This blog will cover and discuss my experiences with my landlord. Few things in your day-to-day life can be worse than having an awful landlord for the rental you are living in. I was recently in a rented townhouse for 2.5 years, and let me tell you, I can say with 100% certainty that I will NEVER rent again unless I have to.
Benefit of owning a home versus renting are you have personal and financial security. As a homeowner, you are the landlord. As a renter, you can always be asked that your lease is not extended and you need to move out. As a homeowner, a landlord cannot threaten you that your lease will not be renewed or you cannot have a dog or cat.
Everything started off alright as we secured this place at a reasonable rate and for a 2-year term. This was probably the happiest we were. Then all of a sudden, the demands and push-back we received for every little request were beyond crazy. I understand you own this home. But how do you expect to move in and not want to try and make this place their home? I didn’t go out and rent an apartment. I rented a home for myself and my family.
Renting an Apartment Versus Buying a Home
Upon moving in, I noticed some damage that wasn’t found in the 10-minute walk-thru that we had prior to signing the agreement. I figured I would let her know since I didn’t want to get charged for this after I was about to leave.
You do not need a 20% down payment to buy a house. You do not need good credit or high credit scores to purchase a home. Homebuyers can purchase a home with zero to 3.5% down payment. Closing costs can be paid with seller concession or lender credit. Gustan Cho Associates are experts in helping borrowers with credit scores down to 500 FICO qualify and approve a mortgage loan.
I emailed her and attached pictures and she came back with “well I hope you didn’t do it, I will determine if this is your fault or not”. I went out of my way to make sure she knew that HER home had some damage.
Is It Better Financially To Rent or Buy a House?
All of a sudden I am the bad guy for bringing this up? The next thing that came up was that we wanted to paint our daughter’s room since we had intentions on staying in this place for a while and wanted to make it feel like home.
Financially, it is better to buy versus renting a house. As a homeowner, the monthly housing payment you make every months, the principal goes toward paying down your mortgage loan balance. As time passes, your equity will increase by paying down your principal balance and by appreciation of your home.
So we asked if we could do this and were met with “you better put it back the way it was or I am charging you”. I understand that, but why was there a need to threaten me yet again? Let me clarify that these 2 issues happened in the first 2 weeks. What a great way to start this relationship off.
My Experiences With My Landlord With Moving In To My New Townhome
The next thing that happened was we came downstairs a few weeks later. There was a pool of water near the refrigerator. Now when you see water leaking or sitting around the refrigerator. This is never good and always a cause for concern. I get on the phone immediately and called the landlord, expecting her to voice concern and want to fix her refrigerator.
As a new homeowner, you no longer have a landlord to do your maintenance. You either need to do the maintenance of your home yourself or hire a handyman. You also need to mow your own lawn or hire a landscaper and plow your driveway when it snows.
We were met with the following “call and get it fixed, take it out of the rent”. Really? This is how you wanted to solve this issue? She wouldn’t make the 30-minute drive to check on this but would rather we google a repair guy and get it fixed, right. This because I have hundreds of dollars just laying around for this.
My Experiences With My Landlord Renting
The whole point of the rental is to have a landlord coordinate and fix problems that aren’t our doing. This is the situation we were in and from here on out, we went out of our way not to make any contact with her except to let her know her rent was on the way to her. When the summer months came, we were met with a significant amount of flies and bees in our house and all around our windows.
One advantage being a renter is you are not tied to a home you own. Selling a home takes time and will take time. As a renter, you can just pack up and move when your lease is up. If you signed a month to month rental agreement, then you can pack up and move anytime you feel to move on.
Begrudgingly, I reached out to my landlord and she defaulted to saying this may be an HOA issue. How can this be an HOA issue if the insects are in your house? Well after multiple times of letting her know this, she finally made her fiancé come over. He just showed up with wasp killer and sprayed all over the house and left. Thanks for such a great service! We ended up buying our own flytraps and other remedies for combating the creatures and eventually the quantities had subsided.
My Experiences With My Landlord With Rental Increase And Payment Shock
After the 2 years was just about completed, I get an email from her with 2 attachments for a new lease agreement. In this agreement, she wanted to raise our rent from $1,500 to $1,750 or over a 15% increase! This was not going to fly as you can’t just put a gun to someone’s head and tell them what they are going to pay.
