When your landlord is a jackwagon...

[tRidiot]

I could sit here all night telling stories about what tenants do to rental property. With that said (or unsaid, as I don't have the time), I think you are right to continue looking for a better situation for your parents. Good luck in your search!

I agree, and I also sympathize with landlords who just want to make a living, build some investment/retirement and do the right thing by their tenants, but get incessantly screwed by scumbags. I've had good landlords and bad landlords in my life. The good ones really make your life easier, the bad ones really stress you out.

I'm glad to be a homeowner, but it really sucks to have to go through this rental hunt again and have to co-sign on a lease for my folks, but it is what it is, and it do what it do. It should just be temporary, but finding the right place is much more stressful to me than co-signing for them.

 

[Uncle TK]

You need to go to a leasing agent
Example homes4Lease
Fill out all of your paper work and then they will show you houses

 

[tRidiot]

You need to go to a leasing agent
Example homes4Lease
Fill out all of your paper work and then they will show you houses

Not much of that here in small towns, unfortunately. It's either each individual real estate company handles a few rentals, or a few individuals who have a ton of (usually mediocre) rentals.

 

[mugsy]

@tRidiot ... Sounds like my 1st wife, saw the Officer sticker on my car and suddenly decided she wanted a date... No thank you.

So you married her without dating her? ;^)

 

[MacFromOK]

I have/had had friends that were landlords. If you're honest, ya won't believe what dishonest folks can come up with to avoid paying rent.

One friend had a renter that said he couldn't make a payment, so the friend bought several gallons of paint when the renter agreed to paint the house for a month's rent.

The renter sold the paint, and claimed to be physically incapacitated whenever my friend showed up. Took him several months to get the guy evicted because of his claims of bad health (this was in Texas).

Another friend lost a bundle because of letting one family have utilities in their name. When they left, there were hundreds of dollars of unpaid utility bills.

And guess what... the utility companies demanded payment before turning the utilities back on.

Having said all that... some landlords are undoubtedly unscrupulous. But most of the better ones have probably been burned by being nice.

Just my 2 cents. YMMV.

 

[mr ed]

I get burned for being soft hearted and it drives my wife crazy.
I don't blame the guy for wanting info before showing if he lives a long distance.
I could not count the number of times looky-loos tell me they want to see the house and they are out front.
So, I rush over and no ones there. They just like to prank.
Now I set an open house time and thats the only time I show it.

I recently was looking at a couple houses that were listed as cash only and the Realtor wanted proof of funds before she would drive over and show them. I guess she was getting run over by the looky-loos too.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

As a neighbor to rental property, I am glad a landlord tries to make sure his renters aren't criminals and have good references.

 

[tRidiot]

As a neighbor to rental property, I am glad a landlord tries to make sure his renters aren't criminals and have good references.

Now I set an open house time and thats the only time I show it.

I recently was looking at a couple houses that were listed as cash only and the Realtor wanted proof of funds before she would drive over and show them. I guess she was getting run over by the looky-loos too.

Both different situations... this guy wanted to run a background check - meaning he needs my full employment history, contact information, full name, DOB AND SSN to run a full check before he could be bothered to show me the house.

If this were the norm, HOW MANY PEOPLE would have access to all my personal information just in searching for a rental home? How many homes do people typically look at? We've been to at least a dozen so far. I'm just saying, I think his particular over-the-top vetting before he could be bothered is way too much just to look at a house. F*** that. He lost out on a really good possibility because he's a tool. As far as I'm concerned, he can sit on that house empty and keep paying the rent himself.

I had similar experiences with used car salesmen who wanted a life history to let me test-drive a car - in spite of the fact they had a copy of my current OKDL AND left my own car on the lot while I was driving. Again... F*** that. I walked away, bought a car from someone else. I can't stand idiots who want all my contact information for routine bullsh|t. I once had a store that tried to refuse to sell me a pair of WORKBOOTS if I didn't give them my phone number. WTF??? They said it was for warranty purposes. It's a pair of F***ING BOOTS, dude. The manager had to step in and override it, I was gonna leave and buy them somewhere else - probably online, honestly.

I'm not one to give out my personal information. I certainly never give out my cell phone number, like the car salesmen wanted. It's just me, but hell, if I'm TRYING to give you my money and you want to make it HARD for me... wel... screw it. There's someone else out there who wants money, I'm sure.

<edit> And yes... I'm aware I can just give them a fake phone number... but the POINT is, to ME, that they need to KNOW their policies are driving away paying customers who don't think it's appropriate you should have to give a phone number to buy a pair of pants or an oil filter (I'm looking at you, O'Reilly's!).

 

[skyhawk1]

Well I have several rent houses, not really by choice but income helps. I would never ask for personal info just to show. If it were me I wouldn't especially if you got phone # off of a sign. Hell any body could stick a sign in somebodies yard then they could get your info.
And I've sold a few cars and all I ask is to see their driver's license and insurance. Turned a couple away cause of no driver's license

 

[dennishoddy]

I had a rent house for a couple of years. Only rented to people I worked with, or their immediate family members.
Never had an issue, great renters, but the house next door was a rental, and it sure got trashed a couple of times.
The worst was when I lived in the house and a lady and daughter moved in. Real quiet, and we visited in the evenings. When her hulking son got out of prison, he moved in with them and the nightmare started then. He didn't sleep at night because of the drugs he was on and loved to work on his old beater with no mufflers all night next to the kids room.
Christmas morning, mom came bursting through our front door all bloody in her pajamas. Her son had beat her into a pulp.
We called the law of course, and I armed myself thinking he would come in, but he was too busy ripping the lights and fans from the ceiling, throwing wine all over the walls and carpet, while kicking in the sheetrock.
They hauled him off and she moved out leaving the landlord with a pretty much totaled house that took over a year for him to fix up.
Sad what bad renters can do to a landlord.