Tennent making repairs on home for cheaper rent

[Sara Cogar]

I have a potential tennent that offered to make repairs to the house in exchange for discounted rent. I'm leery of the idea because I dont know quality of work. But I'm also open to it because contractors have questionable work sometimes and this guy could be really good at being a handyman. Thoughts? We would definitely monitor quality of work with regular inspections. And have him fix anything that we didnt think was up to snuff.

[Matt Vezina]

If I were in this situation I would want to continue charging full rent and pay the tenant for needed work independently of our rental agreement, then it's up to them what the money goes towards.  I wouldn't want to invite a situation where the tenant thinks "it's OK if I'm short on the rent this month because I can just do some work to make up for it."  I would share your concerns about monitoring quality of work and certainly do a small project first to see how they work.  Ultimately I would rather hire independent contractors to keep the relationship straightforward but as you say, he could be good.