The "2 am broken toilet" excuse, upgraded

[Keith Torsen]

So I've been busy looking at deals, talking with people about my real estate journey so far, am 100% open about it to everyone I meet, pretty much.

Today, I had a conversation with a coworker.

"I want that one house that pays you a ton of money every month." His cash flow number was $2,000 per month... I'm still pretty new at this, but I've got some general knowledge on options he can have to go that route. We get to talking, and his number 1 excuse:

"I don't want a lot of houses, because I dont want to deal with Fair Housing tenants. I want just one or two houses with really great tenants."

He then goes on to talk himself out of THAT because his mom had a bad time owning houses.

This is a guy who spent years watching his mom landlord, spending 5 years in his 20s as a loan officer (I'm guessing broker), and now drives big rigs for our employer)

I'm honestly just wondering how common such a specific excuse like this is, and why someone wouldnt be open to ideas that give him exactly what he's looking for?

[Steve Vaughan]

Everybody has heard a tenant horror story.  They share them when you talk about landlording.  I stopped years ago.  Now I'm just retired if anyone asks. Between naps.

The way to stem the 'dreaded' 2am toilet call isn't to not bring your phone to bed or not give your tenants your number because you would rather get gouged by a PM. Horrible advice and a big reason I don't check in much anymore. 

During the move-in, show them where the stop valves are for sinks and toilets.  If anything goes wrong, shut it off and call me at a reasonable hour.  I'll walk you through it or take care of it the next day.

Educate and set expectations.  Or hire a PM, get over-charged by an emergency plumber call for no freaking reason and have payments the rest of your life.