Why Are Landlords So Jaded?

Landlords are a unique bunch.  The business is like no other.  It gives landlords a perspective, an often jaded perspective that very few others hold.  Why?  Because, we learn to wear many different hats as we strike out on our landlording journey and we see into people’s lives a lot more than most.  These two things, the doing and seeing, are going to mold our perspective.  But I think it is the seeing which affects a landlord more than anything.

Landlords see what humanity is made of.  Not the façade that is put on for the public, but the reality of people’s everyday lives.  How do we do this?  We do it by getting involved in a person’s most private space, their home.  Most of the stuff we see is normal and everyday run of the mill.  Sometimes it is interesting.  Sometimes it is humorous.  Other times though, it is heartbreaking, infuriating and can be downright scary.  It is always however an eye opening experience to witness how people truly live.

Two integral parts of the landlording business are screening tenants and providing homes.  Each part brings its own eye opening experiences.  Screening means background checks.  It means credit reports. It means criminal records. It means talking to bosses and past landlords.  It means asking a lot of questions and investigating past lives.  Thus:

We see the unpaid bills.

We see the bankruptcies.

We see the evictions.

We see the bust because they only had a joint.

We see the DWIs.

We see the jail time because of…well…a lot of different things.

And that is just for starters.  That is only when they apply to live in one of our properties.  If they make it through the screening and decide to move in, that is when we landlords really begin to see things because we now provide a home.

Providing a home means doing maintenance and upkeep.  It means doing property inspections.  It means going inside someone’s personal space every once in a while.  Not unannounced and just to be nosy.  Going in is just part of the landlording business.

By going in:

We see the heaps of dirty clothes and dirty dishes.

We see the neat freaks too (thank you!).

We see the disorder, the chaos, the hoarding.

We see that the shower has not been used in a while.

We see the piled up, empty alcohol containers.

We see the bongs (put that away!).

We see the bondage equipment (put that away too!).

We see the pet snake.

We see that someone we do not know is living there.

We see you broke the house rules and painted the walls purple even though we told you not to.

We also unfortunately see the divorces, the layoffs, the overdoses and the cancer diagnoses.

We see all of this and sometimes wonder why we ever decided to become landlords.  But then we realize that this is humanity.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, has some kind of quirk.  Everyone also has a past.  It is just who we are.  We landlords see a lot and it is no wonder we become a little jaded at times.

Does this mean you should not become one?  Of course not as most tenants are great and the rewards outweigh the negatives.  But becoming a landlord will be an eye opening experience.  You will develop a thicker skin and a different viewpoint on the world than you had before.  Just ask any landlord.

The thing to remember is that landlording is like any other business.  You have to put food on your table and provide for your family.  And while it is not a good idea to kick someone when they are down, you cannot run a social service agency either.  Often the best a landlord can do is to try to keep the worst of it out with thorough tenant screening.  But you still have to rent to someone and everyone has some kind of quirk.  Sometimes these quirks result in an angry letter from us.  Sometimes they lead to eviction.  A lot of times, you have to just let folks live.

What have you seen?  Please share with your comments.