How Being A Tenant Improved My Landlord Game
A few years ago, there was a shooting at my son's school, and I have lived in Scarborough for the last 30 years as a homeowner. I felt like the "bad" area did not affect me until the moment I pulled up to school to pick up my son, and there was a dead kid outside and 57 Police Cars.
I moved within months and so began my saga as a renter. It should be easy, I'm rich by tenant standards, I own a bunch of properties up in Northern Ontario and have great income. However I'm a single mom, so that worked against me.
What I found is that the bar is incredibly low for landlords.
FORGET PRIVACY
First thing I found was to forget anything you ever learned about your privacy. At the time I was moving there were 19 houses that filled my criteria on MLS at the time. We tried reaching out to the agent directly without even a call back.
Eventually my agent and I prepared an application package, which included my name, phone, ID, income, bank statements, proof of ownership of my properties, income from my business and even the results of my last colonoscopy. All this "personal private" information was emailed out to every agent who had a house, and I hadn't even seen the houses yet!
Out of 19 houses on the market in Aurora at that time, 2 replied.
I was also looking on Facebook Marketplace for listings in the same area, and what I found was a lot of scams. Tons of real estate agents are listing properties that have already been rented, to get your information and try to rent you a house that is available.
Finally out only about 1 out of 10 messages I sent out as a tenant were replied to, I wrote a little message about myself in the beginning, but after getting no replies or scam replies, I just defaulted to the Facebook default which is "Is this still available?" like every other tenant.
ILLEGAL EXPECTATIONS
Real estate agents and owners are still in the Middle Ages... be prepared for a bunch of requests and lease clauses that are not legal. Requirements for Post Dated checks, and payment for appliance repairs, and prepaid rent were just par for the course. If you don't go along, you just won't get the place. Remember I started with a possible of 19 places, and ended up with 2 I actually saw.
I'll admit I completely lied my face off about having a pet. I knew that if I told the potential landlord I had a big dog, I would be rejected.
I'm not sure I can rent to a person that would abandon their dog. Robot was 10 years old, blind and very selective hearing, riddled with anxiety but she was definitely coming along. Look at that face.
GETTING KICKED OUT
My goal when I moved to Aurora was to stay there for a few years until my son finished high school and this was shared with the landlord in advance. By then my dad, 83 and with dementia had moved in with me.
However, interest rates spiked and my landlord gave me notice they were going to sell. I was barely there a year, and I had to move again. My house in Scarborough was rented, and so I rented another house and moved. It was brutal, in January I had IVF and I was 6 months pregnant with my little monster. High Risk.
It cost me a fortune to hire movers, and my landlord was supposed to pay, and never did. It was a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom house, with one crippled person, one guy with dementia, and one 15 year old boy with a love of video games and no love for packing.
LOSS of AGENCY
When you own your own house you just take for granted that you don't have to move. Once you start having many family members and kids in school, it's not that easy. Anyways I ended up finding another house but the rent was $500 more per month.
As a tenant you just need to suck it up, buttercup.
After a year or so in that place, my tenants in my house in Scarborough moved out, and so I decided to move back to the house I owned. My older son had quit school and moved in with his dad by then so it was just stupid to live in a giant 4 bed 4 bath with just me and my dad. Even Robot the dog passed away.
I did have a baby boy by then, but they don't take up much space. lol.
What I Learned
Reply to ads even thought it's just a brief blab.
Don't ask for applications, and ID etc up front. I do group showings at appointment times, so tenants can see the place first, before we get intimate details.
When the place is rented, reply back like a human. "Thanks for your interest but the place is rented, best of luck on your search"
The bar is incredibly low for landlords, just reply to ads, and show the place. Apparently 80% of the places on MLS are just posted for show, because you can't reach anyone.
Speed up the Process and Communicate. It just takes a few hours to check an application, just do it, if there's a hold up, say you can't reach the employer, let them know.
If the Applicants are declined let them know as soon as possible, so they can find another place to live.
Please Learn the Rules and Follow the Law... It's our business to stop asking for illegal stuff.
Over All being a tenant can suck pretty badly especially if your landlord doesn't follow the laws of Ontario and as a tenant there's not much you can do during the approval process, because if you stick up for yourself, you're not getting the place.
One of the more disturbing suspicions I had was that in Aurora at least, I was being discriminated against, I was told that perhaps Chinese landlords would rent only to Chinese people. That would account for the lack of response to my inquiries for houses and this is only a suspicion, and not verifiable in any way.
Next post I write, I'm going to tell you more about how it sucks to be a tenant in a landlease community...
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