, just like blackrock would.
I admit my fears are existential and my evidence is antidotal, that said -
in my experience…
if things get litigious, an individual is generally a more even fight for the renter than a corpo with legal on retainer. For example, garnishing wages from the landlord to get your deposit back due to ambiguous claims of damage beyond wear and tear.
As casa pointed out, when being a reasonable renter who does not make life a PIA for the owner, rents are not always following market rate increases. They wait for you to move out before adjusting upwards to the market bc you’re low maintenance for them and they appreciate good faith dealing and avoiding litigious confrontation (e.g. eviction for non payment, squatters).
Lastly, my neighborhood is primarily owner occupied SFH, but there are long term rentals too. One of the houses was a retiree that became bored of all the families on the block and moved elsehwere. She rents the house to a nice family, but maintains presence on our neighborhood group chat.
When I rented a SFH in Del Mar 15yrs ago the owner/landlord was on the group chat and was aware of any neighborhood grievances.
on the flip side when I rented from a corpo, they have put nail polish on a pig (flippers gonna flip), no reasonable response time to simple service requests, fight me to keep my deposit on move out, and happily do massive amounts of construction while claiming they are not violating right to peaceful dwelling.
in my opinion - private party land lords, especially those within the community, are a real treat for renters compared to any other owner type. bonus if they money stays within the community.