What percentage of tenants are horror stories?

Question

Okay, so my wife is reading about the horror stories of bad tenants and tells me that "We've been lucky". My thoughts are that a horror story is more entertaining than a story about boring perfect tenants that take care of the property and pay rent on time, which is why you normally hear about the horror stories.

So, here's the question:

Of X tenants in your time as a landlord, how many were horror stories? Present it as a percentage (Horror Story Tenants/Total Tenants).

Go!

So, here's the question:

Of X tenants in your time as a landlord, how many were horror stories?  Present it as a percentage (Horror Story Tenants/Total Tenants).

Go!

Account Closed · Answer

There's a rule or some such in business that you can expect 2% of your customers to be difficult or complain, no matter what - even if your service and product is great.

I'd say, once I learned how to screen well and got rid of the nightmares I inherited, the difficult tenants fell into that 2%.

And, the difficult tenants are more quickly gotten rid of, when you do month to month agreements.

But, I'd say, that no matter how great you are at screening, 2% of high-maintenance PITA tenants will still squeak through your great screening.

And the worst things they ever did was let some insane BF/GF move in and create crazy drama, or sneak in a pet rabbit.  Nothing super horrendous.  And I became good at negotiating them out of the building in a way that they didn't leave the place trashed in revenge.

But, the better your screening, coupled with M2M agreements, the fewer nightmares (or at least long-lasting nightmares) you will endure.

Nancy Curran · Answer

I say 10% are wonderful tenants, i.e..always pay on time, never complain. These are the type of tenants that if I saw them on the street, I wouldn't recognize them as I never talk to them or see them. Then there are the 10% who are a nightmare. Constant calls with nonsense such as my cereal is stale and Its the landlords fault because the humidifier isn't good enough or the cat next door meows too much or the handyman smells. However, most tenants fall  somewhere in between. So it's a bell curve.

Jack Forester · Answer

Maybe it's just Quicken's underwriting process. I'm still in the phase where I'm doing conventional loans.

Thomas B. · Answer

I would say 80% of applicants are horror stories. It is up to you or your "manager" to screen the bad ones out but even at that you are going to have the 2% that are difficult. Once you have the property tenant screening is one of your most important jobs!

Jassem A. · Answer

Depends where you buy and how strict your screening criteria is. At the end of the day, people are unpredictable and leasing anything to anyone is a little bit of a gamble.

Phil Earley · Answer

We have never had a "horror" story(knocking on wood) as of yet.  We have had some people who made us the happiest when they left though.

If screening is not done correctly, the general rule is that you will have 4 tenancies over a 7 year period.   2 will be great and 2 will not be.

We have had a half dozen horror story landlords slip through the cracks:)

Marcia Maynard · Answer

I'd have to give that some thought, but after 20+ years of managing our own residential units (now at 17 units), I could almost count the really bad ones on one hand. We've had three evictions and three move out on their own who would have been evicted if they had stayed. So, 2% might be about right. But none of those were really horror stories. I've been able to sleep at night.

James DeRoest · Answer

Until I took over managing, I'd say 60-70% were bad tenants. After I took over it dropped to say 30%, after we put in serious screening it's negligible.

It's all about the screening.

Thomas S. · Answer

In the past about 10% of mine have been bad tenants.

Most were inherited but with tighter screening it has been reduced considerably. By anticipating the type of person or family situation that could develop into a problem it is reasonably easy to avoid most but it takes a great deal of experience and zero emotions when screening.

It does mean rejecting higher risk applicants that most landlords would not even consider a risk.

Atwan Kwan · Answer

i really can't complain, my tenants have all been pretty good and zero evictions (a couple close calls)

I think location makes a big difference....

What percentage of tenants are horror stories?

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