Went over to a rental property today to work on a leaking basement window. One of my tenants was at home recovering from surgery on his arm. While I was there, a vein in his arm ruptured and he started bleeding heavily all over his couch. I got him to a chair, called 9-1-1, and put heavy pressure on his arm with a wrapped towel until the EMTs showed up. They strapped on a tourniquet before hauling him off to the hospital.

I'm sitting there in the kitchen surrounded by blood and vomit (my tenant vomited and passed out for a bit there), and he starts thanking me as we hear the EMTs roll up, "Thank you...thank you...I owe you one...I owe you one, Jim."

"Absolutely, you owe me $650 every month."

"I ain't got it, Jim..."

"That's OK, it isn't the first of the month yet."

The next time some non-landlord posts in this forum about how bad low-income -housing fixer slumlords should feel for taking advantage of our C/D-class tenants, I'm going to try not to jump down their throat, but no promises.  If you're thinking about posting something like that and you've never walked in our shoes, yes, things like this are part of the life. Twenty minutes of holding a man's arm together, hoping the EMTs make it in time before he slips away, praying as hard as you can for all the strength that God can give you in this hour of need. And then afterwards the shakes, and the insomnia at 3:00 in the morning. My $650 a month is not thirty pieces of silver.