Okay guys; let’s hear it; Share your CRAZY TENANT STORIES!!!
Rental Property Investor · Phila, PA · Member since 2018 · 553 posts · 118 votes
Okay guys; let’s hear it; Share your CRAZY TENANT STORIES!!!
Most Popular Reply
Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
7yHIPAA protects personal information. It does not prevent doctors from sharing general information about their patients or even one particular patient because the patient is never identified in any way. The OP is not asking us to "name and shame" anyone. He's not asking us to make fun of mentally ill people because of their illness. He's asking us to share our "crazy stories" about tenants and the way they've treated Landlords or properties. In fact, just because someone acts "crazy" doesn't mean they are literally mentally unstable.
When a tenant uses the bath tub for a toilet and literally fills it with human waste, I will share that story with other Landlords just like a Doctor might share stories of the objects found lodged in a patient's rectum. Whether the tenant is suffering from a mental illness or not doesn't really pertain to the story, does it?
Last week I shared a video of an apartment full of stuff left behind by a tenant. I was very careful to not identify the tenant or even the address in order to protect her privacy. I mentioned she suffered from dementia, not to make fun of her or her ailment but to point out the reality associated with that illness, the issue it created for me as a Landlord, and how I resolved the issue. It was a real-world situation that others will face and I shared my experience so others could be better prepared. When a surgeon talks about operating on a 600-pound man, he isn't body-shaming the obese person; he's sharing his experience to help others.
UGH. I've clearly wasted way too much time on this subject.
The DIY Landlord Book4.7248 Reviews
24 Replies
- Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes7y
"A crazy tenant" is most often a psychologically battered human being under immense mental stress. This is a cruel thread.
- Member since 2016 · 13k+ posts · 12k+ votes7y
Jim is correct. Regrettably your application can not include the question "are you crazy". Unfortunately.
One of my inherited tenants:
Sociopath. prime suspect in shooting death of husband, prime suspect in disappearance of second husband, attempted poisoning of 3rd husband, charged with forging checks, self admitted to mental hospital to avoid charges, drug dealer, police snitch, suspected of arson in 3 separate cases, intimidated and threatened all other tenants. Also had a large bull dog professionally trained for defence/protection. It was not a pet.
Always paid rent on time so I guess some landlords would say...... otherwise a good tenant.
Took 3 years, 12 eviction hearings and over 3K to get rid of. Please do not ask me why I would choose to get rid of a good paying tenant.
- Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes7y
@Jim K. I believe the adjective "crazy" is referencing "story". Even if he intentionally meant "crazy tenants" are you implying it is "cruel" to discuss our experiences while referencing their mental state? The medical community discusses the behavior of "crazy" people all the time.
The DIY Landlord Book4.7248 Reviews - Property Manager · Lancaster, PA · Member since 2016 · 72 posts · 75 votes7y
Calling a tenant crazy isn't cruel. Contracting someone to clean the human waste off all the walls and floors from the crazy tenant is cruel. But sometimes necessary.
- Rental Property Investor · East Wenatchee, WA · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes7y
One was just shared with me. LL has a water supply underground leak from the meter to the house on a huge lot with 2 other houses. He's over there with an excavator digging it up. Asks the tenant about late rent while there. She hurt her leg so is out of work and 'can't deal with that right now.'
'We need to talk about this. Don't leave', he says. She flees and backs her car up like a bat outta he'll right into his truck. Smack! 'I dont have insurance, either!' she yells as she peels away. (Probably flipping the bird)
Phew I'm thinking. I was under contract to buy this property 3 years ago and remember this tenant. Gave me a laundry list of things I need to fix and drama the second I entered. Wholesaled that deal to this poor guy, but he was laughing when he told me about it. Gotta have patience and a good attitude in this business!
- Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes7y
Originally posted by @Nathan Gesner:
@Jim K. I believe the adjective "crazy" is referencing "story". Even if he intentionally meant "crazy tenants" are you implying it is "cruel" to discuss our experiences while referencing their mental state? The medical community discusses the behavior of "crazy" people all the time.
I think it's cruel to make fun of the deeply unfortunate, the down and out, the broken and dispirited members of our society.
The medical community discusses the behavior of the insane all the time under the privacy provisions of the HIPAA act. As my wife is a geriatric nursing assistant in age-related dementia care, I can verify that it is very important to an overwhelming majority of the members of the medical community to uphold the privacy and dignity of those in their care. There's no HIPAA for landlords.
I think you'll agree that there is more than a slight tendency on this website to speak of tenants, especially problem tenants who do irrational things, as if they were subhuman.
- Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes7y
@Cameron Riley
I clicked on this thinking you meant some semi humorous stories. I guess some people thought you wanted stories from the American Association of Psychological Disorders. Maybe I’ll check back later.
- Member since 2016 · 13k+ posts · 12k+ votes7y
"I think it's cruel to make fun of the deeply unfortunate, the down and out, the broken and dispirited members of our society."
Your being a bit of a buzz kill. Crazy is not a mental terminology or condition. Doubtful you will hear a medical praticioner refer to their patients as crazy, at lease not outside of their own circle.
- Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes7y
HIPAA protects personal information. It does not prevent doctors from sharing general information about their patients or even one particular patient because the patient is never identified in any way. The OP is not asking us to "name and shame" anyone. He's not asking us to make fun of mentally ill people because of their illness. He's asking us to share our "crazy stories" about tenants and the way they've treated Landlords or properties. In fact, just because someone acts "crazy" doesn't mean they are literally mentally unstable.
When a tenant uses the bath tub for a toilet and literally fills it with human waste, I will share that story with other Landlords just like a Doctor might share stories of the objects found lodged in a patient's rectum. Whether the tenant is suffering from a mental illness or not doesn't really pertain to the story, does it?
Last week I shared a video of an apartment full of stuff left behind by a tenant. I was very careful to not identify the tenant or even the address in order to protect her privacy. I mentioned she suffered from dementia, not to make fun of her or her ailment but to point out the reality associated with that illness, the issue it created for me as a Landlord, and how I resolved the issue. It was a real-world situation that others will face and I shared my experience so others could be better prepared. When a surgeon talks about operating on a 600-pound man, he isn't body-shaming the obese person; he's sharing his experience to help others.
UGH. I've clearly wasted way too much time on this subject.
The DIY Landlord Book4.7248 Reviews - Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes7y
There are just as many crazy landlords as there are crazy tenants. You don't have to pass a test to buy rental property. In fact landlords often go through less screening than tenants.
- Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes7y
Is this going to turn into yet another thread BP that devolves into a totally off topic debate in which people who have nearly zero qualifications in a given area argue in circles over a pedantic point instead of admitting that both sides are more interested in being "right" than getting closer to the truth of the issue?
Because if it is, let everyone know up front so those of us that want to learn about REI can tune out.
After the "I'll evict you on Xmas because I’m such a harda**” post, the two 100+ reply threads on “college is good, college is for the sheeple”, and the “should I rent to a felon” thread that morphed into a debate about nature of the criminal justice system in the US, it seems that we have strayed from our roots as a REAL ESTATE forum where people talk and learn about REAL ESTATE related issues to a venue for real estate investors to espouse their world views on any number of given topics that are at best tangentially related to real estate.
If I wanted to read a bunch of people, who have put next to no thought into a given area, treat every issue as if there are only two sides and defend their position to the death at the expense of reason, I’d go to the YouTube comments section.
I know it wasn’t the OP’s intention, but posts like these further this notion that our tenants are somehow a necessary evil in our investing lives that must be endured and tolerated. That could not be further from the truth. They are our customers, we have a product that they demand. There is a massive shift in the way consumers shop and their expectations of retail providers happening right now. Granted RE is 5-10 behind traditional retailers when it comes to marketing trends, but the shift is coming. We will feel the impacts of the increased consumer demand for convenience and service. Shifting our thinking from tenants to customers can only help us prepare for the inevitable market changes.
- Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes7y
I could have and should have worded what I wrote much better and less combatively. Instead, it looked like I was pointing the finger at people whose business practices and code of professional conduct I respect. I'm sorry for offering that impression, @Nathan Gesner
- 7yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
well how about taking a metal cloths hanger and sticking it straight into the powerhead and taping it directly to the 220.. now thats crazy.
cut water meteroff run garden hose directly to house with enough wasted water to create a draught.
wife rents to this nice hair dresser who they pay like a slot machine.. next thing i know ATF is calling me the boy friend that moved in has shot and killed someone ...
and of course we all have the tenants that destroy your house.. I had one so bad.. and mine were A class new construction not sure what got into this guy we had no bad words or anything.. but he did so much damage that my insurance company covered the 60k and went after him criminally.
But i have others that never called and took care of all sorts fo things on their own.. replace appliances one even put gutters around the house so his dog would not get his paws so wet. LOL but thats my last tenant.. one thing about the A class is I have sold half of those to my tenants.. so it saves me fix up work and commish.
- Lender · Pensacola, FL · Member since 2017 · 658 posts · 626 votes7y
Google "suicide cleanup service" because property owners and managers have to deal with this harsh reality of human nature sometimes.
