Pretending that small landlords and corporate landlords are the same is like saying your local grocer is as bad as Walmart.

Renting is an essential part of the housing market. Not everyone wants or can commit to home ownership and all it's unpredictable maintenance costs. A plumbing failure can be as cheap as $200 to fix or cost you $10,000+ for a full replacement and restoration from the biohazards of black water damage.

The reason why the housing market is fucked is because poor regulation allows corporate landlords to buy up tons of investment properties and control the housing costs and supply.

Adam Smith also pointed this out.

Unfortunately we live in a system that makes them necessay, like taking a shit is necessary.

And alas we don't vote enough for folks who might like to try to chanhe things to something like Vienna.

I never understood this brain dead obsession that Marxists have with landlords.

Landlords own property like anybody else does or could, and they use their property to offer a commodity in demand a for a fee like any other service. You never hear anybody complaining about a car rental service or hotels or any other rental service, just this one. This is a strong sign that it's not based in any merit, it's just ideological brain rot.

You could be nuanced and argue that certain types of landlords are bad or that certain practices are harmful, and that's fine, but to say the concept of people renting out housing units is inherently bad just because is just stupid. Renting has it's advantages even if you don't understand or won't acknowledge them, there's are plenty of reasons why renting exists.