Woman Infiltrates A Landlord Facebook Group And Shares Screenshots Of Their Shady Practices And Conversations
We all know very well how some landlords are. If you call to say there’s been no hot water for the past week, they won’t pick up their phone, they get their way with a pet deposit by adding to your rent price, and they worry about young home buyers who may push them off their front lines in the overpriced real estate industry.
Thanks to the Twitter user @retrograde, we now have even more evidence of some very unethical tricks landlords play on their tenants. The author wrote that she weaseled her way into a landlord Facebook group to observe what’s happening there, and shared some findings in this viral thread.
“I’m gonna start showing you guys some of their secrets and tips so you can stay ahead of their game,” @retrograde added and continued with sharing a bunch of screenshots from the group. So let’s see what she found out right below.
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"looking inside of someone’s car...they’re so creepy."
It may sound creepy, but it's kinda genius too. If someone can't be bothered to keep their own car to a basic level of cleanliness then why would they be any different in a house that doesn't even belong to them?
"here are some other memes they’ve recently posted...when someone steps on families and people that aren’t as well off to get ahead, you have to question their morality."
OMG! This is F*&ked in so many ways I don't even know what is most offensive. The worst thing is out there is a landlord looking at this and thinking 'so true, so true".
"so basically they “can’t discriminate” means they’ll find something else to deny you housing that falls within legal bounds."
"most of them are, as you’d expect, terrible human beings"
Rent is $2500 a month for a 1 bdrm in a decent area. A mortgage on a $450k house at recent rates is $2300. So yes, you've priced rents too high.
"so...what i’m hearing is that you shouldn’t tell landlords you have a service animal?"
"as we knew, these “investors” are driving young adults, who more than often cannot meet these insane standards, out of housing. units will sit empty for months and you might be denied because of your JOB."
If a tenant can suddenly no longer pay. It can take 3-6 months to evict plus the cost of legal fees. So finding a tenant that can afford the full lease is just good businesz
Or one that starts a meth lab in your unit.
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I run credit checks and screenings through the company for everyone. Best $50 I spent in most cases. Plus, trust your gut. If something the potential renter says that sounds off, believe them. Landlady for 29 years and the worst tenant I had just stole my cat when she left (got the cops in the her new town after her and got the cat back).
CONTINUED PT2 here......Landlord receives 100% of the asking price, every month, regardless, if the apartment/ townhouse is rented out, or not. The specific group is anyone that has a capped yearly income amount, and under that. "Low income". The rent, is then divided between the tenant, and the government-with the government paying the majority, the tenant, roughly, no more than 25-30% of his income. If you make 5$ over the capped amount per year, you are told you can't rent one. If you even offer to pay FULL price, every month, out of your own pocket-say, because "normal rentals " are becoming scarce in your area, because they are all choosing to make a deal with the government for rent-you are still refused. What happens if a tenant starts to make OVER the capped amount per year?! NOTHING. Could you make 100k a year and still stay at these apartments? Yep. Landlords will let them set empty, they don't care.We need housing, like this, for those who need help! But how many is too many
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Minimum 2 years of steady employment in a current or most recent job. 3x income to rent. 650 or above credit score. No evictions, no exception. Do not put too much weight on a reference from their current landlord if there are any other red flags because if they are a nightmare tenant, the current landlord may give a glowing reference just to help himself get rid of them.
I have tenants so that I can pay my mortgage. If they can't pay, then I can't pay my mortgage. That's why in the UK tenants have to provide proof of income, and younger tenants have to provide guarantors if they can't meet the criteria. As my property is a flat I also have a responsiblilty to the other flat owners to make sure tenants will not make their lives a nightmare. I've learned the hard way that not doing a thorough screening process means that I lose money and my neighbours lose sleep.
Imagine: you are a landlord, who is just finishing construction on 75 brand new townhouses, and a man shows up in your office, wanting to talk to you before the building is completed. He says he represents Mr. X. And that Mr. X has a proposition for you: Instead of you, screening tenants, and renting to whom you want to, rent all your townhouses out to who Mr. X tells you to. Mr.X wants these townhouses to be available to a specific group of people, and nobody else, period. In return, Mr. X guarantees that you will receive rent from all 75 townhouses, every month, even if the tenants can't pay the full rent amount, and even if they are sitting empty with no renters, and stay empty. Ok. Stop imagining. Because this is really going on. The apartment/ townhouse communities are usually brand new, and are closer to more high end/ super nice type of the housing spectrum. Rent is expensive, even though it's based on average rent of the area/ comparable types of apartments go for.CONTINUED....
