Why the 5% maintenance rule will eventually break you

Two houses, same rent, very different reality. The rule of thumb works fine — until the year it doesn't.

There’s a rule of thumb you’ll hear in every real estate podcast, every BiggerPockets thread, every spreadsheet template you download: set aside X% of rent for maintenance, another Y–Z% for capex.

It’s clean. It’s memorable. It’s wrong. Regardless of what numbers they give you.

Here’s why. Imagine two single-family rentals on the same street. Both rent fo…