I have a rental that's been pretty easy to own. The tenant pays on time, there haven't been any major issues, and the property has appreciated quite a bit since I bought it.

But when I look at what the house is worth today compared to what it actually brings in each year, the return feels underwhelming. I'm sitting on a lot of equity, while the rent hasn't increased nearly as much as the property value.

I know there's value in keeping a property that's low maintenance and has a reliable tenant. Replacing that tenant or buying another property comes with its own risks. Selling also means dealing with taxes and figuring out what to do with the proceeds.

Still, I can't help wondering if I'm holding onto it just because it's familiar and has worked well so far. What do yall think?

I need to know if anyone else does this because I feel ridiculous.

I'm pretty introverted and conflict-avoidant, and apparently that combination is not ideal for being a landlord. One of my tenants has been paying a few days late recently, and every month I go through the same mental gymnastics about whether to send a reminder.

I know the rent is due on the first. It's in the lease. I'm not changing the rules or asking for anything extra. But I still worry that messaging them will make things awkward, especially because they're otherwise a decent tenant and I don't want to mess up the relationship over something that could just be a temporary issue.

Last month I waited until the fifth to say anything. Then I got annoyed because I was the one sitting around worrying about it while they hadn't even acknowledged the payment was late.

I don't want to be the landlord who's constantly breathing down someone's neck, but I also don't want to train myself to accept late rent because I'm uncomfortable having a conversation.

Where do you guys draw the line?

I’ve been lurking in this subreddit for a while, taking notes and absorbing advice as I’ve planned to become a landlord. My wife and I bought some land and are mid-construction on our new home. We want to rent out our current house rather than sell it because the interest rate is ~2.3%—I can’t justify walking away from that.
I’m nervous, though. With AI advancing, a lot of people could lose their jobs in the coming years. I’m concerned that local or federal governments might bring back (or expand) the kind of renter protections we saw during COVID, where it was extremely difficult to evict someone for non-payment. If job losses are significant enough, removing a non-paying tenant could turn into a multi-year process—if it’s even possible.
Have any of you thought about or prepared for this? What are your thoughts on the risk?

I've been renting from my landlord for 20 years. It's been mutually beneficial. I pay for my own maintenance and repairs, he didn't raise my rent. Now, with rents soaring he wants more which I understand. So I'm thinking of buying. Here's where I need advice I've emailed him twice asking him what notice accomodations he would agree to if I found a house to buy and needed to break my lease and he hasn't answered me. He's a lawyer. So, do I just leave after my lease and stay somewhere month to month until I find a house to buy? Do I have any rights to break a lease? He knows I'll leave it in good shape and be accommodating 8 don't know why he's not working with me on this. I've sunk a lot of money in his condo just to keep my rent reasonable

Thank you

Had a slightly awkward conversation with my neighbor today. They mentioned that my tenant's boyfriend has basically moved in and has been staying there every night for the past couple of months.

I had no idea. As far as I know, the tenant is the only person living there, and they've never mentioned anyone moving in.

The neighbor even said they've started seeing him take out the trash and bring groceries in, so this doesn't sound like someone who's just visiting once in a while.

I'm trying not to jump to conclusions based on what a neighbor says, but now I feel like I need to figure out what's actually going on.

I mean, this is something that I should've been notified about, right?

I bought this house a few months ago and started opening up a wall during renovations. Found some wiring in there that looks pretty sketchy. I'm no electrician but there are loose connections and wires just kind of hanging around where I wasn't expecting them.

Apparently the previous owner did a ton of the work around the house himself. Which is great to know AFTER I've already bought the place. Very helpful, thank you

I'm shit scared that there are now other stuff hiding behind the walls. I don't exactly have the budget to rip the whole house apart and inspect everything

I don't even know what to say

Hi everyone,
I need some advice on starting lease extension negotiations with my landlord. I run a 1,400 sq. ft. franchised pizza shop in Oakville. The shop has been established here since 2017, though I took over the business in February 2024.
Our current extension goes until 2027. My rent just increased slightly from $5,489 to $5,532.25 per the current lease structure. However, with the current economy, business is hurting significantly and margins are incredibly tight for me as a newer owner.
I want to stay and extend the lease, but I need to convince the landlord to keep the rent flat (or at a very minimal increase) for the next term.
How should I initiate this conversation? What is the best way to leverage the long-term history of the location while highlighting the realistic economic pressures a new owner is facing? Thanks in advance!

