Your worst tenant...

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst I can just imagine. When I posted an ad on Craigslist in 2009, I listed application requirements and restrictions (e.g. Credit rating over 600, Provide proof of income, etc.) Had three different couples schedule a showing, say the place was perfect, then a) refuse to allow me to check their credit, and blame ME for daring to ask for their SSN "because that's private, I don't share it with anybody"; b) inform me that No Landlord Ever Before had asked them for a pay statement to substantiate their claimed earnings; c) bluster about giving us 6 months rent up-front, b/c they were going through foreclosure and needed a place NOW (so if you have 6 x $1700, why couldn't you pay your mortgage?). While the husband blustered, the wife would start to cry. When I had to call a prospect to tell her we were returning her deposit because she turned out not to qualify, she cursed me on the phone. I mean really cursed - not just bad words, but wishing ill on me! And this was not a cheap rental, by any means. Tenants were expected to pay all utilities, and the unit itself was nice enough that we would have lived there.

My DW worked for a national RE firm that fee managed large apartment complexes over many states. This was her career for 25 years. She was a District Manager and hired management and leasing staff at multiple properties ranging from very high end to "typical" ones (no Section 8).

I can assure you that anyone who wanted to lease an apartment in any of her multiple 1000's of units had to meet much more stringent requirements than you posted above. And, if an applicant was a felon, they were not even considered.

Is it possible that your applicants were rejects from larger rental properties since rejected ones would possibly lead them to apartment managers with lower approval standards?

[youbet]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst I'd always go with a professionally managed place, even though private landlords may be cheaper.

In retrospect, I totally agree.

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If you go with a private landlord, you have to judge from impressions gained during an interview.

As mentioned in my earlier post, it's been decades since we've rented so things may have changed. Still, it's hard to imagine a rental interview where the private landlord is digging in to find out if we're deadbeats or dope addicts while we're digging in to find out if he/she will be responsive to maintenance needs, treat us fairly in terms of returning deposits and not sneak into our apartment to sniff DW's undies while we're away. Hopefully, an honest, responsible landlord would be happy to be forthcoming when we asked questions and had our attorney review the lease.

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By evil I mean someone who violates the lease, or your civil rights. For example, the MIL violated your 4th Amendment rights by entering the property without proper notification

That's what we thought. At first, she kept saying that the furnace was acting up (HW heat with a zone for each apartment) and she was resetting our thermostat. Indeed, we'd leave with the thermostat set on 70f and come back with it turned down to 60f. If the furnace was "acting up" we thought she should just get it fixed. In actuality, I think she just wanted to spend less for heat........ And our little trick of putting a tiny piece of tape on drawers, closet doors, the fridge door, etc., also showed she was interested in a lot more than the heat setting.

We're pretty easy going in most regards and it took several months for us to come to the conclusion that the inappropriate behaviors were not going to end. By then, our two year lease was coming to an end so we got busy house hunting and just moved.

It's amazing how different our experience was between the owner we originally rented from and the new owner he sold the building to. One minute we seemed to have a mutual admiration society with the owners thinking they had found the perfect tenants and we thinking we had found the perfect landlords. The next minute, we had the creepy landlords from hell and they acted like we weren't paying the rent and were mistreating the place, both completely untrue.

[FreeBear]

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Originally Posted by youbet It's amazing how different our experience was between the owner we originally rented from and the new owner he sold the building to. One minute we seemed to have a mutual admiration society with the owners thinking they had found the perfect tenants and we thinking we had found the perfect landlords. The next minute, we had the creepy landlords from hell and they acted like we weren't paying the rent and were mistreating the place, both completely untrue.

It's amazing what a change in personnel can do! Found this out at w*rk too. Early management was great, felt appreciated. They felt I was a hero, I just felt I was doing my j*b, just like anyone else would have. Fast forward a decade later, with new management, I was no longer considered team player and my career was consigned to a slow, lingering death. FIRE'd out and never looked back...


In the end, it all revolved around one person and his minions. If it's the wrong person in a high place (boss or landlord), it may not be worth the fight. Glad we both got out and moved on!

[youbet]

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Originally Posted by FreeBear It's amazing what a change in personnel can do! Found this out at w*rk too. Early management was great, felt appreciated. They felt I was a hero, I just felt I was doing my j*b, just like anyone else would have. Fast forward a decade later, with new management, I was no longer considered team player and my career was consigned to a slow, lingering death. FIRE'd out and never looked back... In the end, it all revolved around one person and his minions. If it's the wrong person in a high place (boss or landlord), it may not be worth the fight. Glad we both got out and moved on!

Good analogy FreeBear. BTW, I went through similar at Mega at the end of my career too! One day I was ranked in the top 10% and credited with being a major contributor to our expansion over the previous years. The next, they fired my sorry ass and ejected me through the back door without even a retirement party or gold watch! Management changed and I was considered from the "old regime."

