Meet the Renters

Maybe some of you are interested to hear what it's like to be a landlord. If so, read on for anecdotal stories. If not, tune in for another post.

We've shown the apartment a bit. We still haven't found our "prince" yet. The first two sets of people who wanted it seemed "okay" but we want better than just okay. The apartment is better than okay and deserves a tenant that will appreciate it.

We've had a few unusual situations so far...

The Trust Fund guy
He showed up tonight with his "assistant". I smelled alcohol and his voice was scratchy like a smoker. He didn't seem to want to deal with me, but preferred Steve. He had a letter from a bank stating he could pay the rent since he does not work and just lives off a trust fund. His assistant asked questions like, "So there will be an iron railing there, so Mr. A won't fall out the window?" after we had already told her twice that there would be one. Oh, and he wanted to make the room over our bedroom a media room. Can this get funnier?

The Part-Timers
The woman showed up and looked "perfect" (Steve's words). But then she started talking. They only want to live in the apartment 3 nights a week so they can take their 3 year old to a nearby special school. They will barely move in any furniture and want a 6 month lease. They "haven't really thought everything through". Oh and they have 2 dogs, 3 cats, and an infant.

The Distrustful one
To start off, she went to our neighbor's house instead of ours. Then she came in and started asking ALOT of questions about things that tenants usually don't care about. For example, she wanted to go up on the roof and inspect it. She asked the significance of an iron ceiling fan. She asked what brand of refridgerator we were buying. Now that isn't too weird, but the way she asked it sounded like she suspected we'd not put one in or something. In fairness, I think she has some mental issues and maybe even physical ones, but we just don't need that here.

But then, there was....

The Perfect Tenant
She was an older lady in her 40's or 50's, single and she would live by herself. She appreciated and understood what we had done with the apartment. She was a Librarian at a nearby University! She was nice and quiet. She liked the apartment alot. Alas, her funriture was too big for our humble 2-flat. But she gives us hope!

I know you single family home owners are really jealous of all this fun. Try not to hate us too much (kidding).