Sorry, Draymond- Landlords are Looking for Cool Lovers, Not Fighters

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

(Matthew 5:9)

 

Draymond Green is a great basketball player.  There is no denying that.  He is a vital cog to the Golden State Warriors and instrumental in them wining two of the last three NBA Championships. 

 

His professional accomplishments are many:

3-Time NBA All Star

2-Time NBA Champion

Defensive Player of the Year

All-NBA Team Member

USA Basketball Selection

 

But he also has this statistic line: 11, 13, 15, & 15.  Those are the number of technical fouls he has received in the past 4 years which puts him among the league leaders.  He‘s a fighter who is prone to argue with officials and other players, often to the detriment of his team.

 

With Draymond and his enormous talent, you take the good with the bad.  If he was an average player, he’d probably be out of the NBA for his conduct.  But that’s why his coach, Steve Kerr, gets paid $5M/year to channel his “passion” into the confines of a winning basketball team.

 

Property managers, most who are making well south of $5M/year, also need to make sure they have a “good team” of tenants in the properties they manage.  This starts with screening tenants and picking the ones who will pay their rent on time, maintain the property, and get along with their neighbors. 

 

To help determine this, one of the main screening criteria is culling information from past landlords.  We sometimes hear some version of this from prospective tenants:

 

“I gotta be honest- if you call my past landlord, Bernie, he’s not going to have nice things to say.  And there’s a simple explanation for that- Bernie is a complete jerk!  What a loser.  I was the best tenant he ever could hope to have- I mean I fixed the kitchen faucet without even asking for anything from him; of course, I got no love from him.  He was just impossible to deal with!”

 

So, I’m guessing, the tenant is hoping I’m hearing:

 

1. Bernie is not cool.  However, the prospective tenant is cool.  And it’s tough for cool people to get along with uncool people.  If I’m cool, I understand.  And I, of course, am really cool, so I understand.
2. The tenant can fix a faucet without us sending a plumber
3. I am a much better landlord and person than Bernie so I can be confided in
4. If the tenant fixes the faucet (or some other repair on his own), show him love.  It’s what cool people do and will make it possible for him to deal with me.

 

However, what I’m hearing:

 

“I didn’t get along with my past landlord.  I blame him for that and have no problem badmouthing him to strangers to further my own ends.”

 

By contrast, this is what a lot of prospective landlords say about tenants when we contact them:

 

“Jim and Jane are such a great couple!  They always paid their rent on time, took care of repairs on their own, and were such a pleasure to deal with.  I’m so sorry they are leaving!  Great tenants!”

 

Jim and Jane sound very cool to me.  They seem to value a peaceful relationship with their landlord.

 

Draymond Green is one of the fifteen most talented basketball players in the world so he can get away with not getting along, at least right now.  However, there are 60 people moving to Charlotte every day looking for rental homes, so they are not as rare.

 

At the end of the day, property managers are looking for cool lovers, not fighters, for their rental homes.  Settling for someone like Draymond is just not usually necessary.

 

Happy Landlording!