I have never had any desire to be a landlord (also, I don’t have the resources, so there’s that).
After spending so much time on Reddit, I wouldn’t be a landlord even if I had the desire and the cash.
OP was renting out a home while he was overseas.
When my wife (24F) and I (28M) were starting out, we had a little old rental house downtown that we leased to male students.
When we moved out of the county for a job I figured it would be easier to rent to one family rather than chase around six separate broke students for rent (shared bedrooms).
The woman ended up being a drug user living in complete squalor.
The first family that we put in there turned out to be a bad choice on my part. Misty (40F) was fine for the first four months or so. When I visited in person the house was noticeably getting gross. They weren’t taking care of things.
This might’ve been somewhat forgivable but then Misty stopped paying rent on time. To make matters worse there was a plumbing issue that sounded expensive.
The toilets were backing up and sewage was soaking the carpets in the basement. The whole place stank. I didn’t even know why.
The plumber ran a camera down the pipes to see what was happening. He informed me that the clog was a result of a build-up of needles.
You know, the kind one might use for drugs.
I opted to pay $1,000 to have them use high pressure to flush out the system. Unfortunately, my house was nearly a hundred years old so the high pressure destroyed the clay connector to the city’s sewage system.
The only way to fix it was to shut down a major residential road and dig to it for $30,000. Insurance wasn’t in any hurry to pay either.
I didn’t have that kind of cash sitting around at the moment and Misty was still in there.
Eventually, the property was condemned and she had to move out.
I wanted to evict Misty but it would be a long process and I knew that she would fight tooth and nail to stay as she didn’t want to go back to her parents, who lived just down the street.
By this point, my house resembled a hoarder’s home and I suspected that drugs were being dealt there.
Rather than evicting Misty, I called the Health Department because they were living with no running water and a porta-potty that they rented in the backyard. It was gross.
They also had two girls there under the age of 10. It took a visit from a team of sheriffs to get her out and only well after the property was condemned.
She was not graceful about it.
When Misty finally did leave she left about a hundred pounds of rotting meat on the front lawn. She also left the house a giant mess and stole many of my things.
I was so relieved that she was gone that I almost didn’t care. She was a major source of stress in my life and in my marriage.
It ended up taking several hundred hours and over $50,000 to fix up the house. Eventually, insurance came through for part of it.
I tried not to be resentful about the situation because being a drug addict and living in a condemned building is its own punishment.
There wasn’t anything that I could feel good about doing to her. She was already doomed to live poorly based on her own choices.
By this point in life, I felt like I was above petty revenge, besides, she had two kids.
Amazingly, she still wanted him to provide a character reference.
Oddly, Misty had the gal text me to ask for a character referral for a new place since she didn’t have anyone else. (other than her parents presumably)
I was dumbfounded but texted back a thumbs up. Maybe I could save the next guy.
That call did not go the way anyone expected it to at the beginning.
Eventually, I did get the call from the next guy asking about Misty. He was a jerk to me on the phone. He was talking over me and talking down to me. He was an expert landlord doing his due diligence etc.
I tried to get my story about Misty in but then I paused. I listened to him talk down to me some more (I’m a total stranger, what the hell?), and then I waited until it was my turn.
I told him “You know, Misty was great, I had some major plumbing issues otherwise she’d still be with me. Also, she’s got a cute family.”
Treat me with disrespect? Good luck with Misty!! You two deserve each other!
Misty got the place and thanked me. Then I never heard from either of them again.
Petty me.
Is Reddit following? Let’s find out!
The top commenter loved the twist.
This is another cautionary tale about being polite.
Especially if you need all the business you can get.
Seriously, we’re all here for a pro-level plot twist.
No one can figure out how this all worked out for the tenant.
Misty must have been as surprised as the rest of it.
I do hope she and her kids are doing better.
Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.