re: 3 corporations now own 19,000 metro Atlanta homes

I’d be lying if I said I knew the intricacies of how PE operates in real estate.
I’ll let someone else take that on.

I’m just familiar with how they work in general, and in healthcare.

In its simplest form - they buy up as many offices/companies as possible, they leverage debt in any way imaginable on these companies. Squeeze profit, try to improve profit margins at all costs, to increase EBITDA and they try to sell the company off to a larger PE firm.
They do not invest in anything for the long term, that’s not their game.

I’m general - in any industry they invest in, healthcare, restaurants, real estate — the quality of the company will decrease and the prices will increase. You have likely experienced this whether you realized it or not.

So in real estate I have personally seen single family homes built by companies owned by PE — the quality of the house was atrocious, they just slap it together and sell it. If it’s a rental, they will try to get as much of the market in that area as possible so they can set the prices, eventually increasing the rent costs. I’ve heard of that happening.

That’s all my thoughts, but anyone familiar with PE and how they operate likely won’t disagree.