Ever get hate messages about your STRs?

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Ever get hate messages about your STRs?

Paul Sandhu
Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes

This following is the 2nd full paragraph of my daily Craigslist ad.  What is in italics afterwards is a response someone sent me.

"If a motel room is your standard of living, you are pathetic. I'd rather not rent a house to you. You are low class, you have low standards and are irresponsible with your money. I'd rather not rent a house to you and your problems. You and your problems can stay in a motel room (Brand, Copperhead, DBI Services, King's Construction, P&K Services, Plant Maintenance Services, CRM Construction, SCR, HydroChem and others). I suggest you stay at the Regal Inn, The Schwinn or Big Thief Cabins. They are expensive, small and have no amenities. Those places are for people with problems. Motels are in the ghetto on the east side of town. Cabins are in the once contaminated industrial park north of town. If this sounds like you, do not call me. Call the motel and stay there with your problems."

What a big cry baby *****!  We're all pathetic low lifes, but it looks like you're the pot callin' the kettle black!  You're the scum bag that has been goin around Coffeeville while it was going threw hard time all these years stealing desperate peoples homes away from them. Biding your time, now mr. money bags your going to rob as many hard working contractors you can while cuttin' them down with your smart *** ****. And just to prove you're just as big a pathetic low life piece of **** as the people you accuse, you put your adds in a free crappy site like CL.  You are a ****ing joke!

What do you think of that?  To me it is sort of a compliment.  23 STRs, 2 vacant and ready to rent out.

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Russell BrazilBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
7y

You should not be a business owner.  

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  • Shawn T Sawyer
    Muskogee, OK · Member since 2018 · 9 posts · 9 votes
    7y

    @Paul Sandhu

    Who cares what some people might think. You can laugh at them on your way to the bank.

    2Reply
  • Jack Seiden
    Real Estate Agent · Washington DC · Member since 2016 · 847 posts · 654 votes
    7y

    I would rent to someone living in a motel long before i would rent to you.

    6Reply
  • Nick C.
    Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    7y

    This is a market I don't understand so can't criticize your methods. If the add works to filter out the riffraff on the front end, keep using it. Until being pathetic becomes a protected class you should be okay. 

    3Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    OP
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @Jack Seiden:

    I would rent to someone living in a motel long before i would rent to you.


    If you would rent to someone living in a motel, I could send you 3-5 problem people every week.  I see them all the time doing the pre-employment drug screens.  You'd be out of business in 6 months.  I've rented STRs to about 1400 people, about 50 of the 1400 are the problem type people that I've been talking about in this thread.

    0Reply
  • Richard Jr Caicedo
    Real Estate Agent · Clifton, NJ · Member since 2017 · 28 posts · 11 votes
    7y

    @Paul Sandhu “I'd go up to him, punch him in the arm, and ask him how things are. If he saw me sitting at a restaurant, he'd buy me beers and send them over with the cutest looking waitress. My average renter can relate to my ad. Most people can't.”

    Your ego is screaming for attention! Crazy ad but if it works, it works.

    5Reply
  • David Dachtera
    Rental Property Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2014 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    7y

    Um, @Paul Sandhu ?

    If it works for you, far be it from me to say you should do anything else. I would not, however, recommend it to anyone else.

    Let me just say that I choose to be less critical and more helpful while being business-like, forthright and honest - no coddling, no BS.

    Reminds me of when we tried to engage a local hotel's meeting room for a luncheon after my Dad's funeral. The manager suggested we choose a date that gave him and his staff more time to prepare. We actually had to explain to him how hard it is to "schedule" a funeral.

    0Reply
  • Todd Rasmussen
    Rental Property Investor · Clarksville, TN · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    7y

    I think we are missing the biggest takeaway from this whole post and it's not even what @Paul Sandhu intended to talk about. He does the drug testing for the refinery, and therefore is getting paid to meet potential clients. Talk about a side hustle. Sounds like you have tremendous synergy in your niche.

    Do you have an example of an ad you ran in the past that was less in your face? Did it not do as well? From your description of the demand in the area it sounds like you could start with "F#$! you" and still rent houses (good for you); doesn't mean that's the best route. It may not be a style most would use, including myself, but I can see what you are trying to do and it sounds likes it is working. That being said, the beauty of free enterprise is do what you want and it's working for you. I work with pipe fitters for a living and they are a robust crowd. I think even I could read an ad like that and stop if it was bothering me before I had to spend my time on an angry response.

