What did you learn at work today? It’s not fair to ask for a credit report from an applicant? It’s illegal to enforce the rules of an apartment complex? It’s illegal discrimination to refuse to rent to an applicant with bad references? You have to complete all repairs to a unit in 24 hours after the tenant tells you about it, no matter what the problem is? You can’t ever evict families with children?
Who would you learn these fairy tales from? Why, tenants, of course. Listen to bad tenants and you’ll hear a recitation of half truths, lies and damned lies, some based on ignorance, others a product of obvious distortion. They got this “information” from some other tenant and added their own distinctive flourish. Listen long enough and you actually start to believe them and doubt your own common sense.
Landlording can be a lonely business, especially if the only time you see other landlords is eviction court and the only information you get about the landlording business comes from tenants.
Too many landlords are beating their heads against a big rock in the wilderness, completely cut off from other people in the industry. Three times a day they feel like screaming in frustration. They almost welcome a vacancy, because that means one less tenant lying to them and causing problems.
They wonder if it’s like this for all landlords—just one headache after another. They wonder whose idea it was to get into this business, anyway. They wonder if there’s any way to get control of their rental properties and their tenants. Fortunately there is. It exists in just about every city and town in the United States. It is the apartment, landlord or rental owners association. That is where good landlords go to get better and lonely landlords go to get a grip on their business.
Landlord, apartment and rental owners associations provide a haven of sanity and a fount of accurate information for us. And just as important, they let us know we are not alone in the business.
They provide the tools we need to survive. Of vital importance are the rental forms that are written to comply with state law. Every time the law changes, these forms are changed, usually by attorneys expert in landlord-tenant law. Use an old or improper form and watch how fast you lose an eviction.
They provide procedures for tenant selection and evictions. You can get training in how to take charge of the rental business all the way from the application process to booting out bad guys.
You get questions answered by rental property experts. There are landlords who have been in the business for a long time and who don’t get fooled by anything anymore. They have answers, at least in part because they are members of our associations.
You are represented against government encroachment. Every minute people who would take away our rights to earn a fair profit from our rental business are hard at work lobbying city, state and the federal government to get laws passed that benefit bad or marginal tenants. Fortunately, lobbyists from rental owners associations are looking out for our interests, too.
What did you learn at work today? If your lessons were all from borderline or bad tenants, get in touch with your local apartment, landlord or rental owners association immediately—and sign up. If you’re already a member of your association, get in touch with a lonely landlord now.
