Since the real estate collapse in the mid 2000s, more people than ever are renting rather than purchasing their own home. Renting has become popular in many different forms, from apartments, to multi-plexes, to houses of all sizes. Whether a person rents or own their own home has no bearing on their income status, credit score, or any other financial details of their lives. Many people simply choose to rent until the real estate market stabilizes. As more people rent, more people encounter the various types of landlords in their lives. Some landlords are extremely helpful and accommodating to renters, while others are extremely demanding and unforgiving of tenants.
For your enjoyment, we have collected a list of the top five stereotypical landlords that you may find during your renting experience.
The Do-It-Myself
This landlord hates to spend extra money on labor or other repair services. This landlord is often a tightwad, and may give you trouble in other financial aspects of renting, such as by trying to raise the rent as much as possible each year or expecting you to pay for certain repairs to the home. This landlord will show up to a maintenance request himself and try to fix the problem on his own. If the landlord is capable of repairing the issue on his own this is not normally a problem, but if the landlord is under qualified to make the repair- then watch out.
The Meany
The Meany landlord is meaner than the Grinch at Christmas. She will take no excuses for late rents or responsibility for broken items in the home. The Meany automatically assumes that anything that goes wrong in the house is your fault. She may try to get you to pay for any repairs, and will be unforgiving when it comes to getting your deposit back at the end of your lease. The Meany is a landlord you want to avoid at all costs.
The Nice Guy
Not all landlords are bad. Some are quite nice and friendly. The Nice Guy landlord will work with you for late payments and will try to accomplish any repairs as quickly as possible. The Nice Guy may also try to befriend you, which can be a little awkward. He may even go so far as to send you a card on your birthday or even buy you a Christmas present.
The Pop-in
This landlord does not understand the concept of privacy. She may pop in at any moment- night or day. Sometimes seen prowling the property at night, the Pop-in landlord can quickly become a thing of nightmares. This landlord falsely assumes that because she owns the property, she has free reign over when she visits.
The Scatterbrain
Having a Scatterbrain landlord is a lot like renting property from a turkey. Scatterbrain landlord never seems to remember anything. You must ask him multiple times for any request and it could be days before he remembers to call you back. The more properties a landlord manages by himself, the more likely he is to become a Scatterbrain landlord.
Although there are many types of landlords, you probably will run across one of these stereotypical landlords at some point in your life, but you can minimalize the risk by reading apartment reviews before renting. Rather than getting angry, the best response is to laugh and move on to a new location if you really cannot learn to live with the personality of your current landlord.