Dude the reason you can't find anyone is because people like that own houses already!
WTF? Landlords are getting gov't relief in the US in some areas, and I know that b/c they are in mine. Poor babies with empty units that they're holding until someone can afford $2K a month in Nowhere, Virginia?! ....
"here are some other memes they’ve recently posted...when someone steps on families and people that aren’t as well off to get ahead, you have to question their morality."
So grateful for the UK's mandatory deposit scheme, gone are the days of landlords trying to claim it all back under the guise of repairs and cleaning that are completely fictitious.
Why is this supposed to be a bad thing to post? Can you think of any other business where one quarter of their customers are behind on payments and yet the Government is blocking any means of collecting the money owed?
"here are some other memes they’ve recently posted...when someone steps on families and people that aren’t as well off to get ahead, you have to question their morality."
"here are some other memes they’ve recently posted...when someone steps on families and people that aren’t as well off to get ahead, you have to question their morality."
"expect changes in the future in regards to pet deposits and service animals"
Isn't this mainly a US thing? Most landlords I know either a straight yes or no on pets rather than charge extra
"landlords can and will take the deposit you put down to hold a unit if you end up not being able to come up with the rest of the money to move in. i recommend not giving them a deposit to hold until you’re ready to move in."
Isn't that kinda the exact point of a deposit? Or am I missing something?
"they’re getting more strict with paystubs. be aware!"
Surely this is a good thing. Do you want to have your rent increased because your landlord is trying to recoup costs caused by tenants that have lied and cheated their way into one of their properties?
"people with felonies also deserve housing. everyone deserves housing."
They do, but you also are entitled to decide who gets to live on your property and who doesn't.
This article is just a bunch of poorly selected posts by a salty tenant. As far as I can tell they believe that landlords should do no due diligence, never bother with collecting rent, and should be just fine with having their property damaged. Nobody 'owes' you housing.
Yup. Most of these aren't about "exploiting" tenants at all.
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a) There are no real secrets here, just random opinions by a random group of at least partly not well-informed landlords. b) This seems to be US-centric. Several practices and much of the legal advice given would not apply over here (Europe) or even be illegal. c) Not all landlords are filthy-rich. They have the property, but they not neccesarily have big paying jobs, and they need to maintain the property; in extreme cases, they migth only be a few rent payments from tenants in advance with paying their own mortgage. Landlords taking advantage of tenants are despicable, but tenants expecting landlords to balance out what the government failed to provide in welfare and social security are not behaving reasonable, either.
Unfortunately though a lot of US landlords don't bother to learn the laws and a lot of tenants don't want to cause conflict and risk getting kicked out since (at least where I live) all the local apartments tend to be owned by the same person. Plus, most US laws favor the landlord greatly. This is changing a bit, but it's still not been enough. Young people and those who have bad credit are at the mercy of their landlord and it's rarely a good position to be in.
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The title makes it sound like there are some actual secrets being revealed, while in fact, it's just a bunch of memes, things everybody knows anyway, or discussions that would be absolutely of no use to you if you are a tenant.
My parents have a number of rental properties (retirement income). Their business model is to offer nice, well-kept places to live for less than the market price, and then select the most reliable future tenants. There's no reason why everyone can't be happy.
Aside from the over pricing of rental properties, these all sound like landlords who have 1 to a few buildings. If renters looked at it from the landlord end, you can understand their concerns too. There are those who do a terrible job, but there are many who are just trying to make it like everyone else. Now if you want to start on those management companies that manage buildings I'd be into that.
PB why is everything always about the US . Literally 90% of BP . Cant you include other countries or ???
Well, apart from the stupid memes, most of these seem fine to be honest. And I'm not speaking as someone who is naturally pro-landlord: actually, I'm sure that some landlords are horrible people who abuse the system in all sorts of ways. But I guess they're smart enough not to put those ways in writing on facebook.
I know people that have rented their home or vacation condo. Renters can be horrible and landlords need to protect themselves and their property. I know there are shady people in the landlord world as there are shady people in every profession and walk of life. But there are also horrible tenants.
