Thoughts on "empowering" tenants with a few small tasks...

[Brian H.]

Hey folks. Hope everyone is well!

So, I was talking to someone today that has been a successful landlord for 20+ years. He was talking about a few of his multi-family setups where he has maybe a couple quadplexes or duplexes on one plot.  He will pick a tenant and offer them the opportunity for a little less rent each month in exchange for a little help from them. They are by no means a property manager. He may drop their rent by $100/ month or something.  He will ask them to collect rent from everyone (if they don't pay online) and drive it up to him where we are. His rentals are about an hour away. Mine are about 40 minutes.  He will also have them do their best to sort out any relational issues between tenants if they arise. Tenant 1 hates Tenant 3 because of blah blah blah. A mediator of sorts. He obviously will be involved if needed.  He said he has had pretty decent success with this.

Do any of you do anything like this? Is this just bonkers? Just curious what peoples' thoughts are on here.

Thank you all!

[Dennis M.]

Donot repeat this business model ( if you can call it that ) I can’t think of a worse idea . It is like leaving the fox in charge of the hen house or having Bernie madoff in charge of your retirement accounts  .The tenants have just one job and that is pay you rent .its hard to believe a veteran landlord who’s been in the game that long would make such a  mistake  . It’s a sure fire way to lose money each month and cause yourself a lot of grief .it is possible it could work in some situations I guess but I sure wouldn’t do it