I appreciate the sentiment, but not every landlord is a tycoon. Houston doesn't have the real estate crisis other cities have, so you may charge about 2x the mortgage. (Not to mention the mortgage you eat when a property sits vacant, which is pretty common .. again, there's not the real estate crisis here you see other places where rentals get snatched up quickly) So a month or two without income means the property may be in the red, and as there are many landlords without substantial capital to float a non-paying tenant, that tenant may find themselves in a foreclosed property, where everyone loses.