Good but cluttery tenant.

[Martin Meyer]

So here's the issue. I've been renting a SFH in the rural midwest to a young, single gentleman for 3 years now. Seems like a good guy, quite a hermit. Goes to work, comes home, goes to church, load his dogs and heads for the woods. Always pays on time and always comes to me. I've never had to ask for rent or chase him down. About a week before it's due, he brings it to me and stays for a few minutes of friendly conversation. The problem is the house looks awful. there's a derelict car at the end of the driveway, a stash of agricultural and miscellaneous tractor and equipment parts in a pile at the corner of the yard, a boat and his collection of high voltage electrical apparatus like a couple diesel generators, inverters, etc. There's a 100 lb propane tank beside the house and tons of lumber but it's on racks so not rotting. The thing is, I hadn't been in the house since he moved in until the other day when he invited me in. I was afraid of what I might run into, considering the outside, with two working breed inside dogs and a single mechanic. But it was impressive. Clean, tidy, there were a couple new cabinets up, he'd done a lot of painting with the walls and work on the floors, he'd broken up the breaker panel into more evenly divided circuits, replaced old cloth wiring with romex, sized one size over code and took the panel from a bird nest of wires to orderly and labeled, he had stripped and refinished some of the older woodwork in the house and replaced a lot of the old cast iron drains in the basement with PVC. He had a really nice display with heirloom quilts and an antique sewing machine and it had a real "home" feel to it. Friendly, beautiful and clean dogs too. But I walk outside and it's...well, that.

Do I say something or just let it go, count the pros and cons and chalk it up to rural living? He HAS mentioned he wants to do something about the curb appeal when the weather warms up.