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!