A Boring Dystopia

a lot of people who say their job is “being a landlord” are that and a building manager

Well, you've got slumlords, who famously make money by not doing their jobs and then evicting anyone who complains too loudly. I've had to deal with one or two of those in my life, and its always fun to get in fights with the landlord over whether me fixing a thing they knew was broken means I'm not entitled to my security deposit back.

Then you've got relatively honest landlords, who primarily profit by having enough credit to buy property and then take a profit on top of the cost of building maintenance. They're... fine, I guess. I've never met one, but I've been told they exist and don't entirely suck. But as real estate prices skyrocket, their populations have shrunk as they simply sell out to the third kind of landlord.

The Investment Landlords have become the most prevalent. These are individuals or businesses that own real estate in trust and employ a management company to do the actual running of the property. And the property managers tend to split between the absolute worst kinds of slumlords (because big firms tend to have the local sheriff/police in their pockets to harass belligerent tenants) and the priciest kinds of "honest" landlords (folks who advertise as "luxury" and charge "teaser rates", then raise rent 20% every year until you flee to another "teaser rate" unit).

In every case, you're far better off owning your home than renting one. But with the need to put 20% down when even starter homes are selling for north of $500k, that's often not an option.

The real job of a landlord - of any stripe - is to apply for financing to purchase an expensive piece of real estate. That's what you're paying rent to access. Not the maintenance. Not the location. Not the features of the unit. You're paying for the borrowing power of your landlord.