For property you still have ongoing maintenance to pay for, and real estate agents, and the title company, etc. so there are jobs created due to the buying, selling, and ownership of property. If I by 100 shares of IBM in my self-directed account at Charles Schwab there likely isn't a single human being involved in that transaction after I click the buy button. Granted, somebody wrote the code that drives all of that.

But this maintenance would happen anyway whether you own or rent.

At a much slower rate.

If the paint in my personal home starts peeling, my incentive to fix it is higher - I don't want to walk down the hall and see peeling paint.

If the paint in a corporate-owned tenement starts leaking, what incentive does the corporation have to repair it? They will do the bare minimum to prevent me suing them for breach of contract. A tenant is unlikely to sue over peeling paint. And they actively discouraged from re-painting, as they will likely lose their security deposit should they paint in any color other than generic off-white.

> If the paint in my personal home starts peeling, my incentive to fix it is higher - I don't want to walk down the hall and see peeling paint.

> If the paint in a corporate-owned tenement starts leaking

LOL. It's the opposite effect. If I own the place, and The paint is peeling, and I have to fix it... then maybe I'll just live with it until it gets worse, or I plan to sell. If it was a rental, then I complain to the landlord to fix.

Are you married? Own a house? ;)

What incentive does the landlord have to fix minor problems? It costs you more to move/sue than it costs him to sit on the problem.

Yeah, not married, so there is not that particular stakeholder motivating cosmetic repairs.

As a landlord I want my current and future tenants to respect the valuable asset I have entrusted to them and maintain a good relationship. Fixing the little things is important in a "broken windows theory" way.

"the cobbler's children have no shoes"