“You’d have to be a psychopath to be a landlord today in New York city”
Ditto for San Franfreako. We have friends who bought a four unit building on Telegraph Hill with the intent of taking the penthouse apt. as their Pie De Terre when they were in town. Four three years, the only thing they could do is use the roof top patio and stay in a local hotel. It seems that the single 60 something guy in the penthouse didn’t want to move and it turns out that SF rental law allows anyone over 60 to remain in their place (provided that they pay the rent) as long as they want. Luckily, they guy found a girlfriend in Modesto and moved out on his own. The only way to break this chain is to take the building off the rental marked for at least ten years.
Pittsburgh does not have rent control, but it is equally difficult to evict somebody if they stop paying their rent. My uncle had a 1+ year legal battle to try and evict some deadbeats, during which he had to continue paying the mortgage on that building without the income. Oh, and the tenants got a free attorney from Neighborhood Legal Services to file their appeals....my uncle had to pay his. When they finally moved away he found multiple holes cut into his walls which were filled with drug paraphernalia.