I was 58 and decided I was FIRE'd (as opposed to fired) and never looked back. That was 12+ years ago!

I too am glad you and I both got out and moved on!

[Amethyst]

Absolutely correct. 2009 was in the middle of the depression, and we were seeing a lower quality of applicants than ever in my 20+ years of renting out a private home. One man even made a remark about liking the "small landlords" over property managers, because supposedly we charged less rent. That was the "pay 6 months up front" man with the weeping wife. They knew their line of bull would get them nowhere with a manager.

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Originally Posted by aja8888 Is it possible that your applicants were rejects from larger rental properties since rejected ones would possibly lead them to apartment managers with lower approval standards?

[Amethyst]

Holy smoke! That's one thing I never had to worry about, thank goodness. Your fundament must have smarted for a while after that treatment.

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Originally Posted by youbet Good analogy FreeBear. BTW, I went through similar at Mega at the end of my career too! One day I was ranked in the top 10% and credited with being a major contributor to our expansion over the previous years. The next, they fired my sorry ass and ejected me through the back door without even a retirement party or gold watch! Management changed and I was considered from the "old regime." !

[may pop]

We have not seen a reply from the Senator on this. Has he been around lately?

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by may pop We have not seen a reply from the Senator on this. Has he been around lately?

He's gone travelling...

[braumeister]

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Originally Posted by aja8888 He's gone travelling...

He's still a member; he just doesn't post much these days.

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by braumeister He's still a member; he just doesn't post much these days.

Thanks, bad memory on my part.

[popntx]

I'm down to one rent house, but I had three of them several years ago. I never had a problem with a tenant being untimely with rent payments, but I still have many bad tenant stories. The worst was when I had a painter go to the house to give me an estimate on painting the exterior. The house had a small detached storage shed in the back yard. Anyway, when the painter called me to discuss the job, he told me he had some bad news for me. He said he looked in the window of the storage shed and there was a dead dog inside. I asked if he could tell how long the dog had been there and he just responded "a long time".

So, I went to the rent house to approach the tenant about the dog. They were aware of it and said it probably went into the shed and the door closed on it trapping it inside. They said it had been in there for several weeks and they weren't about to touch it. And I wasn't about to go in the back yard to check it out myself. I told them to "dispose" of the dog immediately, which they did, and then I immediately kicked them out.

Then I had the tenant that decided to rebuild his car engine in the kitchen...

Like I said, I'm down to one rent house now, I have a management company taking care of it for me, and I will never go back to managing myself.

[jazz4cash]

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Originally Posted by may pop We have not seen a reply from the Senator on this. Has he been around lately?

I was thinking the same thing and realized it had been a long while since he’s posted. Then I saw a recent post by him on another thread so I expect he’ll get around to this one before long.

[Lakewood90712]

Can't get rid of the bad tenant . And have to see his face every day - In the Mirror.

[cbo111]

My sister just told me a horror story involving her best friends decision to buy into an attached pair of townhouses with a "good" friend. She would live in one unit and her friend in the adjoining unit. Idyllic situation, right?? It was ideal up to the point her friend decided to move out and rent the unit to a gentleman without doing a full background check. It turned out the guy was an ex-police officer who was let go due to anger issues and had a number of restraining orders keeping him away from a string of disastrous ex lovers and business associates. He talked the friend into a cheap lease arrangement where he would pay $400 a month in rent, and also do maintenance and upgrade the faucets, yard, etc to make up the difference. They agreed to a 5-year lease. Yes, FIVE YEARS!
Fast forward a year, and the real police have been called out several times due to screaming fights in the unit between the tenant, his young son, and other unidentified screamers. Oh and, surprise, the guy has not done much of anything in upgrade work and, alas, the lease was somewhat vague in stating exactly how much he was supposed to do. So, only 4 years left with a lunatic next door, how fun!

[Scuba]

We have rented our beachfront condo twice through a property manager when we relocated to other cities. First time, we had a fabulous tenant who never complained about anything and FedEx’d us the rent every month a couple of days before the beginning of the month. Awesome tenant!

Second tenant was a very entitled and RUDE couple. They were very wealthy and rented our condo because they were having a custom oceanfront home built. The first time something was wrong (crisper pan missing from microwave, hardly a big issue), tenant called us and said if we didn’t have it replaced within 24 hours, he would buy a new one and deduct the cost from his rent. We handled it very quickly (it was accidentally packed by our movers). Several more times, they used similar tactics. They paid the rent just before the grace period expired, never on the due date. Twice it was late. They refused to pay the late fee. Thirty days before their two-year lease was up, we gave them notice that they needed to vacate because we were moving back in. They wanted to extend their lease because their house wasn’t ready. Too bad, so sad. If they had treated us civilly, rather than like we were their servants, we may have agreed to extend, but given their extreme rudeness, we did not extend. We waited the maximum legal time to return their security deposit, and we deducted the late fees they had refused to pay. Jerks! At least there wasn’t any damage to our home.

