I was a landlord for a few years, as my job offered me and my wife a live-on position at work so we rented our empty primary home.
One thing you don't hear much about is how scummy so many tenants can be. In the span of five years, we had tenants who: * took advantage of our kindness by continually asking for rent extensions, the bill kept adding up and didn't pay; when we sent them an eviction warning notice, they added a padlock to the door so we couldn't get into our own house (and a nasty note on the door); once we started court proceedings, they abandoned the property without telling us and left all their crap in there for us to throw out (which included moldy furniture and stains on walls) * other tenants who destroyed appliances and made holes in the walls and doors and refused to pay for them; the damage was much more than the deposit they paid so that came out of our pockets * built a counter and made a few other minor improvements in the home (without asking us); upon moving out, charged us for the improvements that we didn't request nor approve; threatened to sue us for the work they did if we didn't pay their asking price * Couldn't pay rent due to job layoff; offered to do work around the house and property in lieu of rent for a while; we agreed and had new contract made up. Three months later, no work was done and we had to evict him, while making no money during that time.
These were all separate tenants with separate issues.
With that being said, we did have a few really good tenants that were great to work with, paid on time, and gave plenty of notice before leaving.
But I can see why some landlords are ruthless when it comes to rent, deposits, background checks, rent increases, and lack of flexibility. They've likely been burned by bad tenants and the law in most states makes it almost impossible to evict someone in a timely manner, costing a lot of money in both court fees and lost rent during the process.
I still think it's scummy what landlords do and the whole concept of landlording when one person owns dozens of homes to rent, but I also have seen the other side and what goes on with so many tenants.
I'm certain that the landlord haters here would all fail miserably at it.
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You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. -Misattributed to CS Lewis