COMMENTARY: Housing policy must consider ‘mom-and-pop’ landlords

When people hear the term “landlord,” they often picture a faceless corporation or a Wall Street-backed firm snapping up homes and squeezing tenants. It’s a powerful image, and in many policy debates, a convenient one. But it mistakes who the country’s real landlords truly are.

The vast majority of rental housing in this country isn’t owned by large institutions. It’s owned by individuals, our friends, family and neighbors. These landlords, commonly referred to as “mom-and-pop” landlords, who hold anywhere between one and five properties, own 89.6 percent of single-family rentals.

A mom-and-pop landlord might be a retired couple renting out the home in which they once lived. It might be a working family that held onto their starter home instead of selling it. Some are “accidental landlords,” others made intentional investments to supplement a 401(k) or to replace one altogether. Collectively, these small-scale owners provide roughly 40 percent of all U.S. rental housing and disproportionately supply the most affordable options available on the private market.

Mom-and-pop landlords are the backbone of rental housing, yet are often subjected to public policy measures that treat them as if they are the problem. The misconception that large, institutional investors dominate the housing market has driven a wave of anti-market policies that includes rent control, eviction moratoriums and increasingly complex regulatory regimes. While these policies are often designed with good intentions, they tend to land hardest on those least equipped to absorb the impact: small, independent landlords.

Unlike large corporations, mom-and-pop landlords typically operate on thin margins. They don’t have legal teams, compliance departments or access to cheap capital. When property taxes rise, as they have alongside home values, or when interest rates spike, those costs hit directly. As inflation and increased costs hit them, they are forced to pass along increased business costs along to their tenants. Surveys show more than 80 percent of landlords have experienced increased ownership costs in recent years.

When policymakers design one-size-fits-all regulations aimed at curbing bad actors, they often overlook the reality that most landlords are not large-scale operators. They are individuals with limited financial buffers. And when those individuals are squeezed, the consequences ripple outward.

Some sell — the data already shows concerning trends. While mom-and-pop landlords still dominate Nevada’s housing market, their share of rental housing has been under pressure. According to the Urban Institute, nearly one third of mom-and-pop landlords have reported increased financial pressure to sell off their properties, with lower-income landlords feeling the squeeze the hardest. At the same time, these small landlords have historically been less likely to raise rents aggressively and less likely to evict tenants compared with larger operators. In fact, research shows tenants renting from large landlords are significantly more likely to face eviction.

Small landlords also play a critical role in serving communities that are often overlooked. Many rent to lower-income households and communities of color. Latino investors, for example, are increasingly turning to real estate as a pathway to build generational wealth, with investment property ownership rising significantly over the past decade. These landlords are often more flexible, more responsive and more embedded in the communities they serve.

None of this is to suggest that tenant protections are unnecessary or that bad actors don’t exist. They do, and they should be addressed. But effective policy requires precision, not broad strokes. It requires understanding who actually makes up the housing market and designing solutions that don’t unintentionally dismantle its most important contributors.

If we want a housing system that is fair and functional, we need to move beyond caricatures and confront reality. Mom-and-pop landlords are not the villains of the housing story. More often than not, they are the ones quietly holding it together.

When mom-and-pop landlords struggle, renters don’t win. Housing supply shrinks. Affordable units disappear. And the market consolidates into fewer, larger hands.

Brandon Roberts is a Las Vegas real estate broker, co-owner of Signature Real Estate Group and past president of Nevada Realtors.