My last ever tenant (I am no longer a landlord) told us that she was leaving in under 15 days. She was with us for 11 years and always paid on-time. She told us she was leaving because she found a house to rent for the same price. Yadda, yadda. Anyway, just last week, she calls me up and ask if her old apartment was available. I told her I was no longer into renting because of various reasons, 1st reason being it is a big headache to rent anymore. So after talking to her a bit more, I came to find out that the reason she wanted to move out of the house she renting is because she did not read her lease thoroughly before she moved in and found out that she had to mow the lawn (and supply her own mower), shovel the snow and pay a service fee anytime a service man had to go to her house to fix something. In the end, the cheap rent she was paying ended up costing her way more than she thought - in money, time and discomfort (mowing, shoveling, etc - her BF left her and mowing and shoveling now became even more of a burden since she had to do it herself).
All in all, she regrets she ever moved out of my apartment because she sees now how good she had it.
Does that make her a dumb tenant? In my eyes, yes. Because she had not the capacity to see how good she had it with me and she did not read her lease - she was blinded by more space which she cannot manage. The grass is only "greener on the other side" to those who are too dumb and stupid to understand that the grass is not only NEVER greener, it is actually usually browner. But you have to look to see it. This is a very appropriate analogy because she also told me that almost every time she takes a shower at her new place, she has some gross brown substance that leaks from the ceiling in the shower....LOLOLOLOLOLOL. AND her new landlord is virtually a slumlord to fixes nothing - including her leaking brown goo problem.
Forgive me for being so harsh and laughing at another persons problems, but after decades of renting to people and putting up with their stupidity and shenanigans, I can't help but laugh at their misfortune. It's a weakness of mine, I know it.
Originally posted by @Colleen F.:
LOL. I never understood why a tenant would pay in advance until many years ago when I was a renter myself in a 4 unit complex. My downstairs neighbor always paid his rent yearly because he was a drug addict and knew that, if he would not pay a year up front, he would shoot his rent money in his veins. So I guess that makes him a responsible druggie, at least...lol!
The tenant above me paid upfront when they could because they were so terrible with money that if they had it sitting around they knew they would spend it frivolously. Given that, I guess they were druggies too - not addicted to drugs, rather addicted to spending money and being stupid.
