Landlords: Describe your most problem-free tenant ever
San Jose, CA · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
We talk here about high-maintenance or problem tenants all the time. I'd love to hear about your most trouble-free tenant you've ever had, or what types of rentals or tenants you have found to be the easiest to deal with or require the least amount of your time. I think this would actually be helpful information for investors, including me, when looking at perhaps a tenant base we had never thought of before.
For me, managing a 25 unit apartment building next to a university, my most problem-free tenants were law students by far. They have no time for drama and are never home to do any damage. The most I ever had to do with them was to send them a text reminder to give me the check that was already written out and sitting on their dresser, or to just touch base to ask if they had a running toilet or leak or anything else that needed attention and they'd always be glad I asked and give permission to enter when they weren't home to fix anything.
What about you?
Ever since I evicted 2 of 3 tenants in the past, I can't complain about my 3 tenants. They take care of the units, and they help me out by clearing out the leaves in the back yard. Since they pay the rent on time, during Christmas day, I give them each a Christmas basket and they love it!
@Sue K.
Our current tenant in our quad is amazing. She has an autistic son, works full time, pays in advance for 6 months, looks out for us, gets our packages when we’re out of town, puts up with Airbnb guests, bakes us cookies, and is always sweet and friendly. Literally the goat of tenants.
@Sue K. I bet we would all say that they're all good until they're not. I had a single mom in her 40s with a corporate job rent from me without a single issue for more that 4 years then out of no where, she stopped paying rent and moved out without notice. During those problem free 4 years, she replaced an appliance (even after she was told that I would) because she felt it was her fault that it broke. Her maintenance inspections were always A+. She was never late on the rent and even when she left, she left the house spotless. To this day I still don't know what happened or why she left so abruptly but all I know is it took my PM a while to find her and get a settlement from her for breaking her lease agreement.
Very hard to describe my most trouble free tenants as I've only spoken to them before they moved in. I can hardly remember what they look like.
Out of state tenant always paid on time. left after 3 years and let me know he replaced sprinkler timer and other small stuff, just to let me know it was done, but not asking for reimbursement. Bought the house down the road. came to visit and house was imacualte. ahh
My best tenant so far is a single male in his 40’s. Pays in advance and I do not hear from him.
I’m finding that my tenants with no past evictions, good references, and good credit are great also because they have something to loose. I’ll take credit for that because I screen better 😊.
I learned real quickly from having tenants from hell and of course they had bad credit and judgements. They had nothing to lose.
@Pat L. As AD CG I appreciate your post!
We have also mentored some veterans into REI. In fact one couple both Vets after a number of tours came back broke & no credit. We took a chance & they now have 6-7 properties & have had 4 kids kids since. They can now basically live off their rents. Another couple of Vets took in a wheelchair bound Vet that he fought with, but it was cramped & expensive in the various rentals that allowed wheelchair mobility. We were able to get them into a large 3500 sq ft home we had picked up in foreclosure & with no credit we decided to hold the note, (they have never missed a payment in 10 years). The city had banned it from continued use as a duplex BUT after hearing their case they allowed an interior doorway between the two units to qualify it as compliant. The wheelchair bound vet now has his own ground floor unit complete with kitchen/bath etc & the other couple have some long deserved privacy. They have since restored that home to its old classic bones & have NEVER complained about the work it took.
One of the best we had was a corporate tenant who took care of everything for 9 years. Now it's the Coast Guard guys who come in for 4 year tours, so we are going into 16 years of this run. They occupy a completely rebuilt beautiful home that we decided to rent because none of our kids wanted it??? We are constantly looking for another property to rent to the Coast Guard. These guys take care of everything & have the next incoming family lined up before they depart.
My daughter has some great millennials in her 6-plex, all of which have been great, no problem Venmo etc tenants.They move on after a couple of years but refer others in their loop for pending vacancies. Occasionally the gay one has a melt down about life, but she handles it well from AZ.
As an aside we have a LOT of contract-for-deed investors that run rentals for us in the hope of paying it off eventually. These have been an arms length dream come true 'so far'. Although many have eventually financed & paid us off, some have walked away, but it's always been amicable & we just rinsed & repackaged the property to another. One family has 9+ of our once PITA rentals, all of which we grabbed at tax lien/foreclosure auctions, that we were glad to hand off. These types pf properties have proved to be very profitable 'arms length' 401(k)-solo investments for us.
Pat, I just did a DNA test... turns out I'm one of your kids!!! I'll take the house the others didn't want - Love you Dad!
@Sue K.