We also had an “investment property” in Palm Springs. Rented it as a vacation rental through an agency. The very first tenants we had (for a three day weekend rental) caused so much damage that they lost a $2,500 security deposit and that didn’t fully cover repair costs. They did stuff like shake up Champagne bottles and then open them so Champagne spewed all over walls, ceilings, furniture, etc. The management company had to forcibly evict them because they were passed out drunk when they were supposed to check out. We ultimately decided to sell the property and get out of the rental business.

As renters, we’ve never had a bad experience with landlords. We typically rent from VRBO or Airbnb on vacation with no issues.

[Alvin Tostig]

Many years ago, when the real estate market was weak, we had moved to a house and therefore rented out our previous apartment (considered semi-luxury) that we had lived in for 4 years. We had 2 different tenants, both being husband, wife, small kids - 2 years apiece. The good news, is that both families were very clean and neat.

The problem I had with the first tenant, is that they never once paid their rent on time. It was due the first of the month. By the 10th of every month, I had to call them that the rent was due. They always gave excuses or a sob story like "they had a bad month work-wise since they were in sales and sales were slow", etc. Anyway, I eventually always got the rent - it was almost as if the tenants were hoping I'd forget or would feel bad for their explanation that I'd let it go. It was very annoying to do this every single month...but at least I got paid and they left the apartment in good order.

[youbet]

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Originally Posted by Scuba The first time something was wrong (crisper pan missing from microwave, hardly a big issue), tenant called us and said if we didn’t have it replaced within 24 hours, he would buy a new one and deduct the cost from his rent.

In my very, very limited experience, ALL issues are minor according to landlords! Since the missing crisper pan was clearly your fault and responsibility, why didn't you just smile, apologize and tell him to go ahead and buy one?

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As renters, we’ve never had a bad experience with landlords.

You're lucky. There are plenty of bad landlords out there. Folks who just can't look at things from the renters' point of view. Airco down for a week in extremely hot weather? "Oh, minor problem and I'm not going to pay a premium for an expedited repair." Etc.

It sounds like landlords are able to point to extreme cases of whacko tenants, and I'm sure they're true. Some tenants are tenants and not owners for a reason. While good tenants are able to point to many landlords who minimize the urgency of continuing to provide what the lease says will be provided (such as airco or heat, a roof that doesn't leak or a vermin free environment). It's caveat emptor on both sides!

[youbet]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst Holy smoke! That's one thing I never had to worry about, thank goodness. Your fundament must have smarted for a while after that treatment.

Well, there were a lot of stories similar to mine. The Mega I toiled for shrunk in headcount by almost 90% over a decade or so. The downsizing went on for years with various voluntary buyout packages morphing to involuntary packages morphing to tiny, involuntary severance payments. In hindsight, since I got a reasonable involuntary package and since, by lowering my retirement spending expectations a bit, I could just call being fired, FIRE'd, it worked out OK.

I was pretty pissed for a while though...........

[kgtest]

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Originally Posted by bigadventure I had a larger than normal water bill. So I though the water line had a leak and went to check it out. I walked in the basement and there was an above ground pool set up and filled. The windows had condensation and the wood joists were dripping water. So I ask the one tenet who was home who’s pool was in the basement? He said it was the other guys and did I notice it had no pump or filter. Well I had not, I was so pissed off about this. Turns out they would just dump the water and refill it. You can’t make this stuff up.

Lol this reminds me of my good buddies from high school. They threw an ugly sweater xmas party and setup a 20person pool in their rented homes attached garage. I aleays joke I would never rent to them and they are fine with that.

These are grown men too.

[Scuba]

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Originally Posted by youbet In my very, very limited experience, ALL issues are minor according to landlords! Since the missing crisper pan was clearly your fault and responsibility, why didn't you just smile, apologize and tell him to go ahead and buy one? You're lucky. There are plenty of bad landlords out there. Folks who just can't look at things from the renters' point of view. Airco down for a week in extremely hot weather? "Oh, minor problem and I'm not going to pay a premium for an expedited repair." Etc. It sounds like landlords are able to point to extreme cases of whacko tenants, and I'm sure they're true. Some tenants are tenants and not owners for a reason. While good tenants are able to point to many landlords who minimize the urgency of continuing to provide what the lease says will be provided (such as airco or heat, a roof that doesn't leak or a vermin free environment). It's caveat emptor on both sides!

We did smile, apologize and got the missing pan to him in a couple of days. However his attitude set the tone for the relationship, and it was my pleasure to not allow our lease to be extended. Karma is a bitch sometimes!