My wife and I made a big mistake of renting from Invitation Homes. For those unfamiliar with this company, during the Great Recession several investment firms bought a huge number of single family houses. Which they've continued to do since then.
IH is reported to have over 80,000, yes 80,000 single family houses. There are a couple other companies like this.
While it's not a monopoly the sheer number of rentals they manage has driven up the cost to rent. Looking at comparable rentals many are now limited to either IH rentals or houses from the other companies.
The model has a number of high fees including a a furnace fee for cheap filters sent out every three months.
What really sucks is the maintenance service. We've had foundation problems that my wife became an utter pit bull with them. This week we're dealing with a main line problem. IH sent out a laborer with a scope, the guy was super nice and found two bellies. Well the equipment he had doesn't record the scope, he had to reschedule so his boss could bring the right one. Today the company contracted to do the work claimed to have arrived, two minutes later started the work, and less than five minutes completed the work.
The level of collusion between the Wall Street Slum Lords is massive. They've reduced the supply of single family houses, provide horrible customer service, and more.
I'm not a fan of government control but this is one area that something needs done. As far as I'm concerned there needs to be a limit to how many houses a company can own. I'm talking less than 100 and likely closer to 20.
