Be careful thinking any landlord is a good person. We rented from a couple like 10 years ago who were as nice as you could want, and they were the best landlords I’ve ever had.
And yet, the two times we (slightly) threatened their bottom line, they turned into the nastiest human beings I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting.
Saying we “threatened their bottom line” is actually putting it extremely, extremely strongly. The first time, I paid rent one day late because I was so busy and simply forgot. I was still a lib at this point, so I was shocked by how mean the text I got from them was. But it did teach me that landlords don’t see their tenants as people, they see us as dollar signs.
The second time our landlords showed their true face, they had messed up our lease renewal. The new lease, which we’d all signed, listed our rent at about $100/month less than the verbal agreement we had with them. My partner was like “I mean, let’s pay the cheaper rent that’s in writing on the lease we actually signed”. I was like “I’m extremely uncomfortable with that, I don’t want them to sue us and I’m pretty sure they would try.” So my partner gave them a call and was like “hey, the lease says this, so that’s what we’re paying”. My partner got actually screamed at. I could hear it from across the room. They had a new lease at our door for us to sign within 2 hours. Screaming and rushing over a new lease because of less than $100 a month. Once again, tenants aren’t people, we’re dollar signs.
So be careful with “nice” or “good” landlords. Even the best landlord will only ever see you as a money spigot, and will do their best to ruin your life if there’s so much as a suspicion that you might slightly decrease the rate of flow of money to them
Oh god… no… Gotta say that’s rather cynical, and in this case… not at all accurate.
When my husband got into culinary school - this was in the early 90’s mind you - he was the first person in his family to go on to higher education. The landlord - whom he’d known since he was a child - came up, shook his hand and told him “I know how hard it is to pay off the school loans, so if you get behind on rent, don’t worry…” and he was true to his word. At one point, I was paying rent and working on the loans as well while husband was at the school - in Vermont - so I got behind for the better part of a year, and they were totally fine with it.
The last decade or so the landlord (and his wife) and husband and I would forget rent entirely and at one point we were three weeks late and went over and profusely apologized and the landlady said we were the last people they worried about when the rent was late - we BOTH would just forget, and it’s not like they didn’t live next door and I’d not see her in the back yard garden all the time doing the weeding!
Their youngest daughter is running the show now and I used to talk to her when she was a little kid (early 90’s) - there was a great big leggy box alder in the back yard that had vast branches that ran past the living room windows - this is a second floor apartment, mind you - and she’d be like a squirrel in the tree, sitting outside the window on the branch and we’d chat while I was cleaning…
She came up to me a few months ago and said…“I have a hard conversation to have…” and I replied… “It’s rent… I’ve been wondering when your mom was going to raise it, God knows it’s been years… What do you need…” and she said what it was, and I was like, “Yeah, that’s what I expected… No problem at all.”
I told her never to hesitate to tell me what they need if rent has go up. We’re not under a lease, haven’t been since 1993. The look of relief on her face was all I needed to know. TBH, my husband is “family” since he’d been working for the landlords when he was a teenager, and the daughter’s known him all her life. They’re great kids, her dad’s last parting statement to any and everyone he met was “Be good!” (He died two years ago, was a fixture here in town…)
Is it cynical to share my experience that literally every single landlord I’ve ever had has seen me as nothing more than a money spigot? I don’t think it’s cynicism to see reality as it is.
It’s cool you’ve had a different experience to me, but I do notice your example is a single landlord(ing family) where mine is lots of different landlords over the course of decades. I think my experience might be a little more common than yours.
I wouldn’t deny that. As I mentioned to the daughter when we were talking about rent, I said that we were both very thankful to be blessed by living where we do. However it IS cynical to make a blanket statement that good people do not exist. Now your replies never directly stated such a sentiment, but other replies have done so… (this is me making a statement to the “room” in general.)
I understand the warning. With a crystalline clarity.
I grew up in the back of a 1969 VW bus in the early 70’s and spent time homeless as a child. Dad and mom were fuckups. Full stop.
Mom was a hippy and had the peace beads, poncho, went to Woodstock, “turned on, tuned in and dropped out…” then ended up in Palo Alto and we lived on the edge, hopping from apartment to apartment and sharing rooms in other peoples homes until my education was shot and I got shipped back to New England to live with my alcoholic aunt and finally my dad, so I could graduate High School with an actual education. (…and I did, with honors. Go figure…)
I understand how landlords can turn. I was literally sitting in the front row seat… of some CRAZY shit. Which was why I have felt it necessary to speak up as I have. Those good people are gems, they are often hidden in plain sight and they should be the example of what renters should look for, and what other owners could aspire to.
Be careful thinking any landlord is a good person. We rented from a couple like 10 years ago who were as nice as you could want, and they were the best landlords I’ve ever had.