My first tenet in a duplex I house hacked. He signed a lease for a year then spent less than 10 nights in the apartment. He paid every month on time, and would come home for lunch once or twice a week maybe.
@Sue K.
Had a lesbian couple, one was a nurse and the other a firefighter. Zero drama. Rent paid on time. Really good at communicating if they needed anything done to the property.
Too bad they had to move out.
@Sue K. In my experience being a renter and then a landlord, is that initial communication sets the tone. From the initial inquiry, through the application process, to the return of the security deposit communication is key. Answering or returning calls promptly even if it simply to acknowledge the call was received and that you are too busy to address whatever the need is at the time, goes a long way. People want to know that their voice is heard. They certainly appreciate having a fully functioning home but they will tolerate a holiday weekend without hot water if treated with respect. Ignore them because their concern isn’t convenient, and it doesn’t matter what kind of person they are or were, they are going to be a handful.
Having a proper lease agreement that spells out expectations of all parties is essential and often overlooked. I’ve also had much better success limiting damages by having units spotlessly cleaned and having a walk through with tenants that includes demonstrating proper use of shower curtains, windows and most importantly, undersink plumbing checks with a when to call and report a problem.
We also implemented a policy of a simple $50 fee with our applications, which gets applied to the security upon approval or is refunded if they aren’t selected. In lower income area this is as good if not better than a credit check. If they can’t come up with $50 in a day or two, they aren’t going to be able to pay rent on-time every month. Since implementing the $50 fee several yrs ago, we haven’t seen a no show for lease signing, and evictions are 20% of what they were. Rental applications are down significantly too. Rarely do we get an unqualified applicant, so less headaches there too!
So.... I don’t think the tenants are nearly as much of a factor as the landlord or management. Treat them right, and they will treat your property and you right too.
@Sue K. In my experience being a renter and then a landlord, is that initial communication sets the tone. From the initial inquiry, through the application process, to the return of the security deposit communication is key. Answering or returning calls promptly even if it simply to acknowledge the call was received and that you are too busy to address whatever the need is at the time, goes a long way. People want to know that their voice is heard. They certainly appreciate having a fully functioning home but they will tolerate a holiday weekend without hot water if treated with respect. Ignore them because their concern isn’t convenient, and it doesn’t matter what kind of person they are or were, they are going to be a handful.
Having a proper lease agreement that spells out expectations of all parties is essential and often overlooked. I’ve also had much better success limiting damages by having units spotlessly cleaned and having a walk through with tenants that includes demonstrating proper use of shower curtains, windows and most importantly, undersink plumbing checks with a when to call and report a problem.
We also implemented a policy of a simple $50 fee with our applications, which gets applied to the security upon approval or is refunded if they aren’t selected. In lower income area this is as good if not better than a credit check. If they can’t come up with $50 in a day or two, they aren’t going to be able to pay rent on-time every month. Since implementing the $50 fee several yrs ago, we haven’t seen a no show for lease signing, and evictions are 20% of what they were. Rental applications are down significantly too. Rarely do we get an unqualified applicant, so less headaches there too!
So.... I don’t think the tenants are nearly as much of a factor as the landlord or management. Treat them right, and they will treat your property and you right too.
This doesn't answer my question. So, please describe your most problem-free tenant, not how you treat tenants you already have. This is about screening, basically. Thanks.
@Sue K.
My first tenet in a duplex I house hacked. He signed a lease for a year then spent less than 10 nights in the apartment. He paid every month on time, and would come home for lunch once or twice a week maybe.
This brings to mind a friend I have in Silicon Valley who decided to rent out a room in her condo, but didn't want a full-time roomie. She rented to a fireman who worked 4 on and however many off - basically, he was rarely there. And when he was there, well, the view wasn't terrible.... lol.
@Sue K.
Our current tenant in our quad is amazing. She has an autistic son, works full time, pays in advance for 6 months, looks out for us, gets our packages when we’re out of town, puts up with Airbnb guests, bakes us cookies, and is always sweet and friendly. Literally the goat of tenants.
I'm going to guess that some weird auto-correct feature said your perfect tenant was the "goat of tenants" LOL. If not, please explain :-)
@Sue K.
College student who rented out entire house for himself
Paid entire years rent in advance.
Never complained about anything.
I had to do inspections to find things to update because the guy just never complained.
Quiet college guy studying engineering. Never had parties, never had company. He graduates this year and I'm sad 😥
I feel ya. My best tenants ever were law students and I hated seeing them go.
@Sue K.
