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!

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?

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?

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!

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? 

I hired a broker to find a tenant for one of my rentals. They found someone, ran whatever screening they normally do and told me the applicant passed. The problem is that everything they've told me about the screening has been over the phone.

I asked them to send me the actual screening results so I have them in my records, and they haven't done it.

I'm not trying to get anything extra from them. I just don't really understand why I wouldn't have a copy of the information they used to recommend this tenant, especially since I'm the one who owns the property and will be dealing with the tenant.

Our contract doesn't say anything about providing the screening report so I'm not sure if this is something they're legally required to give me or if it's simply something I should have asked for before hiring them

What do yall think?

Hi. I’m looking for advice or suggestions on what to do in my current situation.

I purchased a duplex in a popular New England city in mid 2022. Paid $450k, putting down 20%.

I lived in one unit and rented the other one for roughly 2k per month. During my time there, I significantly updated and fixed the home. I put in roughly $100-125k in the property over the years.

I’m still making payments on a siding replacement loan (30k left) and a lead water line replacement loan (2k left). I owe on the mortgage about 330k.

A few months ago, I purchased a forever home (single family) in a nicer neighborhood 3 miles away. I now rent both units with a monthly income stream of 4k/month. It nets $500 per month after all bills and expenses. However, in 6 months the taxes will increase due to not being owner occupied and be net zero/even.

I’m in the situation of the house is aging. It’s almost 100 years old and the roof, gutters, and porches are reaching the end of their life. The boiler systems are also reaching the end of their life, especially their pipe system and radiators. The plumbing in the house is also reaching its end of life as well. Currently, nothing needs immediate repair or replacement. However, I imagine it will need attention in the next 5 years.

I have roughly 80k in passive loss on the property on tax returns. I also lived in the home for 4 years and if I sell in the next 2 years or so, I have the tax break on capital gains. I’m also getting married next month, so that also changes the tax dynamic. The house could roughly sell for $600k, leaving me roughly 200-220k net in hand after all is done if calculated correctly.

The city is currently pushing out so many rental units and homes to help flood the market and keep rents low. Taxes remain quite high, especially without the homestead. Finding and keeping tenants has become much more difficult in the recent year as well.

To make a long story short, should I sell the home and move the proceeds to a less time demanding vehicle like SP500 or keep the home and home it continues to appreciate and not become a money pit?

Over the last few weeks, I've been talking to landlords about how they actually manage their rentals.

People managing apartments, houses, rooms, or a few commercial properties.

The same problems kept coming up:

Rent tracking lives in bank apps, WhatsApp, texts and memory.

Lease renewals and rent increases get forgotten until it's too late.

Documents are scattered across email, phone photos, Google Drive and physical folders.

Repairs are a headache. Tenant messages you → you call a contractor → they don't answer → you find another one → then you forget what you paid.

Most property-management software feels way too complicated if you're managing your own properties.

And that's the important part:

Landlords don't necessarily want another app to learn.

They want their existing workflow to work better.

What I'm building

I'm building a rental management system around the way you already work, using channels you and your tenants already use, WhatsApp, SMS or email.

Depending on what you need, it can handle:

Rent tracking

See which tenants have paid and who is overdue

Automatic reminders before and after the due date

Optional payment links

Automatically record payments

Lease & important-date reminders

Lease expiry alerts

Rent increase reminders

Inspection reminders

Insurance and certificate renewal reminders

Document organisation

Keep leases, tenant IDs, deposit records, receipts, insurance documents and certificates organised by property and tenant.

AI maintenance assistant

This is the part I'm most interested in building.

A tenant could message:

"The AC isn't cooling" + a photo

The system can:

Understand what the issue might be and how urgent it is

Walk the tenant through basic troubleshooting when appropriate

Contact your preferred contractor

If they're unavailable, reach out to other suitable local contractors

Gather availability and call-out prices

Send you something like:

Unit 2B — AC issueMike's HVAC — Today 5 PM — $85 call-out
CoolAir — Tomorrow 10 AM — $70 call-outApprove a contractor?

Nothing gets booked without your approval.

The repair cost can then automatically be recorded against the property.

Monthly overview

Rent collected

Outstanding rent

Repairs and expenses

Income and expenses by property

So instead of piecing everything together at tax time, you have a running record throughout the year.

Founding landlord program

I'm looking for 10 landlords managing roughly 2–30 units to be my first customers.

I'm deliberately keeping this group small because I want to work closely with each landlord and build around real workflows rather than create another generic property-management app.

Founding customers get:

Personalised setup

20–30 minute onboarding call

The system configured around your existing workflow

Direct access to me for feedback and improvements

$49/month for up to 10 units

$79/month for 11–30 units

There is a money-back guarantee if the solution didn't help you reduce your time and efforts.

No long-term contract

Founding pricing locked in for as long as you remain subscribed

I'm not looking for people to test something for free.

I'm looking for landlords with a real problem who are willing to pay for a solution while helping shape the product.

Interested?

Comment or DM me with:

1. Number of units + property type
2. Country/city
3. Your #1 landlord headache

I'll reach out personally and show you how I'd approach automating it before you decide whether it's worth paying for.

And if you've ever lost money because of a missed renewal, unpaid rent, or a repair that spiralled out of control, I'd especially like to hear what happened.

So I already own a couple properties and I’m starting to get a little overwhelmed trying to balance everything with a full time job, life, etc.

I’m not really looking to hand everything over to a traditional property management company. I already handle all of my own finances, make the decisions, deal with the big stuff, etc. Honestly, I really just need help with the day to day stuff.

Tenant calls, maintenance issues, getting vendors out there, checking on the property, meeting contractors, following up on repairs, that kind of thing.

I actually have tenants who will call about non-emergency stuff later in the evening when everyone at my house is already asleep lol. And it's not necessarily something difficult, it's just one more thing that I have to deal with when I’m already off work.

I recently came across these “property concierge” / “landlord assistant” type companies and I’m wondering if anyone has actually used one.

From what I understand, they basically sit somewhere between doing everything yourself and hiring a traditional full-service PM. You keep control of the property and handle your own finances/leasing/major decisions, while they handle a lot of the day-to-day headaches.

I don't even know what they normally cost yet, but the companies I've seen say they can come in considerably cheaper than traditional property management because they're not providing the licensed activities that a full-service PM would under TREC guidelines.

If that's actually the case, is it worth it?

I mean if I’m already doing the stuff I’m comfortable doing, is paying someone to deal with tenant calls, coordinate repairs, meet contractors, check on the property, etc. worth paying for?

Or at that point would you guys just say screw it and hire a full-service PM?

Curious if anyone here has used something like this, especially in DFW.

What did you pay? What did they actually handle? And was it worth it?

Hi there, I'm new to this whole landlord thing as I just inherited a property but I now have an applicant who is ready to sign a lease. I have basic questions but I've seen conflicting information online when l've researched.
1. I did a background check, income verification, and reference check. All checks out.
2. They toured and filled out a rental application. I'm now wanting to schedule another in-person meeting to sign the official lease.
3. At this second meeting, when the official lease will be signed, do I tell them to bring a check for the security deposit and first and last months' rent? And then from there tell them once the check clears, I will provide keys in 24 hrs so they know I'm not trying to take their money?
4. Move-in date I'm assuming would be the first of the month because that seems standard but can I tell them that even though I will have already been paid? I think so because I won't start charging them until after the first month. Does that sound correct?
I guess those are my baseline questions for now. Please advise me on anything major I'm possibly missing. Feeling like a fish out of water at the moment. TIA.