And yet, the two times we (slightly) threatened their bottom line, they turned into the nastiest human beings I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting.
Saying we “threatened their bottom line” is actually putting it extremely, extremely strongly. The first time, I paid rent one day late because I was so busy and simply forgot. I was still a lib at this point, so I was shocked by how mean the text I got from them was. But it did teach me that landlords don’t see their tenants as people, they see us as dollar signs.
The second time our landlords showed their true face, they had messed up our lease renewal. The new lease, which we’d all signed, listed our rent at about $100/month less than the verbal agreement we had with them. My partner was like “I mean, let’s pay the cheaper rent that’s in writing on the lease we actually signed”. I was like “I’m extremely uncomfortable with that, I don’t want them to sue us and I’m pretty sure they would try.” So my partner gave them a call and was like “hey, the lease says this, so that’s what we’re paying”. My partner got actually screamed at. I could hear it from across the room. They had a new lease at our door for us to sign within 2 hours. Screaming and rushing over a new lease because of less than $100 a month. Once again, tenants aren’t people, we’re dollar signs.
So be careful with “nice” or “good” landlords. Even the best landlord will only ever see you as a money spigot, and will do their best to ruin your life if there’s so much as a suspicion that you might slightly decrease the rate of flow of money to them
Lol I wouldn’t sign that shit. Their fault they cant write a contract
Yeah, we were absolutely unwilling to fight a legal battle at that point in our lives. I wish we could have though, because fuck those landleeches!
Oh god… no… Gotta say that’s rather cynical, and in this case… not at all accurate.
When my husband got into culinary school - this was in the early 90’s mind you - he was the first person in his family to go on to higher education. The landlord - whom he’d known since he was a child - came up, shook his hand and told him “I know how hard it is to pay off the school loans, so if you get behind on rent, don’t worry…” and he was true to his word. At one point, I was paying rent and working on the loans as well while husband was at the school - in Vermont - so I got behind for the better part of a year, and they were totally fine with it.
The last decade or so the landlord (and his wife) and husband and I would forget rent entirely and at one point we were three weeks late and went over and profusely apologized and the landlady said we were the last people they worried about when the rent was late - we BOTH would just forget, and it’s not like they didn’t live next door and I’d not see her in the back yard garden all the time doing the weeding!
Their youngest daughter is running the show now and I used to talk to her when she was a little kid (early 90’s) - there was a great big leggy box alder in the back yard that had vast branches that ran past the living room windows - this is a second floor apartment, mind you - and she’d be like a squirrel in the tree, sitting outside the window on the branch and we’d chat while I was cleaning…
She came up to me a few months ago and said…“I have a hard conversation to have…” and I replied… “It’s rent… I’ve been wondering when your mom was going to raise it, God knows it’s been years… What do you need…” and she said what it was, and I was like, “Yeah, that’s what I expected… No problem at all.”
I told her never to hesitate to tell me what they need if rent has go up. We’re not under a lease, haven’t been since 1993. The look of relief on her face was all I needed to know. TBH, my husband is “family” since he’d been working for the landlords when he was a teenager, and the daughter’s known him all her life. They’re great kids, her dad’s last parting statement to any and everyone he met was “Be good!” (He died two years ago, was a fixture here in town…)
They are.
Is it cynical to share my experience that literally every single landlord I’ve ever had has seen me as nothing more than a money spigot? I don’t think it’s cynicism to see reality as it is.
It’s cool you’ve had a different experience to me, but I do notice your example is a single landlord(ing family) where mine is lots of different landlords over the course of decades. I think my experience might be a little more common than yours.
I wouldn’t deny that. As I mentioned to the daughter when we were talking about rent, I said that we were both very thankful to be blessed by living where we do. However it IS cynical to make a blanket statement that good people do not exist. Now your replies never directly stated such a sentiment, but other replies have done so… (this is me making a statement to the “room” in general.)
I understand the warning. With a crystalline clarity.
I grew up in the back of a 1969 VW bus in the early 70’s and spent time homeless as a child. Dad and mom were fuckups. Full stop.
Mom was a hippy and had the peace beads, poncho, went to Woodstock, “turned on, tuned in and dropped out…” then ended up in Palo Alto and we lived on the edge, hopping from apartment to apartment and sharing rooms in other peoples homes until my education was shot and I got shipped back to New England to live with my alcoholic aunt and finally my dad, so I could graduate High School with an actual education. (…and I did, with honors. Go figure…)
I understand how landlords can turn. I was literally sitting in the front row seat… of some CRAZY shit. Which was why I have felt it necessary to speak up as I have. Those good people are gems, they are often hidden in plain sight and they should be the example of what renters should look for, and what other owners could aspire to.