I am a landlord, and I’ve spoken to my tenants to help them out.
I will come right out, I am privileged that I own real estate, and I am relatively young. The Corona Virus Situation (CVS) is taking its toll on all demographics; no human in North America perhaps the globe is not affected in some way.
That being said, I’ve spent the better part of the last yen years of my career as a real estate professional, this means, I’ve been in the business of apartment rentals, including units that I own.
I will come out and say this, some landlord’s are shitty and some tenants are shitty, but barring these two categories, there are landlords, who are normal, and are in the business of providing a service to their tenants, and there are tenants who pay their rent on time and are afforded their rights as a tenant. The landlord tenant relationship is not personal, rather it is a business transaction where there are expectations, and if those expectations are not met there is procedure and a legal system to rectify the situations.
So here is what I have to say. If you have tenants, reach out to them, figure out a payment plan, and work through the fact that many of your tenants will be constrained to pay rent, if not this month, chances are next month. And in lieu of paying rent on time, the hope is that your tenant will have some money to manage their other ongoing expenses such as…FOOD…
I believe with the proper communication to your tenants we will all get through this. People who own real estate are paper wealthy, but not always cash wealthy. This statement is not meant to be a point of empathy, “like so what, cash wealthy, paper wealthy who gives a shit?…you’re rich…” This doesn’t mean that the person who owns the real estate doesn’t work hard; it doesn’t mean that they don’t have their own families to feed.
So, payment plan, that is my suggestion, yes landlord, work with your tenant. Also use resources that are coming available, such as talking to your bank or lender, and see if they will lower your payments to interest only, and or tag extra payments to the end of your term…and extend it by a few months. There are financial solutions available…we can get creative.
We are not in a time of cap rate chase; we are in a time where every single person is hurting, let’s do our part. And if your tenant is a POS, great, you probably have tenants that are good and deserve to be treated as such. Even if you never recover certain lost rents from bad tenants, chances are the good tenants who are hard working and struggle to pay rent, need money for food and other important and essential items. Your decent tenants will appreciate this more than you can imagine. This is a time of austerity and heroes are the ones who change the world one good deed at a time.