Good article on robot landlords on Citizens Free Press. Talks about the big hedge funds buying places and managing them all over the internet. (No real robots were used in the article, just all done over the internet).

When my brother moved to Manhattan for his dream job, he first rented an apartment, looking to buy a co-op down the road. The owner of his high-rise apartment complex was a remote corporation. When my brother complained about no-heat, air conditioner broken or no hot water, the owners could care less.

So after a letter campaign, he began to withhold rent, placing it into a trust account. Then when my brother showed up for landlord tenant court, the owners will pull it off calendar, making my brother loose a day's pay from work.

So you have to fight fire with fire. My brother organized a rent strike, listing all grievances, making all tenants open up the proper trust account and write the owners about fix something within a reasonable time frame or we will stop paying rent.

Out of the 250 apartments in the building, 220 withheld rent for over 4 months.

Then the owners could no longer play, take the case off calendar. The tenants now had a lawyer representing them and didn't have to show up for court because the owners were playing games.

The owners were forced into a settlement.

1) Fix all broken things.

2) Forgive all back rent.

3) Have units inspected and if things were good, rent would start.

I read the article .... they are buying the way lots of us do: small 2 or 3 br 1 bath SF houses that can rent for a profit. Cluster them into working class neighbor hoods . Then automate the heck out of the admin and maintenance .