Breakdown of leadership of tenants in a STR

[Paul Sandhu]

Back in January I had 5 guys move in to a STR. They are refinery contractors whose primary language is Spanish. 1 guy was the superintendent. He estimates jobs for the refinery and makes bids on them for the rest of the crew to do the work. There was enough work to last a year. He was the leader. I invited him to my house to shoot guns and drink beer. I made him happy.

I need to keep the leader happy, because the rest of the people in the crew will do what the leader wants.  It was all good until he was transferred to another refinery.

Guy #2 is my next emergent leader.  He's a short tempered butt.  But I keep him happy.  He keeps the other guys in line and collects all the rent for me from the other guys.  

He found a short term senorita girlfriend to stay with and moved out of the house.  Now I'm left with 3 guys that are not leader types and I have trouble communicating with them.  They are grumbling about the rent, even though I'm giving them a discount.  There is a mobile home park .5 mile away where they could stay for about half the money, but no washer/dryer, no full kitchen, no wifi, no smart tv, or individual rooms.

What would you suggest I do to keep these guys in my STR and keep them happy?

[Julie McCoy]

Honestly, I'd tell them if they don't like it, they're welcome to move out.  They probably won't actually do it, and it might shut up their complaining, since they know you don't care about it.

[Jacob Villalobos]

Make them happy? Too much work for me.

Rent each room out individually with a lease. 

STOP trying to make a tenant happy. 

***Also lower your income expectations if the market will not sustain a good supply for quality tenants 

[John Underwood]

Same as with a long term tenant. They pay the rent when due. They pay you, you don't chase them to be paid or they have to leave.

[Paul Sandhu]

I showed the guys another house before they moved into the one they are currently in.  The other house is smaller and costs less.  They never asked me if they could move into the smaller house.

If they really wanted to save money, they would have done that by now.  I think they just wanted to complain.  Case closed.

[Mike Reynolds]

Originally posted by @Paul Sandhu:

Back in January I had 5 guys move in to a STR. They are refinery contractors whose primary language is Spanish. 1 guy was the superintendent. He estimates jobs for the refinery and makes bids on them for the rest of the crew to do the work. There was enough work to last a year. He was the leader. I invited him to my house to shoot guns and drink beer. I made him happy.

I need to keep the leader happy, because the rest of the people in the crew will do what the leader wants.  It was all good until he was transferred to another refinery.

Guy #2 is my next emergent leader.  He's a short tempered butt.  But I keep him happy.  He keeps the other guys in line and collects all the rent for me from the other guys.  

He found a short term senorita girlfriend to stay with and moved out of the house.  Now I'm left with 3 guys that are not leader types and I have trouble communicating with them.  They are grumbling about the rent, even though I'm giving them a discount.  There is a mobile home park .5 mile away where they could stay for about half the money, but no washer/dryer, no full kitchen, no wifi, no smart tv, or individual rooms.

What would you suggest I do to keep these guys in my STR and keep them happy?

You have been doing the right thing. The dynamics of a road warrior construction crew is just exactly like you say. The leader either keeps them in line or he doesn't. I speak from experience as I am a road warrior superintendent currently not on the road. Sometimes there is no easy answer and you just need to cut your losses. Not everyone is cut out to be a leader and it seems your current guy isn't. 

I learned the hard way on the Hispanic rules. One leader I had working for me was lazy so my father fired him. He asked  "Are you sure you want to do that?" Well yes he did. He left and thirty guys walked out the door behind him. Just like that. We were framing a large apartment in New Orleans.  Took three days to get another crew and two weeks to get the proper dynamic back.

[Cheryl Vargas]

@Paul Sandhu

Are you going to fill the other 2 rooms, since it sounds like it is a 5-bedroom house?

[Paul Sandhu]

@Cheryl Vargas It's beyond my control who gets the rooms.  Two beds are empty.  The company sent two more guys here for the current job, they chose to stay in a motel room instead of my house with the 3 guys.  

About all I can hope for is that more people get sent here that are friends with my current tenants, and they all share the house.

I guess it's a nice problem to have, most everything is rented but most places that are rented are under capacity.

[Paul Sandhu]

Update.  Went to collect rent this evening.  It was all on the table with just one guy in the house.  As I was leaving, Leader #2 (the guy that moved out to stay with some senorita he met) was bringing in a bunch of groceries.  I asked his why he wasn't with his girlfriend.  He said things didn't work with her out so he moved back in the house.

So the house is back on autopilot and everyone is happy, me and them.  I'm not worried about them moving to a lower cost place to live.

So the lesson for Biggerpockets readers is this:  When things turn sour, it may not be a permanent thing.  Things can turn around for the better without any intervention on your part.