> I'm a little confused. If you owned the home or condo, you'd have to handle getting anything fixed yourself, including your water seeping example. So you have to pay out of pocket for it, plus handle dealing with the contractor, etc. Why do you think that's a case against renting?

In that case I would have actually had it fixed instead of having to wear shoes in my kitchen for months. Also I budget monthly for things like this that might come up. I'd much rather manage that extra money (difference between mortgage and renting) than trust a landlord.

> If you have an unresponsive landlord, you can simply hire the handyman yourself, subtract the cost from your rent while emailing them an invoice, and dare the landlord to do something about it.

That's a nice story but it rarely play out well in practice. Time and energy are not free and I have better things to do with my time than try to claw back what I'm owed from a scummy landlord in small claims court or similar.

> The landlord can't realistically sue you for such a small amount of money, they'd have zero case in court, and anyways the court system in blue states is very pro-tenant

They can make your life hell in other ways or just refuse to renew the lease when your year is up. I'm not interested in moving every year until I find a competent landlord and I live in a red state.