Being a REALTOR, I have a few rental properties I have purchased through the years. It is amazing to experience some of the life lessons I learn each year and here is one of them.
I had a tenant that was a “pack rat” and every time I would go to his apartment, I would tell him he had to get rid of his junk to ensure his apartment was in safe and sanitary condition. He would always say, “OK Pat, I am just so busy with work, but I will get to it.” Things did get a bit better, but the apartment was still cluttered with old newspapers, magazines, junk, etc). My gut was telling me to increase his security deposit or do something to force him to get all the clutter out. “Man you don’t want to get stuck with all of this.”, my gut would say. Then the day came that he decided he was going to move to another part of the country. I told him to make sure he got all of his personal belongings and debris out to ensure he got his security deposit back.
I then got the call that said, “Come on down Pat. I got the place all cleaned up it looks real nice.” As I was driving up to the apartment, I began to realize I should have listened to my gut. I guess not only beauty, but clean is also in the eye of the beholder. Take a look below. How expensive of a life lesson do you think this was? Do you think he got his security deposit back? What do you think?
WOW!!!
Who said property management is easy? You want to believe that tenants are going to care about the rentals ALMOST as much as we do, but most often that is not the case. Maybe we should listen to our gut more.
Wow, Patrick, I’m really sorry…. what a lot of work (and irritation). I hope your next renter is a winner…