I'm just curious for any landlords who have done both.

Have you found it easier to rent to tenants in an apartment building (say 3+ units) as opposed to renting an individual standalone house to someone?

I'm thinking of an instance where another landlord I know rented a house to a tenant. They got in disputes over the utilities (they were shut off over non payment), as well as some other issues. The tenant, infuriated by the back and forth, on one occasion threatened to 'burn down the house' and in another instance he actually called the police on the landlord for 'trespassing', when she came to look in the windows and see what was going on.

I rent a 3 unit building and have never seen anything like this. The tenants just consider the building to be ours.

Are they more apt to get territorial and/or less reliable payers in a standalone house, or are the two just completely unrelated? Just thought I'd get opinions, thanks

It’s sounds like that particular tenant and landlord situation.

I have sfr’s and have never had that kind of problem.

Homes and apartments - These are two slightly different markets.

Single family residences (SFR) attracts more families than apartments, they are usually bigger and give you the feeling of being less crowded in. Homes in good locations are very easy to rent out, and tend to bring in higher rents.

Apts, townhomes and condos have others take care of the exterior, common areas and landscape. Apts in good areas, with amenities are easy to rent out. Being crowded, tenats often complain about noise.

I only have SFRs, but not for any of those reasons.

I have both, stand alone single family homes and apartment units. My homes range from 2+1, 3+2, 4+2, 4+3 and 5+3. My units range from duplex, triplex, 4 unit, 5 unit, 8 unit, 10 unit, 15 unit, 16 unit and UP.

I find that having SFR (homes) is easy. No rent control and less government interference. The tenant pays for almost everything except for Gardener service and Pool Service -- I don't trust them to take care of the property while working hard to pay the rent. I pay for repairs, property tax, fire insurance and the mortgage.

With units I have government's noise into everything. Since I'm a contractor and always upgrade each apartment upon a vacancy, it's easy to rent. When I had a vacancy in a 5 unit, I had so many qualified applicants that after this vacancy was filled, the "left over applicants" took a unit in a duplex, a triplex and larger building.

Generalization, apartments rent for much lower rent than a house, so you are looking at a different economic level on the tenants.

House or apartment careful screening is important. If you get a bad tenant in a house, the tenant can do more damage than a bad tenant can do to an apartment.

The good news with multi family apts is that all your headaches are under one roof. The bad news is all your headaches are under one roof...

I've had both. The sfh's (mobiles) were easy because they were dumps to start with. I had a 12 plex for about 4 years that didn't have too many issues once we got better security and upgraded the tenants. I did fairly good with it on what was esentially a 4 year flip.

I currently have a 4plex that while in a great location is no end of trouble due to the neighborhood. And it's been a pita to sell.

I think the main negative is selling. Multis ONLY draw greedy cheapskate landlord investors (like us) who only make ridiculous low ball offers and think you, should pay them for buying your pride and joy.

With sfh's you mostly sell to retail buyers. So appreciation is usually better. Multis, value is tied to income. Sfh's is normal appreciation.

With multi, I show up whenever I want, hang out as much as I want and nobody says anything.

Although I've been tempted to stick my toe in SFH, I've stuck with commercial MFH mainly because of centralized management and I like the idea of forcing equity with better management. I also think that rents in MFH tend to be at a price point where more people can afford it. For me, that's going to be important moving forward as the economic situation for many will remain tight.

I only have SFHs and TH. Small multi's in this areas are very rare especially in better neighborhoods. Apartments comparable to my properties (B+ to -A) rent for roughly 25%+ more than SFH/TH properties and most of my properties are occupied by young, unmarried individuals whose only children have 4 paws.

I have had experience with both.

The differences, challenges, pros and cons could almost fill a small book, so I will only answer the specific questions you asked.

Based on my experience:

"Have you found it easier to rent to tenants in an apartment building (say 3+ units) as opposed to renting an individual standalone house to someone?"

-I always got a strong response for both types of properties. Both are easy to find tenants for, but the apts were slightly easier, as less tenants would be living in them than a SFH. This means fewer people to screen and therefore less risk. Ie an apartment may only have one professional living in it. A SFH will likely have numerous tenants living in it. Groups of individuals will often "join" together to rent a house.

"Are they more apt to get territorial and/or less reliable payers in a standalone house, or are the two just completely unrelated?"

A landlord in Ontario cant simply just show up and do repairs on a SFH (even on the exterior). There are proceedures to be followed and failure to do so can lead to stiff penalties for the landlord. Tenants in SFH would be rightly surprised to see a landlord unannounced and working on the property. Conversely, in a multi-unit the reasonable tenants EXPECT to see the landlord doing yard and exterior maintenance unannounced.

I dropped all my multi's in the hood and bought SF's.

WAY too much drama between floors in the multi's. The tenant's will ALWAYS tattel to you instead of calling the police.