Brandon's Landlord Adventures: Tenant Pain

A property sale can be (almost always is) hard on the tenants of a rental property. When we are the listing agents on rentals, we tell the tenants right from the start, "Although we'll do what we can to minimize it... this process is going to be a pain for you."

There's just nothing good in a sale for the tenants. Their lives are going to be disrupted by strange investors traipsing through their home. Then inspectors, appraisers, contractors, property managers... all of it a big fat disruption.

The Landlord Tenant Law requires that, during a property sale, we give the tenants 24 hours' notice before entering the home. We always try to work with the tenant's schedule, but at the end of the day, if push comes to shove and we need access to do our job... we have a key, we have to get inside, and the law allows for that.

That conversation is never fun.

At the dual duplexes I recently bought, which were listed by Jacson Bevens at our firm, one of the four tenants was outright rude to every single person who stepped foot on the property. She threatened harm, threatened to slash tires, to call the police... she just made trouble constantly. Let's call her "Not Nice Nelly".

The other three tenants were understandably concerned, but were gracious with showings and contractor visits. It was as if they were:

A) just decent people who accepted that this was part of life, and...B) they were thinking ahead to the fact that one of the people visiting would become the new owner, their new landlord... and they wanted to stay on his or her good side.

If that sort of "thinking ahead and setting the stage for a smooth transition and long, interruption-free future" concept makes you roll your eyes -- because you shouldn't "have to" do that sort of thing -- then perhaps you're not human

.This is how the world works. It's how business and personal relationships work. And it's how rentals work. There are no guarantees. But one can certainly stack the odds in one's favor.

Three of the four tenants kept a pleasant disposition throughout the admittedly painful showing and sale process. Not Nice Nelly took the opposite approach at every turn.

In a future post, we'll discover how it all worked out for all four tenants.