I had lucks (almost stress free) with young professionals, families with or without kids. Only two times I rented to new divorcees (single mom/ dad with custody of teenage children). I chose them not only because they had stable incomes but also they wanted to stay in the same school district for the kids. They both gave me headaches but what I hated the most that they lied.
I also learned the hard way to avoid newly separated/divorced applicants. They NEVER worked out and usually only stayed for one or two months and there was ALWAYS drama with the ex during the process. I always prayed I could deny them.
@Sue K.
For me, well put together middle aged women who prefer to rent than own. They're nice, they report when things don't work and work with you to find ample time to fix it. Typically they have a pet, but the pet is non-destructive. They seem to dig that a younger male investor takes care of their home and keeps it nice for them. Every one of them seems to pay early. Last year I had January's rent a week before Christmas even happened. In one case, a water heater was malfunctioning, told her I would buy it that night and come replace the next morning... she was so delighted she paid $150 toward the cost of it!
I dig owning property.
Recently, and this wasnt a tenant, I bought a ******** property across from a high school for what seem to be troubled kids. The house was beach pink with doors falling off, crap all in the yard, smelled like a cigarette, moldy carpet glued to the sidewalk outside, etc... after we finished making it beautiful and white, pulling carpet and sealing sidewalk with a nice color, landscaping, etc, a lady teacher yelled "thank you, that really transforms the look around here, we appreciate all your work".
That was cool.
Wow. This was disturbingly sexist. So, you've never had a not-so-well-put-together middle-aged tenant who took care of a unit? Just really?
@Sue K.
Medical student who was my very first tenant in my very first rental was by far my favorite. Rented for four years and never was late on payment once. Had the place furnished like a posh pent house, lots of plants in front of the unit made the whole building look nicer. He called me only once to ask if I could have the sprinkler system turned on longer because the grass was browning. So I called HOA maintenance man to fix it. I was sad to see him go!
I had a tenant who was high-maintenance - but - really took care of the unit. He was a male nurse who worked graveyard shift and originally rented as a temp nurse and only planned on staying 3 months. He ended up staying and studying for his masters degree, so he was there for years and was still there when I retired and left. But, he always treated the unit as his home and with pride of ownership - even though he didn't own it.
I had good luck with other nurses as tenants, too.
@Sue K.
For me, well put together middle aged women who prefer to rent than own. They're nice, they report when things don't work and work with you to find ample time to fix it. Typically they have a pet, but the pet is non-destructive. They seem to dig that a younger male investor takes care of their home and keeps it nice for them. Every one of them seems to pay early. Last year I had January's rent a week before Christmas even happened. In one case, a water heater was malfunctioning, told her I would buy it that night and come replace the next morning... she was so delighted she paid $150 toward the cost of it!
I dig owning property.
Recently, and this wasnt a tenant, I bought a ******** property across from a high school for what seem to be troubled kids. The house was beach pink with doors falling off, crap all in the yard, smelled like a cigarette, moldy carpet glued to the sidewalk outside, etc... after we finished making it beautiful and white, pulling carpet and sealing sidewalk with a nice color, landscaping, etc, a lady teacher yelled "thank you, that really transforms the look around here, we appreciate all your work".
That was cool.
Wow. This was disturbingly sexist. So, you've never had a not-so-well-put-together middle-aged tenant who took care of a unit? Just really?
Ok.
@Sue K.
GOAT = Greatest of All-Time :)
My best tenant so far is a single male in his 40’s. Pays in advance and I do not hear from him.
I’m finding that my tenants with no past evictions, good references, and good credit are great also because they have something to loose. I’ll take credit for that because I screen better 😊.
I learned real quickly from having tenants from hell and of course they had bad credit and judgements. They had nothing to lose.
Oh, beautifully said - a tenant with something to lose. Amen!
Very hard to describe my most trouble free tenants as I've only spoken to them before they moved in. I can hardly remember what they look like.
Now that's the perfect tenant!
@Sue K.
GOAT = Greatest of All-Time :)
Okay, thanks for educating me on what GOAT means. Good to know.
My PM lives in one of my rentals and is wonderful! She is single, in her 40s (?), responsible, takes care of the house like it's her own, and of course I never have to worry if things aren't being taken care of because I get a monthly statement. She has been in there going on 2 years and obviously pays on time every month.
Just had a great tenant of 4.5 years buy his own house. He is a railroad employee, probably also in his 40s, never late on rent. It was him, his SO, and a teenage son. He was also a licensed contractor from his home state (moved for the railroad job) so he performed minor repairs a few times for some money off the rent. I was sad to see them go. They left the house immaculate.