A landlords story.

originally posted by: and14263
Regular inspections. Simple problem solved.

Sure, that simple...lol

Not so simple when every fricken law protects the renter.
Try to evict a single mother...
Try to collect on damages...

It takes surprisingly little time to destroy a house.

originally posted by: eletheia

originally posted by: Bluntone22

There’s plenty of bad landlords too.
Some can be cold hearted bastards.

Lol!! Makes you wonder how come the bad landlords dont get the bad tenent's.

One thing I've learned in life is that people in general don't look after anything

they don't own......property, cars, tools, clothes .......

One thing I’ve learned is that most people that rent are in that situation for a reason.
Some just have a string of bad luck but most will never have anything of their own.

My estranged husband thought he found a duplex in our small town. I was glad, because then he could be closer to the kids. Unfortunately, he kinda went off the deep end around Christmas and got into meth..... we didn't separate till the end of March. I have since heard some awful things about him. We live in a small town, so the landlord of the duplex was asking around about my soon to be ex- and he must have heard some of the not so nice things about him, cause he has turned him down.
I totally understand, and sadly, my kids' dad will probably have a hard time finding a place. When I informed him of the unsavory stories floating around about him he was defiant, saying he didn't care. Well, I hope he cares now. And I hope he can do something to untarnish his once glowing reputation.
All this to say- it is wise to avoid shady characters. Here's to hoping that when I go to find a rental, his misdeeds won't cause me a headache!

a reply to: Bluntone22

I could never, never be a landlord.

I am a neat freak and wouldn't be able to handle people's filth.
I also wouldn't be able to deal with bs excuses either.

I'm not saying there aren't good renters. I was one for a while, and my landlords loved me. I actually left the place in better/cleaner condition than before I rented. I know that is a very rare thing.

I have two stories about houses I rented. One place the air conditioning filter had never been cleaned. I'm not talking about a month or year, I'm talking never been cleaned in the life of the unite. We are talking a good 3-4 inches of fuzz. The unit died a day after I moved in (surprise surprise). It was so disgusting, and the entire unit had to be replaced. Second place, very very high end. Similar scenario, moved in. Dryer wasn't working right. Called a guy out and there was a 2 FOOT clog of lint in the line. TWO freaking feet. You know what a fire hazard that is?

These were very high end place, that sell for 500-1mil+. So those that say poor people live like pigs, well there are more rich people that live like that too.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Some people don't have any respect for other people's property..

a reply to: Bluntone22

Our very first tenants were a nice young couple with a daughter about five years old. They seemed great at first, the only anomaly was that their daughter was very sickly (asthma we were told) and took several ambulance rides to the hospital. About a year into the lease payments started to be late, then they stopped altogether. Being new inexperienced landlords (and fairly young ourselves), it took us another year to evict them. After we finally got them out we went in to find the place completely destroyed by cigarette smoke. No kidding, the walls and ceiling were yellow/brown with gunk. That poor little girl was choking to death in there, they must have chainsmoked all day every day with all the windows shut. Well, after new carpet, a deep cleaning, and new paint on the walls/ceiling, we learned our lesson and added a no smoking clause to the lease.
The next tenant was a single mom with a baby daughter. She was fine, very nice, and always on time with the rent. She stayed about three years. The last year, she seemed a little erratic but still was paying on time. Finally she moved out one weekend without asking for her deposit (red flag). This time most of the house was ok, a little dirty/messy but then we went into the kitchen. There was trash, rotting food, piles of dirty dishes everywhere! You could hardly traverse the floor. The cabinets were destroyed, doors missing etc. The stove was beyond repair. We ended up having to completely gut and re-do the kitchen. When I stripped the walls down to the studs there was about six inches deep of dead cockroaches between them down at the baseboards.
At that point I would have given up but we decided to try one more time. Luckily, we finally got a good one and she's been there almost 15 years. The property is in a pretty desirable area but we've only raised her rent twice in that time. Other nearby properties are renting for a good deal more, we feel like it's worth it to give her a break and keep her.

a reply to: underpass61

Yeah, you learn along the way.
One of my tricks is upgrading little things or changing filters to have an excuse to look around.
That also makes sure the furnace filters are changed on a regular basis.

I love finding animal hair cake filters in no animal rentals...

a reply to: Bluntone22

I feel you on this one. Since Canada legalized ca**abis, and growing your own, a few of our renters have filled basements with plants. I don't have an issue with growing or consuming ca**abis, but getting the smell out of basements and extra bedrooms at my cost? No thanks. We've had to add clauses stating no growing indoors, and even have had to shut off one basement completely.