We have bills too....

I have people walk through the door all the time who want to know if we will lower the rent on a particular house. Say, they want us to lower a $650.00 house down to $575.00, because that's all they can really afford. Nine times out of Ten, the answer is "No." Why? Because that house has been given that rent amount for a reason, and it's not because we're money-hungry landlords.

Take the $650.00 house. As a general rule, the owner is going to have a mortgage payment on that house. And that's not counting insurance, property taxes, and the cost of general maintenance (not to mention if something major - like a busted water pipe or a fire- happens). By the way, those payments don't stop just because the house is vacant.

I should note that I work at a medium-sized, family owned rental company that deals with the lower income bracket of clientèle. At any given time, we have about 95-100 houses rented and about 12-15 vacant. Throw in about twenty or thirty people each month who don't want (or can't) pay their rent, and you really have thrown a kink in the whole operation.

The thing is, we have to make a profit. If we just break even, then there's no money to run the office, pay the office staff (we generally enjoy getting paid for working),and most importantly, fix your house when things begin to fall apart. And it costs at least $65.00 just to send someone out to your house. The more vacant houses and late rent payers we have, the harder it is to keep up with maintenance calls and other expenses.

This is a business after all.