Back in the 1970s, I was a volunteer at a crisis intervention hotline (non-professional with a few hours of training by the real professionals). Most people who called where going through a temporary rough patch in their life (divorce, breakup, layoff, death of a loved one, and so forth) and simply needed an anonymous, non-judgmental ear on the other end of the phone to talk to ("active listening"). But sometimes more was needed and we had a pre-approved list of referral services we could provide to a caller (phone numbers and street addresses in those days). The Suicide Prevention Center was easy to find in the phone book because its listing came right after Suicide Cleanup Service.
I eventually stopped doing this volunteer work because of burnout. It felt good helping people at first (and it made me realize I wasn't the only "crazy person" out there), but after a while, the callers would change while the topics didn't. It seemed like I was trying to push a string up a hill and getting nowhere. I finally decided I was better able to serve the community by getting out of the way and letting others more qualified than myself answer the phones.
What I learned as an active listener, however, has helped me in other areas of life. Sometimes it's better just to listen and let others do the talking. My realtor is good at this. She quietly listened to me when I wanted to buy my house and again when I wanted to sell my house. She asked intelligent follow-on questions, which told me she was actively listening to me and trying to understand my house buy-sell needs so she could meet them (which she did).
- Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes7y
@Bill F. some of these threads are definitely less about investing and more about people debating nonsense.
I mainly wanted to comment on your last paragraph, because I couldn't agree more that a shift is coming in RE. Tenants are customers, but many people view them more as employees (or children). Worse yet some landlords are unresponsive and technologically inept. I have seen landlords say, "I never text people back right away, it sends the wrong message". Still trying to wrap my head around that logic. The biggest shift I have made is technology. Self property viewing, online application, electronic lease signing and online rent payment. Tenants can do everything through their mobile phone.
The other thing I see is the effects of social media on business reputation. Bad businesses are getting killed in social media. Over the weekend on Facebook, I say five different posts by the same guy who found a bed bug at a local hotel. Hotel refused to give him his money back. He got mad and cross posted on every local rummage and housing site. There were 20 replies on each one, with people sharing their own stories blasting the hotel. This is the risk landlords face to their reputation. That hotel room probably cost $100 for the night - was it worth it to not make this customer happy?
I am curious what other shifts you see? If we are going to hijack threads, might as well make it useful.
- Rental Property Investor · Phila, PA · Member since 2018 · 553 posts · 118 votes7y
@Jim K.
Sorry Jim. I should of used “ nightmare “ instead of crazy. Didn’t mean to insult. At all. Totally understand mental health issues within the country.
- Rental Property Investor · Phila, PA · Member since 2018 · 553 posts · 118 votes7y
@Jim K.
Jim, I’m sorry if you or anyone took this the wrong way lol.
I deal with low income housing. It’s how I got my start and that’s my market..
Crazy, in this thread means “ troublesome tenant “ and their is never a valid excuse to be troublesome. EVER.
“ sorry landlord, I stuffed your toilet with rags because I had mental breakdown “
Okay, does that justify what you did? NO. Ted bundy had a mental breakdown. Killed 40 girls. Do we justify that?
Crazy.. is never an excuse. This post was simple to say “ hey fellow landlords, tell me some insane or wild stories of your BAD TENANTS “
- Rental Property Investor · Phila, PA · Member since 2018 · 553 posts · 118 votes7y
@Anthony Wick
I was looking for some funny, insane or weird stories lol! People took this the WRONG WAY! Sad society we have now a days!
- 7yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock:
@Bill F. some of these threads are definitely less about investing and more about people debating nonsense.
I mainly wanted to comment on your last paragraph, because I couldn't agree more that a shift is coming in RE. Tenants are customers, but many people view them more as employees (or children). Worse yet some landlords are unresponsive and technologically inept. I have seen landlords say, "I never text people back right away, it sends the wrong message". Still trying to wrap my head around that logic. The biggest shift I have made is technology. Self property viewing, online application, electronic lease signing and online rent payment. Tenants can do everything through their mobile phone.
The other thing I see is the effects of social media on business reputation. Bad businesses are getting killed in social media. Over the weekend on Facebook, I say five different posts by the same guy who found a bed bug at a local hotel. Hotel refused to give him his money back. He got mad and cross posted on every local rummage and housing site. There were 20 replies on each one, with people sharing their own stories blasting the hotel. This is the risk landlords face to their reputation. That hotel room probably cost $100 for the night - was it worth it to not make this customer happy?
I am curious what other shifts you see? If we are going to hijack threads, might as well make it useful.
