Signs of "weak landlord face?"

[Jon K.]

What things show weakness to tenants.

Another thread mentioned "weak landlord face." What are the signs?

I would call these weakness:

- Rent not due until move in day
- No lease
- No rental application
- No reference check
- Accepting unemployed tenants
- Not requiring deposit
- Not telling them what you expect. With my new roommates, I tried to be clear about my expectations about what we do, don't do, cleanliness, etc.
- Roommate rules: I put overnight guest limits, occupancy, parties, etc. in lease.
- Being too nice... sometimes it's nice to help a roommate tenant move in a couch, but I'm sure if you give an inch too often they'll take a mile. That's the balance I worry about.. being too friendly or too cold with roommate tenants.

I like to think I have a "hard" lease. A lot of it came from the sample lease here. I made the tenants initial every page and sign the end of it. It's about 7 pages long, mentioning late payments, max occupancy, smoking, insurance rules, where/what can be parked on property, liability, fire pits, pools, late pay.

I'm sure some professional tenant could still screw me over since I'm not experienced. I try to screen them, but I didn't check credit. I looked up court records for evictions, small claims, and to see if more were on probation. (ha!) I checked employment and ownership of their previous rentals. I checked age & ID. Looked at their car to see how it was kept. Looked at them. Asked a lot of questions. Told what I'm looking for and wouldn't tolerate in roommates. Said something about leases at month-to-month at my discretion. I didn't ask for bank statements or credit check. Hopefully I won't regret not checking that.

What else shows landlord weakness to tenants?