The discussion is on the question “Should you buy a house and rent it out?”

I bought my house for $263K in 2002. It is currently worth around $330K. In that time I have spent about $40K on repairs (not true upgrades) for 2 new HVAC units, new roof, carpet, water damage, broken appliances, wood rot, lawn seed/fertilizer.

I'm happier living in a house than an apartment but my house is a place to live, and an item of value, but not an investment I expect to make profit from.

That sounds odd - a 10% increase in (invested) value over 16 years? Isn't that below inflation?

(according to random site on the internet, it's a little below inflation: https://www.in2013dollars.com/2002-dollars-in-2018?amount=30... )

You can't reasonably count things like lawn maintenance, carpet, water damage, wood rot, and broken appliances as part of the investment...

Sure you can. If you were renting it out instead of living in it, all those costs would have to be paid on behalf of the tennents. It's part of the cost of doing business. So whether you rent or buy for yourself, it's all part of the investment calculation.

It’s part of the natural expenses of owning a house, but is not relevant to an anticipated inflation-based increase in value of the underlying asset.

I thought we were talking about rental properties?

That said, buying a house is basically buying an index linked annuity that covers your rent on a property you have to maintain. So it is an investment, albeit one tied up with a lot of other baggage.