[iaw]

Anecdotal experience: I rented an apartment where the bathroom was literally rotting away on itself. The landlord would do cosmetic fixes only as the walls sagged and warped.

The incentive wasn't there for her to make a large capital expenditure on maintenance because the land appreciation was what she was banking on and rental demand was such that she could always rent the apartment.

While this example is extreme I've seen similar deferred maintenance behaviors repeated over and over again by the most successful (read: largest portfolio holding) landlords.