If you are a renter, you have many obstacles ahead of you. Landlords are full of horror stories, and you are just another potential horror story. Based on statistical evidence, you are not an ideal tenant. You want and need to be the best renter the new landlord has ever seen.
No landlord really wants you, but they need you. They need you to help them pay their rental mortgage; they need you to help them pay their personal mortgage, they need you to help them retire early. But they do not need you to come around and damage the premise or cause them a lot of extra work. Here is how to be the best renter you can possibly be.
My rentals are multifamily, but much of this advice translates to all rentals. Much of it I have seen firsthand.
How to Be a Landlord’s Ideal Tenant — and Get into Any Rental You Choose
Prepare for the Apartment Viewing Process
When you set up a showing for a rental property, it is really an interview. You are interviewing the landlord or property management company, and they are interviewing you. Make a critical mistake in this process, and you will have to move on to the next property. You do not have to be dressed for church, but do not come looking like you are homeless.
Have you ever been turned down for a rental? If so, what was the landlord’s reason? If you are a landlord, what do you find to be the most detrimental things a tenant does to get rejected.
Good Topic, as I’ve had well over 40 rentals In past 12 years. What is the real deal breaker for me? WELL it’s when a potential tenant talks bad about last landlord, how the last place they had was bad because the screen kept falling off, ANOTHERWORDS, petty tenants. A good tenant doesn’t complain over simple things. A broken face place that may have been broken upon move in costs 75 cents. I don’t want to hear about how you hated your last landlord, or even wanted to sue them. It’s an instant NOT QUALIFIED TENANT for me. Likewise the desperate person who says they want the place while I’m finishing final touches , yet showing it , and they say they want it bad and will finish painting it. Well I fell for that 2 times and guess what, when they moved out, they never did finish painting it. So you need to be pleasant yet nutural. As much as we like a tenant taking care of small things, if you don’t report big issues that need repair they may cost US landlords big time later on. So we want someone whos not a complainer but not an avoider. This is my opinion. I’m sure others will chime in.
I liked everything about your post except for the idea that hanging laundry on the deck is somehow bad. Doesn’t everyone at least air out their linens once a year to get rid of mites and such? Beyond that, who cares if someone hangs a few shirts to dry on the back deck? You say that’s “not living like a normal human being,” I say the vast majority of people in the world hang their laundry to dry and you’re being a bit silly.
Thank you for the comment!
In a single family home, that is NOT in an HOA, it would be OK. It’s a suburban habit to hang clothes on the clothes line. In a multifamily setting, or in most HOAs, it is a trashy habit. Can you imagine a decent apartment where many people are hanging their clothes in various manners and amounts? It would look like a low-income apartment and the landlord would have a hard time attracting renters.
While the “vast majority of people in the world hang their laundry to dry”, the vast majority do not live in an HOA. Nor do they live in an decent apartment.