It’s important to be a fair landlord with your tenants, but many times this opens the door for a tenant to take advantage of a landlord who is too nice, so you also need to know when to be a firm landlord at times!
I was reminded of this last night as I was on a consulting call with a very nice landlord who was being too nice!
Now I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to be nice, you just need to know that there are people who will take advantage of this niceness, so you need to know when and where to draw the line in the sand and be a firm landlord. And trust me, it’s not restricted to just landlording, there are people who will simply try to take advantage of you anywhere!!
If you find yourself often on the short end of dealing with tenants because you are a nice person, here’s a quick tip to turn you into a firm landlord without confrontation.
Don’t let the tenants know you’re the owner!
Yep, only let them know you are the property manager (which is true, you just manage it for yourself).
Now if the tenants try to take advantage of a situation you can simply reply, “Oh, I’m sorry I can’t make that decision, I’ll have to check with the owner”.
This gives you time to make a better decision rather than being pressured into a bad decision on the spot.
And yes, you can use this even if they know you are the owner, just change it to something like “I’m not sure if that will work, let me look into it and get back to you. Again buying you time to make a smart decision rather than a situation where you are taken advantage of.
What are your thoughts, are you a fair landlord? Or a firm landlord? Do tenants take advantage of you being to nice? Leave me a comment below as I’d like to hear your thoughts and whether you think this could help you!
I have served many thousands of 14 day notices to quit for nonpayment here in Massachusetts yet I am still amazed when a landlord tells me that the tenant owes 3,4,5, or more months in past due rent totaling 1000.00 to 20,000.00 dollars or more. When I ask why they waited so long to take action they all say the same thing..”I was trying to be nice”. I usually ask if they know how to spell nice. Then I tell them that “It’s S-T-U-P-I what?” 99% of the time they laugh. Then I tell them that I am not calling them stupid, just that it’s stupid to wait that long because the longer they wait the deeper in debt the tenant gets, the less likely they are to pay it off and and for some landlords, the harder it gets to finally take action.
I tell landlords to pick a “drop dead date” , a date by which if a tenant has not paid, they will automatically receive a notice to quit and to tell the tenant before they move in what the policy is. I think that it clears the air and further that the tenant will respect the landlord more when he/she knows what is expected of them.
Excellent advice and a wise way of spelling Mark!
Bill