Unfortunately there are far too many landlords like that around. They just don't care. They want their rent money but they don't want to fix anything that needs to be repaired. I have had landlords like that in the past. They always promise to do things but you never see them. Eventually I got fed up and moved out.
Yes, good things to keep in mind. Paying the rent on time is often what suffers when landlords and tenants are *too* friendly, I think. I believe it's a great idea to have some kind of arrangement that you'll do repairs since you see them first like you said you did in your case, Corzhens. Our tenant... well, he tries to do a few things and he needs to mow the lawn but anything that's not very minor he reports to the property manager who takes care of it and subtracts it from what he sends us. (House is in another state.) It works well... and I'm glad we're not friendly with the tenant. I think it would make things like late rent even more of a problem. Friendly, yes (like someone already point out here) but not "friends."
I think it's good to have a good landlord-tenant relationship in business terms but not in personal terms too. As what Rainman and Kate said, issues regarding late payments could be hard to deal with because of the friendly relationship that the landlord has with the tenant. In the end, the landlord will be the one who suffers because of letting the tenant off the hook for paying late rents out of friendship.
This is, by the way, precisely why I wouldn't rent to relatives... I'd have a terrible time charging a late payment, but *they* most likely would give paying the rent a lower priority. Maybe it would all work out fine, but I wouldn't be willing to take the risk to find out. I'd rather be the big ogre of a landlord that everyone knows they'd better not cross. ha!
I agree with not renting to relatives or being too friendly with your tenants. I know of people who have rented to relatives and the majority of the time it never ended well. In one case they had to ask them to leave and by doing so it destroyed the relationship with a lot of other relatives who sided with the person who was renting. They figured a relative should never put you out and there was just cause for doing so.
Another issue with a relative tenant is their habit of asking for a discount. Our former landlord told me that they had relatives for tenants which gave them a big headache. Aside from delayed rental payments, they are always besieged with request for discounts for so many alibis. In the end, the landlord gave the relative tenant 3 months of free rent on condition that they vacate the apartment.
Well people never cease to amaze me. Just because they are related they expected to be treated differently. Makes no sense for me. Glad he was finally able to get them to leave but 3 months free rent, that is crazy but I guess in the end it was all worth it just to get them out of there.
This scenario is not quite the same with landlording. Here, the transaction often lasts a year or more, with each side tied to the other. It can be very difficult to cut those ties if the transaction or relationship starts to go south. Plus, as landlords we get to see people at their most basic level — in their homes, when perhaps they are not always going to be on their best behavior or putting their best foot forward. We may even see our tenants at their worst or after a tragic event. These unique characteristics can make it really difficult for a landlord or a tenant to be nice all the time. Because of this uniqueness in the landlord/tenant relationship, being nice is not what is really needed. Perhaps the “nice” part flows out of and is the result of something else. That something else is respect. Perhaps I will be nice if you respect me and my property. Perhaps you will be nice to me if I respect you and your home. So if respect leads to being “nice,” how does each side in the relationship earn and keep the other’s respect?
