This article is transcribed from Episode 19 of The Accidental Landlord. Listen to the
full episode, here.
Thank you for having me.
That makes a lot of sense!
I have been renting for about seven years now. I have rented in college towns, in large cities, rented through property management companies, and self-managing landlords. So, I think I have a broad perspective on renting a property!
I would say intentional, but a bit unplanned. I just like to go where life takes me! Right now, I’m going to be in Minnesota for the summer. I will keep you posted on where I'll be after that!
I definitely have a few examples. One of the experiences that stands out to me the most was when I rented from a smaller landlord while I was in College and I had roommates. I understand that sometimes college students are hard on properties, however, he wanted to check on the property we were renting a lot. We were allowed to have pets on the property but we decided not to. Still, he would come check if there were any animal footprints in the snow to see if we had an undocumented pet. So, I think the level of him checking up on us was an interesting introduction to renting for me.
I would say every week at least, during the winter. During the Summer if people were picking up after their pets, everything would be fine. There were no tracks visible to check on.
I decided to leave after that, because of the surprise visits. That also happened with maintenance; we would have surprise visits just to check up on things, even though we didn’t report anything. I think it was just a communication problem. There wasn't a big problem going on, but still it was uncomfortable. After that I started looking for something else, with less supervision.
Definitely, it was clear to me that he just cared a lot about his property. But, I would say that it was the main contributing factor to me moving out.
If you want to learn more about some mistakes the landlords make with their tenants, listen to the full episode here.