> It’s entirely possible to be a landlord and a decent person at the same time.
I know that's true in theory but in practice landlords, as a group, are some of the shittiest human beings I know.
I know that's true in theory but in practice landlords, as a group, are some of the shittiest human beings I know.
I'm a good tenant in general and live far below my means (I grew up extremely poor, I generally don't need a lot to be happy). Which means I have far more resources at my disposal than you would assume based upon the houses I rent and the vehicles I drive.
I cannot tell you how many times I've had to get a lawyer involved to protect myself from landlords. They always immediately back off because they're used to dealing with people who __cannot__ protect themselves.
I once had a property manager I absolutely loved and stayed in that house for 5 years. Until the owner decided to change property management companies, I was gone in 2 months. The month I was supposed to start paying them instead of the original property manager, they contacted me 3 days before the end of the month and insisted I would have to pay an extra processing fee to pay them via my card and the only way to avoid it is to mail in a check but if I do that it won't get there in time and will assess a late fee.
I tried to rent a new house from that same property manager but was unable to find something I liked in the right timeframe.
2 of the 5 landlords lived in the same building where I lived alone and we became decently close over time and 3 of the 5 we rented the whole house but we were a group of grad students/working professionals that were an attractive demo.
As with anything on the internet, "This went mostly fine" is a perspective you rarely see so the prevalence of problems appears grossly exaggarated.
I've been here over four years and I've met him twice. I'm paying far below the market rate. Granted, the house is very tired and it's very expensive in terms of energy use, but it still works out far cheaper than the places I see on property websites now.
I absolutely agree with you that landlords as a social class are scumbags. I guess it's the same thing as when people say "all cops are bastards" etc.. Of course not /every single/ cop or landlord is a bastard, but when acting as a group their aims and priorities are in direct contention with everyone else.