The guy you are renting from is an idiot

I'm a successful landlord. I've been doing it for over 10 years, I've never had a bad tenant. I'm not a big or a small landlord, I own a couple of rental properties. Its a part-time gig for me, and I'm very particular in who I choose to rent from me (credit score, work history, references, etc). I'm a "good guy" landlord, very fair, very hands on. I'm a licensed contractor, I'm the one that does all the repairs, etc. I charge a very fair market space. My tenants love me, I love my tenants. They call me in the middle of the night, and I'm there right away. I sit my tenants down every year and explain my financials to them. I explain that I can raise the rent more but I think that that's not fair, and I'd rather not have to chase rent each month. My tenants aren't clients, they are family. I've been a tenant myself, I know what its like to be treated fairly. If you're my tenant, you have nothing to worry about.<br><br>Just like any landlord, I have to raise rent every year (or at least I should...). If you're paying attention to inflation, you know that it gets more expensive each year to own a property, which means I have to raise rent to keep up with that expense. Sometimes if inflation is crazy (like it is now) I have to raise it more than normal, and sometimes its only a few percent. As a tenant, this should be expected. If you're renting from me, and I tell you that I'm going to be raising the rent next year, that's just a cost of renting. You don't have to rent from me, you can leave if you want. I don't want you to, because like I said, my tenants are my family, but its not my job to make sure you have a place to stay. I'm not a parent, and I'm not a charity. I'm a businessman, running a business.<br><br>Right now I'm supposed to get a dividend of about $15,000 dollars from my properties, instead I'm giving my tenants a discount of about $4,000. It costs me about $60,000 a year to keep my properties above water, so if I'm losing $4,000 a year, in addition to the $60,000 a year costs I have, that means I'm only getting about $11,000 a year from my properties. This is a lot of money to me, because I'm a middle class guy, but its not a lot to a big business, or a large property management company. This is also my retirement, my rainy day fund, my college savings for my kids, my nest egg, my emergency fund. If I lose this money, then I will lose my house, and maybe even my family. I will do whatever I have to do to make sure this doesn't happen. If that means raising rent, then I will do that. If it means evicting a tenant I will do that too. If it means selling properties, I will do that. I will sell my properties before I let my family go homeless. I'm sure you would do the same.<br><br>If you're renting from a big company that's raising your rent, its not because they're a bad person, its because they don't get warrants, they get fired. Warrants are not good things. They are orders from judges that give the police the ability to search or arrest someone. Its not a good thing, and its something that I personally would not want to have. I imagine a lot of people feel this way. Small landlords are likely to let bad tenants go, because we don't want to deal with the trouble of evicting someone. Big landlords and big property management companies won't let you get away with things. They hire attorneys, they will more likely go through the process of evicting you. They will also raise rent to make sure that they're not raising your rent too much. They're more likely to hire a property management company to run the property, and they're likely to outsource repairs to third party contractors. They're more likely to hire realtors to find tenants for them, and they're more likely to hire accountants to do their books. They're also more likely to take advantage of tax write offs. They're more likely to sublease the property and hire real estate agents to manage it, which will also be a cost that gets pushed on to you. They likely have more experience than a small landlord, and they're more likely to know what they're doing. They also know that there is always a tenant, which means they don't have to abuse you or cheat you, and they can run their business like a business.<br><br>Don't let the "this landlord is an idiot" mindset fool you. We're not idiots. We're just like you, we're trying to make a living. We're also trying to make a profit. If the cost of living goes up, you will get a raise at work, right? Because you know that everything is getting more expensive and you can't live without a raise. Your landlord knows the same thing. That's why we raise the rent. We also do this to make a profit. We also raise the rent so that we have a cushion incase things get worse. We also don't want to have to raise the rent too much at one time. We also don't want to have to chase you for rent each month. We also want to make sure that there is enough money to keep the property in the best condition that it can be. We don't want to have to go on the property to make repairs. We don't want to have to evict you, and we don't want to lose money. I personally don't want to rent to anyone else but you. We're not idiots, we run a business, and as tenants, you're the customers of that business. Stop thinking that we're idiots. I'm not here tomodulo help you, I'm here to run a business. If you're renting from me, you're my customer. If you're my customer, you need to pay for my service. If you can't pay for it, then you have two options, either find a cheaper place to rent, or walk away and go somewhere else.<br><br>&#x200B;