My family has a few houses they rent out. Not nearly enough income to live off of as they all have other jobs, but it's some. As a rule, an empty apartment is better than a bad tenant. Not only will a bad tenant not pay and take months to remove, they will actively destroy the place causing thousands in damages. "Just sue them" someone may say. Well, they don't have any money for rent, they surely don't have 10 months of rent + $4k in repair + legal fees. Sure, we can garnish their wages. What's 5% of $0 in reported income per month?

Yes, some landlords deserve the hate they get but let's not pretend everyone is the perfect tenant either. The people of Walmart need to live somewhere.

I think that a lower price for the rent translates into a lower valuation of the property. So an empty apartment at $2000 a month is still theoretically worth more at sale than a rented apartment at $1500