Thinking to manage the rental myself instead of paying a property manager, but not sure how much work it actually is.

Excluding Rent, repair, and tenant issues, what does the normal work will be like? Do I need to check on the things all the time? What takes most of the time?

And, will that bring more problems or workloads or have anyone faced that?

My tenant listed her sister as her emergency contact when she moved in. Now the sister has somehow decided she's also the tenant's spokesperson.

She calls me about late rent, maintenance requests, the lease, basically anything she thinks needs to be discussed. Half the time my actual tenant hasn't even contacted me about whatever she's calling about.

Last week she called me because she wanted to know why I hadn't approved a repair request yet. I had literally never received a repair request from the tenant

I've told her a few times that she needs to have her sister contact me directly, but she keeps getting involved anyway.

Can I stop responding to them completely?

I'm not American so maybe I'm missing something, but why does it feel like every suburban neighborhood in the US has an HOA?
Where I live, if you buy a house, that's basically it. You don't have some neighborhood organization telling you what color you can paint your house or whether your grass is too long.
I get having something for shared roads or facilities but how did HOAs become such a normal part of owning a regular house in the US?
Was this always a thing or did it become common at some point?

mostly curious what the real pain points are for people with a few units.

for me the examples I keep hearing are stuff like a tenant texting at 11pm about a leak, a plumber who ghosts you after saying he'll come tuesday, or failing a city inspection .

full disclosure, i'm thinking about building something to help with this, but i'm not selling anything and there are no links. I just don't want to build something nobody needs, so i'd rather hear real stories first.

One line is fine, rants welcome.

Also, do you fix stuff yourself or always call someone?

A business owner negotiates HARD over rent. 

Back and forth, Emails, Numbers...

Finally gets a rate they're happy with. 

Great deal, right? 

Then later, another provision in the lease becomes a much bigger headache than the rent ever was. 

Because commercial leases aren't just about: 

“How much am I paying every month?” 

Sometimes the boring stuff ends up being the expensive stuff. 

Hi everyone, I’m currently looking for a property to rent in the Leeds area, ideally close to the city centre.
I’m looking for:
3–4 bedrooms
Parking
Good location with easy access to Leeds city centre
Long-term rental of around 3–5 years
I’m in a position to move quickly if the right property comes up. If anyone has something available, or knows a landlord with a suitable property, please message me on WhatsApp at 07828500095.
Thanks!

One of my tenants is not paying me $1000 in HOA fines for the last few months. The HOA was sending the notices to the rental property instead of my email address, so we were unaware of this situation.

It is mentioned in the lease clearly that the tenant is responsible for any HOA violations but they are refusing to pay me because the HOA charged me, not them. They are also saying that they will end the lease early, so I am already pretty much busy with the property getting ready for the new tenants.

Can you suggest what are the options in this case? And how can I deal with this, if anyone has this kind of experience?

I found out because my neighbor called me asking if I knew they were gone. I went over there and the place was mostly empty. I found the keys sitting in the mailbox with an apology letter. The letter basically said they were sorry, they had to leave, and they weren't coming back.

And here's the part that is really throwing me off. They literally wrote that they don't want the security deposit back and that I can just keep it.

Like what?

They still had months left on the lease. They didn't ask for the deposit or to work anything out. They just packed up left the keys outside and disappeared 🙄

I keep going back to that letter because the whole thing feels so strange

I already own the house next door, so I know the area pretty well. I know what places actually rent for, the parking situation, the little issues with the neighborhood, etc. I am very much interested in acquiring the property. Same contractors, easier trips if something needs fixing, and I already know the area.

But I also keep thinking... is owning two rentals right next to each other a bad idea?

Can you suggest if anyone here done this, and did it make things easier, or do you wish you had spread your properties out?

I had a tenant in Brisbane who had everything good. Good income, decent references, everything looked normal. I checked the payslips and didn't see anything that made me suspicious so I approved the application.

About six weeks into the tenancy, the rent started falling behind. When I started chasing things up, I went back through the documents and checked the employer listed on the payslip.

The company had actually been deregistered about four months before the tenant even applied. So the payslip wasn't just slightly wrong. It couldn't have been genuine in the first place.

I ended up spending months dealing with the fallout and still didn't recover everything I was owed. The frustrating part is that I keep thinking about how easy that might have been to catch if I'd done one more check.

How far do I push this? What to even do w this?