I didn't wave it away, but in accounting terms, they mostly get amortized. That is, you're paying yourself. The roof wears out, you buy another one. Now you have a house that has "New roof!" instead of one that has "Old, shoddy roof!" -- your resale value may vary.
> All my friends own houses. When anything goes wrong, they pay.
> Through the nose. Plumbing, electrical, leaks, etc. Then there's
> also the new roof, paint job, foundation, etc.
When those things go wrong in a rental, you either pay through higher rents later or you pay by a decrease in your living standards until it gets fixed. Who do you think pays for it? No one? Rents are unrelated to costs? Also: Tell me that you've had landlords who fix everything to your satisfaction as quickly and as well as your friends fix their own homes? You might say: feh, I don't feel like I'm paying. But you're just kidding yourself.
> I would guess that adds a minimum of $5,000/year.
Wow! There's no way I pay anywhere near $5k/year for maintenance, nor did I for either of the two previous houses I've owned. The NY Times thing used a benchmark of 0.5%/yr, so $5k/yr is on a $1M house. I think that's a little high, but your "$5k" even if we're talking about the comparable I showed earlier (which I guess you think you can rent for $600/mo) is up around the same amount as taxes.
Maybe you should canvas your friends a little more and report back.
/jordan