4 ms·

Said as someone who has never run rentals before. Being nice and kind and understanding and sympathetic with tenants will rapidly drive you into financial ruin

Said as someone who has never run rentals before. Being nice and kind and understanding and sympathetic with tenants will rapidly drive you into financial ruin. I’ve owned multiple units for over a decade and it’s definitely given me a different view on the trustworthiness of the average individual. A surprising number of people lie, steal, and cheat without any apparent hesitation or remorse, regardless of how well you’ve treated them. The only thing that works is being fair but firm. Stay detached and professional and enforce the contract you both agreed to. If you give people much leeway, at least half the time it’ll be worse next month or the month after. Downward spiral and pretty soon you’re out thousands of dollars.

yardie 8y ago
For years I wondered how one of my neighbors was able to get away with paying rent that was almost half of what the rest of us were paying. The neighborhood was slowly gentrifying and while the rest of us were seeing 7-10% lease increases hers was small or none at all. Apparently paying rent on time for over a decade means something. When we bought our own place our landlord at the time was really sad to see us go and she said we were her best tenants ever. At first I thought she was being cordial but after hearing other renter stories I think she really meant it. 2 years on time and we got 100% of our deposit back.