on being a landlady

By alice | November 14, 2007

Husband and I are in total agreement that “landlords” are about as popular with most people as lawyers or real estate agents, ie. not very much at all, and about not wanting to resemble in any way what most people imagine when the L word comes up. This is not just because we want the people living in our house to like us. It’s also about doing the right thing. But- yes!- we would definitely prefer for the people who are living inside our house to like us. We would actually also prefer to like them, considering that they are living in our house.

This is why: we happen to own the house, and be responsible for a big mortgage on it. We are also responsible for repairing stuff that goes wrong in there. We put a large amount of work and love into making that house nice, and we would like the people living inside it to care for it, and they are a lot more likely to do that if (a) they agree with us about the nice, and (b) they don’t feel we are neglectful selfish money-grabbing penny-pinching b*****ds who would rather argue the toss than come over and mend the toilet if it breaks.

The thing is, we are incredibly extremely fortunate to have a lovely family living in our house, whom we like very much indeed, and we feel super-privileged every time it seems like they are happy there and enjoying the same things about it that we enjoyed. It makes it easier not to be spending time every day in a place that we still love. (I can see why landlords would rent out places they barely care about at all, because there are plenty of things I really miss about living in our old house. But I would rather make money from something I do care about.) (We also love the new place, and it suits our needs better at the moment.) They are even enjoying some things better than we did. They spend a lot of time in the massive backyard, for instance, which was largely wasted on us.

I’m not going to say that all landlords fit the evil stereotype, but I do think the image of landlording could use a positive makeover that involves treating tennants like responsible adults instead of irresponsible idiots unable to get a mortgage. Landlords are full of complaints about tennants, if the blogs I’ve been tracking down are anything to go by, and hardly ever see them as more than a source of cash and trouble. Considering what a long-term and intimate business relationship this is, that kind of attitude seems dumb to me from the start. We are novices at doing this, and I’ll be happy to talk about it in a year and more with extra experience, but right now it seems to me that renting homes is about more than just swapping cash for leases. Surely tennants, like customers, are more appropriately regarded as business partners with whom good relations are to be valued, than dependents who owe you something and sometimes fail to deliver it. And surely making things work that way is more our responsibility than theirs, precisely because they are the ones who give us a cheque every month.

(I’m learning quite a bit about such things from posts like this one by Adriana.)

2 Comments »

2 Responses to “on being a landlady”

Shefaly Says:
November 15th, 2007 at 2:07 am

Alice:

You say: “Landlords are full of complaints about tennants, if the blogs I’ve been tracking down are anything to go by, and hardly ever see them as more than a source of cash and trouble.”

That is interesting. Our own Ms Rosie Millard, formerly the BBC’s Arts Correspondent, is now a full time landlady and writes in the Sunday Times in a matter-of-fact but not ranting tone.

On exceptions, see this post by a friend of mine, whose landlady passed away last week due to an unfortunate car accident.
http://johndanaher.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/goodbye-debbie-thanks-for-your-gifts/