Interesting to see so many people applying logic that basically says people shouldn't be allowed to own property as a source of income...in short, should NOT own property they don't intend to live in personally...so basically what the law in many communist countries is.
It's almost as if people who own property and are renting it out, have opinions on how they want to do that.
Most landlords are scum. I stand by that from the experience of my friends who lose deposits no matter how great the place looks when they leave. I know because I have helped in the move and clean up. Landlords are just plain greedy lazy bums who refuse to fix anything in the hopes the people will leave and thus not get their upwards of two thousand dollars in deposit against damage and claim what was wrong was the fault of the tenants.
There are filthy landlords and there are filthy tenants. My experience as a landlord soured when a USA serviceman left one of my flat's covered in feces with literally everything broken and this is a USA serviceman. It's a tricky job and yes I could invest in other items like the stock exchange but I take comfort in the rise of the property market so I make on both rent and property value. I always figure that something this good has to have a downside and when it does I just deal with it and move on. Should also point out that I have had amazing tenants I thought would be dodgy who maintained perfectly, didn't cause problems for neighbors, left the place in a perfect state and guess what: They got their deposit back. Works both ways unless you are a c**t. (P.s. my best ever tenant is gay) Not sure how it is in the land of the free but over here in the UK tenancy laws are very very rigid (impossible to kick someone out) probably because over here people are more important than things.
I'm gonna say it: Landlords are not lacking in means and relief in the US. My hubby does the financial side of housing, and he gets these questions daily. These landlords are shi**y, and represent about half of all landlords I've known in my life. (I didn't "settle down" geographically till my forties.) And some of their complaints are, frankly, a bit ridiculous.
I have two opinions about landlords: A.) If you have to advertise in a newspaper or public forum for a complete stranger to rent your property, then you shouldn't be surprised at what you get. B.) If your survival depends on someone else paying you rent, then you're in the wrong business or you've made some bad choices in life.
Again I see people directing their anger at the wrong target. Landlords are not the government. Most are working people that buy another house to fund their retirement or for their kids. Everyone deserves affordable housing, I couldn't agree more. But this is the responsibility of the government and not that of Mr Middle-Aged-Balding-Dude.
Just like every group, there are good and bad. Good and bad renters, good and bad landlords. This is now the norm with our simple thinking and leaning on heuristics for all conclusions. Today with our bumper sticker philosophers, we can't get past this. Lookin at you, KKK, BLM and white elite liberals. Today we want have decided to group according to race and gender then apply a general characteristic. Whites are all racist. Blacks are all oppressed and victims. Women can't get by without government protection. Men need to be regulated.
Wow. Not shocked by any of the landlord posts, but shocked by the comments from folks who apparently don't think everyone deserves shelter. Why bother living in a society at all if your attitude is, "I've got mine, now screw you"?
You’re right. Not everyone deserves shelter. Just as not everyone deserves kids. If you abuse your children, they’re taken away from you. If you trash your accommodation, don’t pay your rent, and abuse the privilege of having a roof over your head, why should you be given another place to do exactly the same to again.
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This article is just a bunch of poorly selected posts by a salty tenant. As far as I can tell they believe that landlords should do no due diligence, never bother with collecting rent, and should be just fine with having their property damaged. Nobody 'owes' you housing.
Yup. Most of these aren't about "exploiting" tenants at all.
Load More Replies... a) There are no real secrets here, just random opinions by a random group of at least partly not well-informed landlords. b) This seems to be US-centric. Several practices and much of the legal advice given would not apply over here (Europe) or even be illegal. c) Not all landlords are filthy-rich. They have the property, but they not neccesarily have big paying jobs, and they need to maintain the property; in extreme cases, they migth only be a few rent payments from tenants in advance with paying their own mortgage. Landlords taking advantage of tenants are despicable, but tenants expecting landlords to balance out what the government failed to provide in welfare and social security are not behaving reasonable, either.
Unfortunately though a lot of US landlords don't bother to learn the laws and a lot of tenants don't want to cause conflict and risk getting kicked out since (at least where I live) all the local apartments tend to be owned by the same person. Plus, most US laws favor the landlord greatly. This is changing a bit, but it's still not been enough. Young people and those who have bad credit are at the mercy of their landlord and it's rarely a good position to be in.
