You've just convinced me that I never want to be a landlord. I don't need to read any more. All of that stuff sounds like stuff out of my worst nightmare.
In fact, I don't even want to own a home any time soon. Sounds like way too much work.
In fact, I don't even want to own a home any time soon. Sounds like way too much work.
You catch things that are broken early, so the repair is like a squirt of caulk instead of a whole new window frame. You can spray the wasps when the nest is small... not when it's grown so large an exterminator says, "Sorry my insurance won't cover me going up on a ladder for a nest that large... you'll have to call someone else..." Ha.
I really like doing home repairs / minor home improvements for myself. It's satisfying work, and on average I probably spend less than 2-3 hours a week on maintenance. I love doing yard work, I find it really relaxing. Mow the lawn, trim the trees... that sort of stuff. When you do it for yourself... you do it right, and you stay ahead of the entropy. With rentals you're relying on the tenant to report issues, and contracted help to take care of things... and they don't ever do as good of a job that you can do. Nothing I hate more than riding some handyman to re-do something the third time because he slopped it together... but it is what it is.
If you do buy a house, make sure to ask if it was a rental before you buy it. And regardless, DO NOT skimp on the home inspector... a good home inspector will spend a full day in your house, and charge you around $500-750 (that's in Texas, you can adjust for where you live). They will find all sorts of stuff that will save you money and give you negotiating power.
But yeah on the whole I really enjoy owning my own house. Just not so much renting... I bought when the value was like 1/2 what it is now... very tempting to sell the rental property... but it's been going up 10%+ a year... and I haven't had a tenant's lease end at a good time to sell (March - June are good times to sell in Texas, probably other places too... July - August are good times to have people sign leases).
Anyway I tell myself to just wait it out and give it a little more time... You always have to work for the money. (=
My family has been in the rental business for more than 30 years. I have 2 of my own. We never had any issues like the op mentions. A couple late payments and 2 evictions from lack of payment and that is it since I remember (I only started helping around 15 years ago, can't say what happened before).
Just really choose your tenants carefully. Better to have someone you know will take care of the house and get 400 a month then someone that can pay 500 but shows a lot of warning signs they will trash it. And if you are even remotely handy, a lot of the small fixes can be done by yourself in a matter of hours.
I said this in another post, but my worst tenant by far came from because they were a friend of a neighbor I trusted... it's easier said than done screening folks. You never really know what they are going to be like.
Glad you've had luck with it! Care to share any screening pointers? I'm happy with my current tenant... I did a criminal check, credit check, and asked for some references... but I've gotten those all come up aces in the past too and still had people trash the place. All I've found that works is a verbose contract spelling out penalties if they do things I don't want them to do.
Having said that, parent sounds like the type of landlord I wouldn't want to talk to, either. Granted, if I see a 45-page contract, I'm getting out of there. But he sounds like the type to make a very unpleasant experience of reporting the problems that he wants to know about.
As to the rest, that's why I wouldn't get into being a landlord.
The first tenant just destroyed these beautiful new hardwood floors I had just put in the year before. Like their dog left run marks all over, and they refused to put any felt feet on their furniture and chairs (even though I provided them)... and they wore shoes and clearly never swept or cleaned so the floors that were all nice and shiny were just obliterated... it was heartbreaking to me. (I sued them and won; just saying that a judge sided with my assessment that they were needlessly hard on the property too.)
But yeah... now I just spell out expectations in the contract and document things and I know we can let the court sort it out if we need to. I always repair things (typically out of my own pocket) when they are reported as broken... like the first time one of my tenants hung some sort of wrought iron bookshelf in the drywall and it ripped out half the wall when it fell... I fixed it. But the second time they did it, that was on them. (And then there wasn't a third time because they knew it was expensive to fix.) When they don't report it, and I catch it during move out... it's on them -- what's the point of trying to be nice at that point? They're moving on... no sense letting them walk with my money.
But I've gotten a lot less emotionally attached to the house over the years... you need to be detached if you want to be a good landlord.
I guess what it comes down to is that a good landlord doesn't want to be exposed to destruction of a property he or she takes pride in, and a good renter doesn't want to get hosed on move-out, jerked around with slow maintenance throughout their time, or have their lives made unpleasant by other, out-of-control tenants.
Both renter and landlord probably expect similar distributions: almost all experiences fall between tolerable and good, with just a few outliers way out in "hellish nightmare." Unfortunately for renters, the signs of a conscientious landlord who's been burnt before can look very much like those for an aspiring slumlord in the way both shield themselves. And a conscientious renter who's been burnt before probably comes off similar to one who's really planning to abuse the landlord's patience.
A couple silly questions, if you're still watching this and care to answer: 1. Regarding the black smudges on the wall from furniture, is discovering several of those grounds for charging against deposit, an annoyance that you just take in stride, or something you expect of everyone? 2. Have you had tenants request additions or modifications to your contract, and have you accepted them?