Anyhow, all else being equal, so long as I am living in a transactional society, I prefer those transactions to be with people I actually know. I like real relationships. So much of the way we are changing as a society seems to be alienating us from each other - I make a point of trying to counter that in my daily life.

On the flip side, corporate PMs tried billing my friends for damage that was questionable/grasping at best on an apartment they'd told my friends, in writing, that was going to be gutted down to the studs on the expiry of their lease.

The largest corporate PM in my county has this "look how tenant-friendly we are, we won't raise your leases just because we can" all happy and smiley website where they advertise their open listings...

... and a much less advertised site dedicated just to property owners where they "promise to get you the maximum value out of your investment, looking for every opportunity to maximize its income-earning potential (i.e. raise rents at every possible opportunity to the maximum legally allowed), and "ensuring that when you do change tenants, the minimum effort and cost is required" (i.e. bill your previous tenants for as much of their security deposit as possible, while doing as little as possible).

This led to situations where my partner and I saw that the "inspection form" for the apartment we'd left not twenty minutes prior (it was initially meant to be previously) was sitting on the desk of the property manager filled with remarks like "blinds not cleaned, needed professional cleaning", "drywall holes, needed professional repair", "odors, needed remediation, professional cleaning".

In other words, they'd planned ahead to take the deposit, and when our meeting with the PM was rescheduled it pointed out the lie, "Oh, when was this inspection and these repairs all done? In the fifteen minutes since us locking the door and going down the elevator to wait for you in the lobby?" Of course, said PM company also owned, helpfully, a carpet cleaning company, a housecleaning company, and everything else, so you knew they were going to give you a good deal (not).

"Oh... um... oops... that's a mistake, I must have printed off from a template and not tidied it up".

But this is just dueling anecdotes.