Load More Replies... The title makes it sound like there are some actual secrets being revealed, while in fact, it's just a bunch of memes, things everybody knows anyway, or discussions that would be absolutely of no use to you if you are a tenant.
My parents have a number of rental properties (retirement income). Their business model is to offer nice, well-kept places to live for less than the market price, and then select the most reliable future tenants. There's no reason why everyone can't be happy.
Aside from the over pricing of rental properties, these all sound like landlords who have 1 to a few buildings. If renters looked at it from the landlord end, you can understand their concerns too. There are those who do a terrible job, but there are many who are just trying to make it like everyone else. Now if you want to start on those management companies that manage buildings I'd be into that.
PB why is everything always about the US . Literally 90% of BP . Cant you include other countries or ???
Well, apart from the stupid memes, most of these seem fine to be honest. And I'm not speaking as someone who is naturally pro-landlord: actually, I'm sure that some landlords are horrible people who abuse the system in all sorts of ways. But I guess they're smart enough not to put those ways in writing on facebook.
I know people that have rented their home or vacation condo. Renters can be horrible and landlords need to protect themselves and their property. I know there are shady people in the landlord world as there are shady people in every profession and walk of life. But there are also horrible tenants.
Interesting to see so many people applying logic that basically says people shouldn't be allowed to own property as a source of income...in short, should NOT own property they don't intend to live in personally...so basically what the law in many communist countries is.
It's almost as if people who own property and are renting it out, have opinions on how they want to do that.
Most landlords are scum. I stand by that from the experience of my friends who lose deposits no matter how great the place looks when they leave. I know because I have helped in the move and clean up. Landlords are just plain greedy lazy bums who refuse to fix anything in the hopes the people will leave and thus not get their upwards of two thousand dollars in deposit against damage and claim what was wrong was the fault of the tenants.
There are filthy landlords and there are filthy tenants. My experience as a landlord soured when a USA serviceman left one of my flat's covered in feces with literally everything broken and this is a USA serviceman. It's a tricky job and yes I could invest in other items like the stock exchange but I take comfort in the rise of the property market so I make on both rent and property value. I always figure that something this good has to have a downside and when it does I just deal with it and move on. Should also point out that I have had amazing tenants I thought would be dodgy who maintained perfectly, didn't cause problems for neighbors, left the place in a perfect state and guess what: They got their deposit back. Works both ways unless you are a c**t. (P.s. my best ever tenant is gay) Not sure how it is in the land of the free but over here in the UK tenancy laws are very very rigid (impossible to kick someone out) probably because over here people are more important than things.
I'm gonna say it: Landlords are not lacking in means and relief in the US. My hubby does the financial side of housing, and he gets these questions daily. These landlords are shi**y, and represent about half of all landlords I've known in my life. (I didn't "settle down" geographically till my forties.) And some of their complaints are, frankly, a bit ridiculous.
I have two opinions about landlords: A.) If you have to advertise in a newspaper or public forum for a complete stranger to rent your property, then you shouldn't be surprised at what you get. B.) If your survival depends on someone else paying you rent, then you're in the wrong business or you've made some bad choices in life.
Again I see people directing their anger at the wrong target. Landlords are not the government. Most are working people that buy another house to fund their retirement or for their kids. Everyone deserves affordable housing, I couldn't agree more. But this is the responsibility of the government and not that of Mr Middle-Aged-Balding-Dude.
Just like every group, there are good and bad. Good and bad renters, good and bad landlords. This is now the norm with our simple thinking and leaning on heuristics for all conclusions. Today with our bumper sticker philosophers, we can't get past this. Lookin at you, KKK, BLM and white elite liberals. Today we want have decided to group according to race and gender then apply a general characteristic. Whites are all racist. Blacks are all oppressed and victims. Women can't get by without government protection. Men need to be regulated.
Wow. Not shocked by any of the landlord posts, but shocked by the comments from folks who apparently don't think everyone deserves shelter. Why bother living in a society at all if your attitude is, "I've got mine, now screw you"?
You’re right. Not everyone deserves shelter. Just as not everyone deserves kids. If you abuse your children, they’re taken away from you. If you trash your accommodation, don’t pay your rent, and abuse the privilege of having a roof over your head, why should you be given another place to do exactly the same to again.
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