Last summer I was reminded of the dichotomy of owning vs renting during the crazy heat wave in NY.

Both my coworker and I had AC issues. For him, he called his landlord and that was it in terms of hassle. He then went after his landlord for a rent reduction due to the AC being an issue for a week.

I instead had to buy a portable unit as a stopgap while I dealt with finding contractors to give me quotes on a new central air system which cost 5 figures and probably 20 hours of time.

You are also reminded of the same dichotomy when you (the renter) get a letter from your landlord asking you to leave the premises you’ve liked a lot for the past few years.

> Both my coworker and I had AC issues. For him, he called his landlord and that was it in terms of hassle. He then went after his landlord for a rent reduction due to the AC being an issue for a week.

This is the best case outcome. All too often, especially with mom and pop small landlords, the repairs are delayed or done incompetently, or there is no local ordinance offering recompense to the renter, or both.

I had a towel bar fall out of the wall. I realized that that small repair would take a trip to home depot, buying plaster, paint, a paint brush, and probably some other crap. There are of course a million types of paint and brushes to get there. I'd have to research what makes sense. Something cheap but decent, I guess. I have no garage so what I do with the rest of the paint? Drive to the hazardous waste disposal in my city, which has limited hours. So maybe 3-4 hours of my time including watching youtube videos if I don't screw things up, and $50 of stuff.

I then sent a maintenance request to my landlord and they came the next day and fixed it in 15 minutes.