I think again so much of how you handle tenants is regional. some of the markets we were in 90% of the tenant base did not have checking accounts.. did not have computers or really know how to use them. so when PM tried to make a lot of this stuff automated they had some pretty tough issues to deal with. payment being the number one.. in other markets sure. even like self storage many of those now you can use a kiosk with no personal involvement.
Now in my day job of financing a lot of turn key.. you have some vendors that are in markets were their is certainly competition for the better tenants so they will do their rehabs at a level even above many starter new constructions. IE all tile bathrooms.. nice modern cabinets slab grantie .. 3 colors in the house all designer paint etc etc. Then i have other vendors that just do enough to pass hud with their thought process is does not make a difference since its what is SOP by most of all the landlords in that particular market.
one big shift though i see is flooring. and getting away from carpet when ever possible saving wood floors.. etc. Then you have the LUX apartment product like we have had built in the last 5 years in PDX>. top shelf everything glass buildings elevators work out rooms etc etc.
- Rental Property Investor · Phila, PA · Member since 2018 · 553 posts · 118 votes7y
@Bill F.
Great post bill.
Yes, people need to stay on topic and take things with a grain of salt. I wanted stories. Didn’t mean to make anyone mad by using the word crazy lollll.
I’ve seen all those college posts and debates..
90 percent of the debates are awesome, the others become foolish
- Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes7y
Excellent post Joe. I agree 100% let’s take the post away from trash talking the people who make us $$$. As Ben Leybovich is fond of saying, you don’t buy an asset, you buy a tenant. It seems odd to me that one would buy into a particular tenant class and then bemoan them. After all, no one put a gun to our heads and made us buy our rentals in B,C, or D class neighbors. It was our choice.
I do a lot of the same things you do. My rentals are nearly totally online, from advertising, screening, applications, leases, rent collection. I don’t have a ton of SFRs, but I have literally never signed a lease with a pen. If a resident has an issue with a property I get an email describing the problem, which I can then forward to a contractor. Heck, I even get notified if the resident turns off auto pay. As I’ve shifted to Mobile Home Parks for my new purchases we try and do the same thing, cut down on un-needed touch points with the residents, to increase efficiency through technology.
At the end of the day, the more efficient we are, the higher profit we can make and more competitive prices we can offer. All of this isn’t just to make our lives easier, it also impacts the residents. They don’t want to be calling us a million times over a broken ice maker (sure, insert some anecdotal story about a tenant that never stopped calling a landlord over petty issues. They exist, when you have a sample size large enough, you’ll get all sorts of outliers. However, I tend not to design my systems and process around outliers.) They want a safe, clean, affordable home with the minimum amount of hassle.
I can totally see what your point about social media’s impact on reputation, but I think it plays a much larger role in brand management and has limited impacts on the small time landlord who don’t have a brand. Say I unfairly take all of a security deposit. Sure the resident can blast me on social media and tie that address to the issue, but unless they go to the county records and get all my other rental addresses, it won’t have much of an impact. That seems unlikely that they would go to that much work and even if they Zillow/trulia’s SEO makes my ad listing jump to the top over Joe Blows facebook rant.
Now when I hire a PM, you bet I look at their online ratings, but more than that, how they manage their online presence. Do they let disgruntled tenants walk all over them with no response, get in internet tough guy arguments, or have measured adult responses to unfounded accusations?
As for big shifts, marketing isn’t really my forte so I don’t have a ton to offer you there, particular with how it will shift with respect to RE. I did listen to Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor a Wharton, talk about how some retailers have fought back against Amazon with success and that was fascinating. I can see some of the customer satisfaction focus creep into RE. More and more people expect things to work 100% of the time and if they don’t it’s an issue. Amazon can get them a toaster from halfway across the country in two days so why is the HVAC out for 24hrs? This makes me even more focused on preventive maintenance and/or buying high quality objects vice the fix it when it breaks mentality.
With the shift to the most important screen in people’s lives being their phone landlords will have to adapt to all the changes that come with that, texting vice calling, looking everything up on their phones, wanting an app or portal to pay, communicate, get updates. The phrase is omni channel. The seamless integration between online and offline. If I had bet, I’d say that this “omni channel expectation” is going to have the largest impact on landlording.
But hey, I’m some random guy on the internet.
- Real Estate Investor · Springfield, OR · Member since 2013 · 94 posts · 35 votes7y
Bought a duplex, one side was vacant, the other side had a single tenant in a 3-bed rental, been there for 21 years and his rent was never raised. Paying half of market rent.
Googling his name produced a long list of court cases. Apparently he sues everyone for everything, and actually appealed one case all the way to the 9th Circuit. We gave him a no-cause notice, but I'm not betting he's going to comply!
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.