Every time I attend a “How to Get Rich Quick in Real Estate” seminar, I’m told by some speaker in a pinstripe suit that I should always rent my properties to “blue-collar” tenants with good credit ratings. There is one exception, they claim. It’s all right to rent to senior citizens with an adequate pension income or a regular monthly social security check.

I suppose that’s good advice but I also suspect the speaker doesn’t depend very much on rental income to buy groceries like I do. Obviously, the questions I have, along with thousands of other small-time landlords are:
What happens if I can’t find tenants in those two categories? What if my properties don’t attract blue-collar workers or senior citizens? The last seminar- leader I tested those questions on tried to avoid me at first. When I kept on asking, he sorta turned the other way and tried to pretend he didn’t hear my question!

MOST RENTERS PAY THEIR RENT

Contrary to the landlord-tenant “horror stories” we’ve all heard about, most tenants who agree to rent your property will also pay their rent. This fact eliminates about 95% of your collection worries. Trust me on this, I have enough tenants to prove it. The big problems are caused by the remaining 05% who can literally destroy your life! It’s the old story about one rotten apple in a barrel and unfortunately, “destroy your life” is not too strong a term for what can easily happen when innocent, but “dummie” landlords do battle with “ring-wise” deadbeats.

To begin with, the “playing field” is not exactly level. Deadbeat tenants. are entitled to use many “free-bee” services, starting with specialized legal assistance. Usually a local legal aid society or the Civil Liberties Union is available for the asking. Also, the court system is different for’ deadbeat renters. For example, most don’t pay a fee to answer complaints like ordinary citizens. They are granted a “fee waiver” simply by filling out the pauper’s form or a declaration stating they have no money to pay! I’ve never known or heard of a landlord being able to use this “non-pay” gimmick, even though I have known several landlords who filed bankruptcy because they couldn’t collect from “deadbeats”. To do well at landlording, it’s best to accept the popular myth that — ALL LANDLORDS ARE RICH, RUTHLESS, TYCOONS AND TENANTS ARE THE CIVILIZED WORLD’S MOST DEILBERATELY ABUSED AND MISUNDERSTOOD PEOPLE — With the possible exception of witches and “fortune tellers”!