Welcome to my life as an apartment manager. I am going to give you an insiders tour. Buckle your seat belt. You might not be able to handle the excitement.
I started this job in June of 2008 out of sheer desperation and an unreasonable desire to be home with my kids. Filled with heaps of self-doubt, I applied with no expectation of being hired. I was hired with no expectation that I would succeed. I simply needed the job and trying seemed better than the alternative. It's not like I had some wildly successful career prior to having children or some really useful skill to fall back on. What I did have is some hard knock experience in being a small-time landlord and a relentless calling to be a stay-at-home-mom. Put those two together and viola--Resident Manager seemed like the perfect fit.
What I didn't know is that the complex I was hired for was a hot mess. My boss, Dana, handed me my first vacancy report and there were 14 apartments listed. In a 48-unit complex, 14 vacant units means things are bad. Very bad.
Next to each vacant address were progress notes about what work had been done and how close they were to being ready. I scanned the list, trying not to look terrified, and noticed the word YUK! in Dana's handwriting.
"Um," I asked, "what does 'yuk' mean?" (Is this some fancy real estate term that I am too green to know?)
Dana replied, "When I went to check out that apartment, I opened the door, said 'yuk,' closed it and decided that will be the last apartment we deal with."
Oh, so yuk actually means yuk.
That was just the beginning. I have a story or two to tell about those early days, but then I will never get to the point, which is, "Vacant is better than crazy."
See, what I have learned the hard way, both as a landlord and in working for a landlord, is that screening tenants is the most important work we do to improve a property. Laws generally protect tenants over landlords so it's really important to keep the crazy people out because once they are in, it's pretty difficult to get rid of them.
Back up to 2008. By the grace of God, and through the desperation of not wanting to lose my stay-at-home-mom job, I rented apartments like crazy that summer. It was shocking actually. I would walk a potential resident through a half-finished apartment, my wild kids would be tackling each other in the living room or flipping themselves over on the breakfast bar and the person would actually apply to live here. Nice people. Decent people. With jobs. It was really more than I could have asked for.
Fast forward to 2009. Over 16 leases came up in a span of 2 months, mostly in the late summer and fall because of our initial leasing options. We did not think that through obviously, but I'm pretty sure no one, including myself, thought that I would actually lease all of those apartments by fall.
Many people stayed, but a handful of people moved on for very valid reasons (since this place being a crap-hole was no longer the number one reason people were moving). One couple was going to pick up their daughter in Vietnam to come live with them after 2 years of being separated. Another guy got married. One young couple bought a house. One guy retired and headed back to Chicago where his family lived. Stuff like that. Oh, and one guy couldn't stop himself from hosting parties for young cadets who thought it was funny to pee off the balcony. We asked him to leave. (Sometimes credit report does not indicate all possible factors of decent tenancy.)
When it all shook out I had 4 or 5 apartments becoming vacant over a 2 month period of time. Still thinking that I could get fired any minute, I panicked. It's true. I totally freaked out. The economy was bad. That whole 1st time home buyer incentive was keeping people out of the rental market. It was really slow and it was fall. I rented a couple in the early fall to some very nice people but then I got stuck.
November and December are terrible months to rent apartments.
I don't think one normal person even called. Every. Single. Person. Was. Crazy.
Why would you move right before or during the holidays? Why would you move in the winter in Nebraska? Only crazy people do that. I'm sorry if you've done that. You are crazy. Just go ahead and admit that it was crazy and you wouldn't do it again. It's OK, we all make mistakes.
So there I am thinking my head is on the chopping block, not one normal potential applicant is on the horizon and crazy person #1 comes along. She is moving from another city in Nebraska because her 20-year-old, drug addicted daughter is threatening to destroy her life and the life of her 17 year old daughter. They left town to make a fresh start. She transferred to the Walmart down the street and her daughter would be homeschooling high school.
Let me just pause here. This incident just proves that you can never make assumptions about people. I think the moment they said the word homeschooling my mind conjured up images of all of the wonderful moms I know who have chosen to home school. You may have some other stereotypes of home school families that could trigger your crazy meter, but every single one of the families I know that home schools is amazing and their kids are amazing.
So when she applied and did not exactly meet our qualifications I somehow found myself going to bat for this crazy single mom and her home schooled daughter. As it turned out, "home school" can also mean sitting at home all day watching your Rent-a-center TV and texting all of your friends you met on the internet. They lasted almost a year, but in the end, crazy person #1's choices continued to follow her and she agreed that moving is better than being evicted.
When it gets to that point the emotional drama becomes very taxing because kicking someone out just stinks. The fine women in our main office knew then what I know now, crazy never works out. It might be a temporary fix, but long term, it is not a great move for the neighborhood.
This I learned the hard way through crazy person #2...stay tuned tomorrow for the hard fought battle of the weed...
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