Hi, all,
I own a couple of rental properties, but yesterday I had a conversation that got me thinking about two very distinct types of landlords.
The house next door is a rental. I'm good friends with the tenant (she's a peach). I've never met her landlord even though he lives a couple of blocks away. He lived there originally, then moved to a larger house and kept this one as a rental.
Yesterday I had to call him to let him know that the fence between our houses is falling down and needs to be replaced. I told him I would arrange to have a couple of estimates and make all the arrangements, and would let him know what the cost would be for each of us.*
His response:
"Well, you know, I have a kid at (private college), and frankly that fence isn't exactly my highest priority".
I'll skip the rest of the conversation (I just thanked him and got off, then called a couple of fencing companies) but it got me thinking about what appear to be two different types of landlords: those who think of the house as their home that they're allowing someone the privilege of using, and those who think of the house as an investment.
If you think it's your own home, you decide what needs maintenance and what doesn't, and guess what...if it doesn't affect you, it clearly isn't important. Broken dishwasher? Falling down fence? Water leak? Doesn't affect me, you can just live with it. I don't have the money or the time to deal with this right now.
If you view the house as an investment, basic maintenance isn't optional. There's a fund set aside for maintenance fees, and in many cases, the owner doesn't even know about the work until it's done...the tenant goes through the property manager.
I don't mean to say that if you are renting out a house with which you have an emotional connection (maybe your childhood home, your grandparents' house, the house you hope to live in one day) you automatically won't be a good landlord, but I've observed this with others as well. We're going to be buying our dream home soon and renting it out for a few years, so I'm going to try very hard not to make this mistake.
*Let me clarify that the rules of our draconian HOA are very clear on upkeep of fences and the responsibility of each neighbor to pay their share, so there's no ambiguity on whether I was being a big fat meanie expecting him pay half.