Fun with tenants

I am sure the experienced people here will think I did things wrong, but I gave my tenants an extra day before demanding their rent.

My reasoning was simple, I gave them my introduction letter, with the information of where to send the rent, on the first. I figured I was late giving them the information, so I could wait for the rent and equal amount of time.

Unfortunately neither of my tenants paid their rent, and it was the 6th of the month. I had scheduled a tune up of the furnaces, and received a phone call from one of the tenants while I was outside. I informed her I was outside, so she came out to talk to me.

She informed me that they had to register their car, so they were going to have the rent by the 10th. I was prepared just in case, and calmly handed her a 3 day notice.

I went back to talk to the maintenance person then we went, and knocked on the other door of the other unit. This person informed us she was leaving right then to get the rent. Since these tenants are good friends, I believe the first tenant contacted the second, and she decided to get the rent before I gave her a notice.

I was there not only to make sure the mechanic could get in, but to replace a missing smoke detector. After we finished, we entered the next apartment, and the tenant I gave the notice to informed me that her boyfriend would get me a check after he gets off of work. I thanked her for that.

The tenants did give me the rent, in the form of money orders from Western Union. Again I didn't charge a late fee, but this will be the only time.

As of now, if the rent is not in my mailbox, or hand by 4pm on the 5th, I will mail out the 3 day notice. Unfortunately as a result of this situation, I will have the 3 day notices ready to be mailed out as I am checking my mailbox.

This post office has a final collection @ 6:00 pm, so they should get it the next day. Also if they attempt to pay after the 5th, then they will be informed that I cannot accept it without the late fee, and I cannot accept partial payments for rent.

To some unfamiliar with rental property, this seems harsh. But people familiar with rentals quickly learn that if you try to be the nice person, you get taken advantage of. Even though many are nice, decent people, if they learn you will work with them, then they will want to pay somebody else first, and you last. So they need to learn that it's a good idea to pay you first.

The quote related to this is, "This is not your charity."

This means you can care about people, and you can help people, but this is the wrong place to be doing this. You can be generous with your profits, but not with your revenue.

I do believe they have learned they don't want to pay me late. If not, they will get a reminder in the mail.