Many small mom and pop type investors give up the opportunity to make a ton of money and have a wonderful free come and-go” lifestyle simply because they never see the importance of learning to be a skilled landlord. You don’t become a skilled landlord when you acquire houses. You become the owner-that’s all! Skilled landlording will … take some education.

Basically there’s just two ways to learn landlording. You can learn from people like me or you can learn from the tenants. If you pay me 10 times more than I charge to teach you, it’s cheaper than learning this job from your tenants.

Every landlord should know and under­stand landlord-tenant laws in his own area. Once you know the laws, your fear of rent­ers or of being intimidated will vanish. An overwhelming number of property owners incorrectly assume these laws favor deadbeat tenants. I can assure you this is not the case, although sometimes it appears that way. Laws are mostly about equity. Remember, there are unscrupulous landlords as well as naughty tenants.

Landlords often find themselves in seri­ous hot water with tenants because they try to inject too much logic and common sense into tenant management. Logic and common sense have their place, but they seldom count for much where legal issues are concerned. For example, it is nearly impossible to effectively force your personal living standards and ideals on your tenants. To do so could seriously affect your sanity. What earthly good would it do to make a million dollars from your rental properties if your tenants drive you crazy?