The Movie Every Landlord Should See

There is no better movie to watch to scare you straight about the risks of being a landlord (or more aptly, the risks of being an uncareful landlord) than the 1990 film . In the movie, a couple decides to stretch their income to buy the house of their dreams that also has two apartments attached to it. Then Michael Keaton applies, is unwisely accepted and goes to work on the unsuspected couple.

First he doesn't pay his rent, then he floods the other tenant's apartment with cockroaches, getting them to move. Then he goads the couple to turn off the utilities, so he calls the cops on them. And on and on and on. He is more than the so-called professional tenant. He is the tenant from hell!

His goal is to basically financially and emotionally ruin the landlords so he can snatch up the house. And while he gets his just deserts in the end and it all works out there's a great moral to this story; screen your tenants diligently!

Yes, Pacific Heights is an extreme (and fictitious) example, but it's a good lesson for the newbie landlord (unless it scares you so much you decide not to try, which is the wrong lesson to take from it). The right lesson is to screen carefully and be strict. If they can't come up with the full security deposit up front, don't rent to them. If they have evictions (unless they're real old), don't rent to them. If they recent felonies or any violent felonies, don't rent to them. If they don't make three times the monthly rent or have lots of misdemeanors or utility balances or balances with their previous landlord, or a terrible employment/landlord reference... well you get the idea.