5 Things I Would Never Do If I Were a Renter -- Not What You Think!
/I'm amazed at how many people do these things and they think I will be happy to rent to them or happy to renew the lease. Tenants are usually focused on no evictions or felonies, but I will take a felon over most of these things, depending on the situation.
Bad Manners When Viewing the Home
1. When an applicant comes to see the house, if they have their phone against their ear the whole time I'm showing them the house, they will never ever EVER get to rent that house from me or from any other landlord I've ever met. Also if they walk through and point out things that we haven't finished yet such as a missing plate cover or something they deem Section 8 will not pass, pointing that out to us is OBNOXIOUS, not helpful. We are the ones in construction. And we have been through way more Section 8 inspections than they ever will. We won't rent to people who point out what is wrong with the house on the first visit.
2. Incomplete Rental Application
2. Leaving an application incomplete. When landlords do not like an applicant for any reason at all and the landlord really doesn't want to get into it with the applicant about why they won't accept that person, the go-to denial reason is "incomplete application." The real reason is probably one of these five things.
3. Cause Public Record
3. I wouldn't do anything that would cause a negative public record. Tenants are so surprised that I won't take them if they have a track record at the courthouse that didn't end in an actual eviction. I look at how many times a person has had a landlord take their time and money to file against them in court. That's enough for me. If they were so annoying that the landlord had to use a judge to intervene, I will not rent to that person. I certainly won't take someone with an eviction either. I also Google the person's name. I've found all kinds of history on people just from a simple Google search. I also go to their Facebook page. Even if they are private, I can see their profile photos.
3.5. Call The City on a Landlord
3.5. I understand that there are slumlords out there and the only way a tenant can have things fixed in the house is if they call the city on their landlord. But if I find out a tenant has called the city on the landlord, I won't rent to them. I've had over-the-top tenants call the city on us when we were in the middle of replacing their kitchen that we didn't even have to do. The tenant thought it would get us finished faster. It got her immediately evicted.
4. Be Difficult with Repairs
4. I would never be difficult about repairs. It is very difficult to find a repairman in the first place and to schedule with that repairman or contractor. Once we've achieved that, the house needs to be open to let that person make the repair. If a renter doesn't answer the door or isn't home as promised, we just don't renew the lease.
5. Forget to do the Inventory Checklist
5. I would be sure to do a thorough move-in inventory checklist with photographs of anything that I could be blamed for at the move out. Any ding at all, I would note and ask the property manager or landlord to sign off on it. If it ends up in court, the judge always asks for the inventory checklist. If I didn't have it, then I would have to pay for all the repairs.
But I absolutely would interview the landlord!
Just as landlords guard against bad tenants, tenants should guard against bad landlords and property managers. Watch this video with plenty of ideas of how to interview a landlord before renting from them.