I'm always looking for tips that make our lives as landlords easier. Here's one I found on pinterest regarding parents and kids that I think would apply:

Always give the kid (tenant) a choice in what to do. It makes them think they are in control.

Kids (and tenants) have a desire to be in control. They don't like to be ordered to do something. If they are, they may do it and may not and even if they do it, they often resent you and look to "get even".

Better to offer a choice which accomplishes your goal. "Would you rather clean up the junk in the yard or have me send a crew to do it and bill you."

"You may pay your rent, or you may leave voluntarily, or you may be evicted."

I give 3 choices...so way ahead of the power curve on this one, apparently. ;-)

I like your planning ahead.

Nobody ever told me about teni change over the years. Experiance now has shown me that I can't provide the same answer as I did years ago.

Lets say the garbage disposer is not working.

Ten years back I could ask the teni what it was or was not doing. Today all they can offer is a picture of a clogged disposer.

Five years ago I could make the effort to go right out and clear it knowing that the teni would respect my time and learn from the error which clogged the machine. Today you can not go out because tomorrow it is clogged again.

So today you need to say " Do you want the person who clogged it to pay for the plumber to come out or can it wait till I'm passing by?"

I just used that as an example but it applies to all tenant matters these days.

Written (signed) Agreement.

Contractor Rate : $75.00 an Hr. ( Plus Materials)

Here's their choice,

Now, how would you like to pay for that ?

Richard, I think your idea is a good one. Because of your reminder I just used this witha situation I have.

I mandate rent payments using Clearnow. A tenant just got herself kicked out of the system because she reversed a rent payment. They don't take that lightly and disenroll you from the system when you do that. She did not intend for this to happen and didn't realize the repercussion.

I gave her three choices. Get it fixed which may prove difficult or there is a work around if she can use someone's account I can draft and she pays them.

Move in thirty days without penalty as she is month to month.

Or only because we both have an account at the same bank I will accept rent payments with a $20 processing fee per payment and she currently pays twice a month so $40 a month and if she pays in full on the first then it would be $20 a month.

My teacher husband learned that strategy back 35 years ago from an older mentor teacher. It saved him a lot of hassle with students - and he used it successfully with our kids.

When we had a difficult set of tenants, he put on his calm teacher demeanor and gave them choices (like "mow the grass before it gets to 5" high, or have my crew do it and pay a higher monthly rent"). They would try to argue and blather, and he would simply repeat the offer, then leave and follow up with a letter.

This time of year, finding a RTO tenant is tough. I want one that is actually going to buy, since that makes me the most cash. It is tough any time, but just before Christmas - wow.....not that many qualified applicants that have the necessary cash.

So I offer a qualified applicant some choices.

We can go month to month at say $900 until they put down the money on the place, then the new lease amount will drop down to $699. They can drop that dollar amount even further by qualifying and purchasing the place - so the price can drop down to about $485.