I feel that. Ex-wife and I called it the "Home Depot tax".

Crappy power washer took a dump washing the living room area rug. Well fuck. Haven't figured it out yet, can't afford a new one.

Wife: "I'll scrub it by hand."

That's not the problem! We have to have a power washer to keep the house clean. I am no clean freak, not by a long shot.

Dated a girl with kidney issues. She couldn't get out and work at all. The outside of her house was disintegrating for lack of cleaning.

I love the example you used--i have battled with the condensate drain system in my cramped crawlspace on numerous occasions... I had the misfortune of discovering it stopped working on at least 3 separate occasions, leading to standing water in the crawlspace until i figured out a way to get rid of the water and fix the problem. I've luckily come up with a solution each time (first 2 times was a clogged line, most recently it was a bad GFI outlet--curveball!) but i can't imagine how much I'd be paying other companies to get rid of the water and fix the problem each time. No doubt it's better than renting in certain respects but just like someone else here said--you can have a $20k problem happen, and you are the person responsible for putting up the $ or figuring it out yourself (which isn't always possible, or a good idea to attempt)...

one of my family member is like first and last you mentioned for maintenance. puts its off until someone complains or an emergency, or force themselves to do it, but the problem is procastinating made him too lazy to do it in the end, he rather let it fall apart instead, and now its more expensive than he can handle even if he paid now, so now its unlikely he will do anything at this point because hes unwilling to do it, because theres so much he has to do the house, tearing down part of the walls, ceilings, wireing,,,etc.