Landlord and Tenant Mindset...

[Vijaianand Thirunageswaram]

Howdy,

I just want to share and through out question to other landlords and property managers on how you dealing with this situation. As an Investor myself and property manager, we like to make our rentals perform well without much turn overs. Too much turn overs will affect the numbers and screw it up. So we like to take care of tenants as much as possible and at the same time we need to draw the line so we don't get calls for just changing bulbs. I usually put copay $75 or something which applies for any repairs request from tenant. This helps us both ways to control calls for smaller things and also tenant hope to take care of smaller issues. It also controls cost from our end.

At the same time, if you look at the tenant aspect. Some tenants who are moving from apartment wants everything included in the rent. I had a tenant argue with me that I am paying $1500 and now I have to pay another $75 to get my a/c or plubming issue fixed. Why? It's your house and I am already paying rent. Why should I pay more for every repair? This question raised after two months of moving in. I had to explain to her that it's part of agreement you signed. You should have raised this concern when you signed with your agent. This is not the time. We do it for reason and I explained the reason. Still she is not convinced. From her end, she is thinking about apartment all inclusive and it should be same way with any rental. That's her mindset.

Being said both the sides, I know I been working out and making them understand to kept going but at times it hard. What's you all doing at these situations and handling it smoother? I don't want to be rough and tough but same time contract needs to be followed in way that tenant stays for long. 

[Patrick M.]

You have a rental and you are having the tenant pay to fix plumbing? That is your responsibility and you can't "lease it out." That goes directly to habitability.

As for the A/C, is it in the lease?

Sound to me like a case of penny wise and pound foolish. The last thing I would want is a tenant to not report a problem or worse yet, try and get some jackass, unqualified, handyman to do the work.

If you don't want to be called out for minor things I would put a clause in the lease that the tenant is responsible for incidental home maintenance; i.e. mowing lawn, changing light bulbs, shoveling snow.

The only way I see you using this to help you improve retention is at great expense to your asset. In other words you will keep the tenants that ignore potentially damaging conditions because you are looking to cash in on them.

A tenant sees that the roof is leaking but decides to rig up some makeshift drainage in the attic so Ebenezer doesn't hit them for $75. 2 years later after they move out the the rig up gives way and what would have been a simple repair 2 years ago now makes the home uninhabitable.

This is just my opinion- and I know I am in the minority. I do not see my tenants as the asset- I see my buildings as the assets. If a tenant decides to move out I get to raise the rent considerably... Because I am a great landlord and I take great care of my buildings- which has the direct effect of taking care of my tenants.