That may come as a shock to some tenants. My regular readers might be surprised to know that this blog, despite being landlord-centric, gets lots of attention from tenants. Despite the fact that our firm represents mostly landlords (we do represent some tenants in CRLTO cases by the way), there are plenty of tenants who come here for what I suspect they view as informative, interesting, and useful landlord-tenant information. Even more interesting than the fact that tenants regularly read this blog is the fact that about every six months or so, I get a totally ridiculous comment from a tenant. I usually spare my readers from seeing these, however, I want to share one I just recently received:
I think every one (sic) on this page is am (sic) evil devil possessed demon if you really look back on your life before you made it where you are today,and all you can think of is puting (sic) someone out you are sick I pray god (sic) take pity on landlords on judgement day! (sic)
Well, isn’t that special?
Believe it or not, the vast majority of my clients are regular people. They are not real estate moguls. They work day jobs. Some just got caught up in the housing bubble and are renting out their own home. They scrimp. They try to make ends meet. They have bills to pay. They go into foreclosure when rent goes unpaid. When their tenants stop paying, these landlords suffer. To the best of my knowledge, none of the landlords I know are “evil devil possessed demons“.
I have, however, witnessed landlords who go for months without collecting rent because “someone is down on their luck” or who offer some of the worst tenants out there “sweetheart” deals just so they can get their property back. Rarely do the tenants ever catch up and most of these landlords are left holding the proverbial bag. Of course, I have also heard the horror stories of landlords who lock tenants out or toss their possessions in the street, so I don’t deny that there are some bad landlords.
But, here’s a secret. Most landlords, just like most tenants – are generally good people. Unfortunately, the extremely bad ones in both camps highlight just how bad people can be to one another.
So, for all you tenants who lurk on this blog, keep in mind that your landlord might be buying macaroni and cheese this month just to keep your underwater apartment from going into foreclosure.
Nice