On Being a Landlord

Actually, I was going to call this post "On being a twit," but let's not be narrow. We're in Lansing, MI and we were supposed to rent a house the day we got in for however long it might take to find, purchase, and move into our new house. Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to show us the rental (the owner's mother, it seems) flaked out on us. And if that wasn't enough, the owner is still talking about charging us for 2 full months, instead of the 30 or so days (divided between July and August) we're actually going to need...

It's a stupid and remarkably arrogant thing to do, and makes very little sense in this real estate market. If there are dozens of people who want to rent this house, then it might make some sense to insist on the money, but it's still a bad idea (putting the screws to your customers just because you can is bad business practice - because you never know when they might return the favor). If we are the only potential tennants, then this move risks flushing $650 or more when we decide to walk away...

And we might do just that. We're staying in a Marriott Suites while we wait, and it's really nice. Small, of course, but we don't have much with us, and out room has everything we need for a few weeks, including workout facilities and unlimited high-speed Internet access and cable TV (not to mention maid service and utilities included), which is more than I can say for renting someone's house. Especially if our landlord is an arrogant twit whose local agent is a flake...

Even worse, when you compare paying for 2 months of rental plus utilities, cable and Internet (not to mention linens and cleaning service) the Marriott isn't that much more expensive. Our prospective landlord is already violating the First and Second Laws of Business (not taking our money and pissing us off), but now he's offering less value for the money, as well. If the Marriott was going to be $6,000 (compared to $1,300 for the 2-month rental) the landlord would still be ahead, but the price is actually just over a third of that...

Of course, the landlord in this story isn't really a real estate investor; he's not even a businessman. He's a teacher, which explains why he's off on a trip for the summer. Which I think is the point, really. You don't need to be a clever businessman to be a landlord. But you shouldn't be a twit, either...