Would you rather be popular or profitable? You don’t have to be greedy to be a wealthy landlord. What you must be is a fair-minded business person. Fair-minded means that rents are collected in a timely manner and that your houses are maintained properly by the tenants who lease them. See how simple this stuff is.

You won’t be hated when you demand timely rents. Landlords that insist on timely rents are no different than cashiers in the supermarket.

It’s your business to make sure rents are collected and the rules in your rental agreement are followed. Never let a tenant intimidate you. The most serious mistake new landlords can make is to allow the tenant’s urgency to become their urgency.

After many years of doing this job, I’m hard pressed to think of any situation so compelling that there wouldn’t be enough time to think it through. If there’s a fire at my property, the community fire department will handle everything. I’m protected by insurance on the building. Should someone die in one of my rental houses, I simply can’t do very much. I’ve yet to meet a landlord that would be of much help in this situation. The county coroner is the person you need.