Here's my thoughts how I out perform you (no offense intended whatsoever)... just the crux of your question as I perceive it:1.  

Certainly, we can all agree that every segment of society has a few bad actors.However, in your post, you set out haranguing other landlords (that posted above, as you state) for some perceived wide-ranging ill that there does not appear to be any evidence for, at least on this thread.To baselessly condemn the entire profession without that merit, to me, does indeed reinforce a false narrative.If I were to muse publicly, as you did, that since a few individuals belonging to an industry (or ethnicity) did wrong, paint them all with a broad unilateral brush and declare “and people wonder why (that group) have a bad name”, I’ll bet you’d use a harsher term than “false narrative” to describe that sentiment.Landlords have a very unfair negative public image because of a very small percentage of individuals in the industry, and you are not helping.

That's a question that others have alluded to - how to minimize your perceived profit for tax purposes and still generate growth.If you're talking about income from a sale of that property then the way to defer the tax on profit and depreciation recapture is through a 1031 exchange as @Randall Alan said.  

Would love to connect and learn about your conversion and how it was perceived by the city.

You don’t have a choice to present the investment as something different because you perceive that it will receive a better reception.

The social perception of a bearded construction worker is a rough and tumble and you want to be perceived as the sweet kids that we want to sell our house to.

Experienced NYC investor here (manage 7 units while working full-time, until recently), looking to expand out of NYC due to prices and the now perceived lack of value of being in a dense city due to COVID.

I started out managing my duplex and quickly found that A) I didn't like managing C-class tenants, B) I didn't like chasing people for rent, and C) my level of patience for what I perceived as annoying items (listening to a complaint, scheduling with a handyman to fix, meeting the handyman, etc.) was extremely low, so I got a property manager in place to cover those items for me.

If there is a flood of available units, do you want to be one with the vacancy, or one with a great tenant, consistently paying, even if its slightly less than the perceived market value?

My realtor perceives them as wanting to be as passive as possible.