Payment shock is when your new housing payment is higher than what you were paying for lunch. The lower the payment shock, the better it is for you. Low payment shock is viewed as a compensating factor by mortgage underwriters.
After going back and forth we agreed on a $1,600 monthly price and a 60-day out clause that allowed for us to give notice we were leaving as this was around the time we began house hunting again. 6 months into our new lease term I claimed our 60-day clause and the clock was ticking for us to move out. If you have read my previous articles, you will know things didn’t end up how I had planned, but I won’t waste much time going over that again.
Final Walk-Through Prior to Home Closing
It came to our final walk-thru after we had moved everything out and painted our daughter’s room back to tan that we were blasted in an email something fierce.
The final walk-through prior to home closing is for the homebuyer to inspect the home one final time before heading to closing. If the homebuyer finds some flaw with the home, the builder or homeowner needs to address the flaws. If the seller cannot meet the timely to fix the punch list, the closing may get delayed.
We were notified that since we did not put the house back to mint condition we were going to have most of our security deposit held. This is because she had to put in a couple of hours cleaning a little bit before her new renters moved in. She was worried about the dents in the carpet from our furniture, as well as some dust on the baseboards and air return vents.
Dream of Homeownership Becoming a Reality
Nowhere did it say I had to return the house as if we never lived there. After 2.5 years, what do you think your place is going to look like? This place was lived in, and I couldn’t believe This really got my blood boiling. I went back and forth with her until she promised to return all but $500 of my security deposit.
The American Dream is Still The Dream of Homeownership
Something was better than nothing at this point and I just wanted it over with. Needless to say, I received that check over 90 days later and FINALLY I could be done with this woman. Let this be a lesson to everyone out there.
Every American’s dream is the dream of home ownership. Gustan Cho Associates can make the dream of home ownership become a reality. Gustan Cho Associates are mortgage brokers licensed in 48 states including Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
No matter how nice of an act your landlord puts on, there always may be something behind that smile once you sign to the dotted line. Do your homework is all I can offer as a suggestion. Good luck and happy house hunting!
What Is The Lowest Credit Scores Required For a Mortgage?
The lowest credit score required to get approved for a mortgage is 500 FICO. The team at Gustan Cho Associates have helped thousands of homebuyers with credit scores down to 500 FICO qualify and get approved for a mortgage. We are experts in being able to qualify and approve mortgage loans for borrowers when other mortgage lenders can’t.
Gustan Cho Associates has a national reputation of being able to do mortgage loans while other lenders can’t. Over 80% of our borrowers are folks who could not qualify at other lenders.
This blog on My Experiences With My Landlord was written by Alex Carlucci a contributing editor for Gustan Cho Associates Commercial And Residential Mortgage Information Center and a licensed mortgage loan originator for Gustan Cho Associates, a national mortgage broker licensed in multiple states. The team at Gustan Cho Associates is known for its no-nonsense ZERO mortgage lender overlays on their loan programs.
Getting Pre-Approved With The Best Mortgage Lenders For Bad Credit
Gustan Cho Associates is a full-service mortgage broker licensed in multiple states with no lender overlays on FHA, Conventional, VA, USDA, and FHA 203k loans. Gustan Cho Associates offers reverse mortgages, non-QM and alternative mortgage loan programs. Alex Carlucci’s background and expertise in all areas of accounting. Alex Carlucci has decades of management experience. Alex’s natural leadership qualities is the reason why he has countless customer reviews. Alex is a mentor to countless loan officers.
Over 80% of our homebuyers are borrowers who could not qualify at other mortgage companies due to a last-minute loan denial or due to the lender overlays. Gustan Cho Associates has no lender overlays on government and conventional loans. We also have dozens of non-QM mortgage loan programs such as bank statement mortgage loans, no-doc mortgage loans, DSCR mortgages, asset-depletion, stated-income, and other alternative mortgage lender programs.
Alex Carlucci plays a key role in the expansion and growth of Gustan Cho Associates. Alex is already taking the leadership role in providing quality articles for publication on Gustan Cho Associates. If you have any questions about qualifying and getting pre-approved for a mortgage loan, please contact us at Gustan Cho Associates at 262-716-8151. Text us for a faster response. Or email us at gcho@gustancho.com. The team at Gustan Cho Associates is available 7 days a week, evenings, weekends, and holidays.
