> Josh shows that large investors enjoy cost advantages by paying fewer operating expenses, property taxes, and lower mortgage costs. One particularly interesting one is insurance costs, which have of course been rising all over the country. Large landlords appear to enjoy bargaining advantages and pay substantially lower insurance expenses as well.

Their having lower insurance costs totally makes sense. If you go to an insurance company and tell them you have 1500 properties in 12 states (hopefully none of which are Florida!) they're going to give you a nice discount.

But that just isn't possible with property taxes. If you tell your county tax assessor that you want a quantity discount, you'll get "The Look of Disapproval". Or flat laughed-at. The only way they could have lower taxes is by owning lower-valued properties - either because they bought cheap, or aren't maintaining them and they decline in value (which is the slow way to getting poor returns as a landlord).

I think there's just too much money being spent. One day in a few years the investors will find a new "sure-fire" strategy involving some other asset and the country will get a glut of properties up for sale. At first they'll be listed at market rates, and then much lower as they panic to sell at any price. Leading to housing crash 2.0