I agree that it is a supply issue. The problem is every landlord further limits the supply.
I don’t know how many properties you have, let’s say 4 (it’s how many my parents had). You might not feel like your 4 properties is contributing very much to the supply issue, but if say 10% of the population has enough wealth to be a landlord, and they each own on average 4 properties plus their own home, that is now 50% of the need in the market being taken up by a small % of people. That doesn’t even take into account multi-unit businesses.
Remove red tape, build more housing, so there’s enough for all the people who want to own and the people who want to rent.
No disagreements here, but without putting laws in place how do you know when we’ve hit the point where “there should be enough housing but things are still wacky”? What’s stopping large companies from just buying up the extra available housing and continuing to charge obscene rent? There are currently 28 vacant homes for each homeless person in the US Does that mean things are wacky and it’s time to put laws in place?
However, when I start adding in costs like maintenance, property taxes, insurance, and my own time and sweat, most of my tenants are paying similar if not less out of their pocket every month than they would be if they owned the home they lived in
Again, you said yourself that you are profiting off the rent. I’m sure you already factored in maintenance, property taxes, and insurance into that. I’m sure many people would gladly use their own time and sweat in order to be building their own equity.
I’m not saying you’re a bad landlord or that you don’t take care of your tenants. What I’m saying is if you just look at the numbers these people would all be better off without a landlord and paying directly for the “services” you provide instead of using you as a middle man. As such, the Landlord does not generate anything of value by inserting themselves in the middle of this situation.