[onenukecourse]

As a landlord, I insist you look to move. You're being abused. If your local landlords are more or less the same, move. You're in an abusive city.

As a landlord:

1. I insist any small problems are brought to my attentions ASAP. Early repairs cost less and dealing with it promptly creates good will

2. I get the place professionally cleaned before move in. It only costs me $150 (a hard working cleaner can clean an empty unit in a three/four hours)

3. I provide a full set of cleaning supplies when tenants move in. The supplies are already there so use them ;)

4. I give a $50 gift card to Target midway through the contract. What are you going to buy at Target? Hopefully, cleaning supplies ;)

A decent landlord won't mind if you break a lease if you've stayed there long enough (more than eight months). Even if you do, it should not be more than two month's rent.

I charge a bit below market rate to ensure the unit is always rented (divide a month by 12. An empty unit costs money). However, I target professionals to avoid problems (students), but not rich professionals - I once rented the two bedroom unit to a pair of recently graduated nurses.

I'm not in the business of making friends. I'm in the business of having a cordial relationship with a client who is satisfied and keeps renewing. A missed renewal costs me a lot of money. My goal is that my tenants move out only if they move out of the city or decide to buy a place.

[twalla]

> I target professionals to avoid problems (students), but not rich professionals

Can you go into more detail here? I've heard this before that having too high of an income can count against you as a tenant - presumably because the tenant has the wherewithal to make the landlord's life unpleasant if they really felt like it.

[onenukecourse]

I don't avoid very high income earners, it's just that the unit I'm renting is a small house I could afford to live in at the time I bought it. This unit naturally fits a certain, soon to be upper middle income young family. However, I'm currently renting the units to a couple who just moved into the city that each makes more than what my wife and I make.

My biggest concern with them was that they'd only want to rent for a few months to get to know the city before buying a place of their own. A missed renewal is very expensive (lost income) and time consuming.

[sbierwagen]

I wasn't expecting any replies on my original comment, so I suppose I should add some context. In a former career I was a Washington state-licensed electrician (07a) and spent four years in commercial real estate maintenance. This probably puts me in the top 10%-ile in capability to/interest in performing household chores.

I also live in a screaming hot rental market, (North Seattle) and the last apartment complex I lived in raised the rent like clockwork by 10% every six months. Where I live now I haven't seen a rent increase in three years, which makes me rather overdue for one.

I was using "a dripping faucet" in the sense of the prototypically trivial home repair. (Shut off water, replace twenty dollar faucet cartridge, turn water back on) I wouldn't call the landlord for that in the same way I don't call the landlord to replace smoke detector batteries, change light bulbs, replace furnace filters, do yearly water heater sediment flushes, oil squeaky door hinges, or to clean my toilet.

If, like, the refrigerator failed, then I would be calling the landlord.

[actually_a_dog]

You're saying that rather than spend what, $1k or so at most (which would be what it would cost replace the refrigerator entirely), you'd rather poke the bear and risk a 77% rent hike (which would be what you'd have if you'd gotten 6 rent increases of 10% over the past 3 years)? It's not like the landlord can sue you when you move out if you leave them an equivalent, but brand new refrigerator.

[sbierwagen]

Why would I leave them a brand new refrigerator? The economically rational course of action would be, on moving out, to put the refrigerator that came with the unit back in place, while I depart with the refrigerator that I purchased with my own money. After all, the unit's refrigerator died of old age while I was occupying it, I didn't do anything to it, and shouldn't be liable for replacement costs. Just store the failed appliance intthe living room until I move out.

Letting the landlord replace it a year later than they otherwise would have saves them money!

[actually_a_dog]

Fair point. I suppose I just assumed you didn't have space to keep a non-functional refrigerator just sitting around, like most people.