    Two full paragraphs is way too much for the guys I work with. Six sentences max. :)

    2Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    OP
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    7y

    @Todd Rasmussen  You seem to know the clientele I deal with.  The only scaffold builders I rent to are going to be repeat renters that left on good terms.  Firewatch can eff off. 

    0Reply
  • David Stumpf
    Rental Property Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2017 · 142 posts · 125 votes
    7y

    SMH. You are turning as many good tenants away as bad tenants with a paragraph like that. If I was looking at temporary housing for work I would avoid the LL that airs out all his dirty laundry in a fb post.

    1Reply
  • Paul Sandhu
    OP
    Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @David Stumpf:

    SMH. You are turning as many good tenants away as bad tenants with a paragraph like that. If I was looking at temporary housing for work I would avoid the LL that airs out all his dirty laundry in a fb post.

    Sorry David.  If you came here you'd be staying in a motel along with all the other undesirable people.  You'd pay more than staying in one of my houses, plus you couldn't cook or do your laundry in your own house.  I'd also give you an F grade for reading comprehension.  Facebook?  23 Short Term Rentals with 83 beds, 21 houses are rented out.  My current ad has been up 6 months.  I see no problem.

    But I realize you have no idea what my market and clientele is like.  So take no offense.

    0Reply
  • Jason Abrams
    Member since 2019 · 4 posts · 6 votes
    7y

    As a person of color, I would hope that you see the bigger issue with your ad. We now have a president in office that uses your same rhetoric, if you haven't noticed. "If you don't like it here, you can go [home]." is a great example, especially when the word "home" to these people is the US.

    Obviously, you're free to create whatever post you want, but living here, as an immigrant, like many of us, I would think you would have a greater understanding of how separating people by class is underlying problem that plagues our country.

    Yes, this is not the same thing as it's a business and we "don't know your clientele", but listen to the tone of your ad and tell me that you don't see the similarity to the tone of prejudice in America.

    6Reply
  • Michael BaumPro Member
    Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    7y
    I am not sure what that has to do with Paul's post. Very different things really. You can't conflate the various newsmedia soundbites into how Paul runs his business. He does know his market and makes sure he takes steps to eliminate the undesirable elements that will drag down his business overall and make life difficult for the tenants who do well.
    When you rent to someone, do you allow drug use, late payments, violent behavior and the like? I don't see that as prejudice, but prudent. 
    Barring someone for behavior is not the same as barring due to race etc.
    Having said that, my 2 cents is this more about his purchase of homes that the poster feels he "stole" or "took advantage of" people to get them.
    1Reply
  • Will Dixon
    Accountant · Corte Madera, CA · Member since 2018 · 73 posts · 88 votes
    7y

    @Paul Sandhu

    As other people have also stated, I don’t know your market so it is a bit hard to comment on the dynamics. That being said, the issues I have with your ad:

    1. You specifically name other businesses and bad mouth them as low class accommodations. It doesn’t seem like a particularly clean way to run your business if you can’t be successful without dissing the competition. I’ve read some of your other posts about putting up advertisements for your properties right across the street from some motels and having the owners cut them down. Do what you need to keep a competitive advantage, but at some point you should draw the line. You already have a HUGE leg up on all the other business owners by one on one screening all the incoming workers through the drug testing. Your competition does not.

    2. Your appeal to the prospective tenant is somewhat insulting. I get that they’re extremely gruff blue collar workers but do you really need to make classist remarks to get them interested?

    Also, whoever wrote that ad IS IN YOUR MARKET. So the rest of us are interesting this based off your post(s) but whoever wrote that response arguably has a lot more to go off of.

    My 2¢

    1Reply
  • Colby Merrill
    Rental Property Investor · Yukon, OK · Member since 2016 · 25 posts · 11 votes
    7y

    @Paul Sandhu

    I understand you Paul. I used to live this life myself for years when I was in the oil field. The company had no problems paying the bill because we were making money. However, my more colorful companions were a rough hillbilly, redneck, willy bunch, and a lot of them had problems, did drugs, we're alcoholics, and numerous other character flaws that we're just as appealing. The number of times we had to change motels in the middle of the night because of a guy threw a tv out the window, of punched the owner was ridiculous. They say you have to go to extremes in extreme situations. If I would have read this as I would have called you just to get away from their "problems".

    1Reply
  • Account Closed
    Financial Advisor · CA · Member since 2012 · 128 posts · 76 votes
    7y

    Did Brandon tell you to write this?  Maybe he wanted to substitute your post for a podcast.  Pretty entertaining.  Thanks Brandon!

    0Reply
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