Landlords

We have the most wonderful, magnificent, tremendous, stupendous, amazing landlords in the whole wide world! If there were an award for Best Landlords they would win it hands down! Dick and Ellen are a retired couple. Over 20 years ago they decided to invest in real estate instead of the stock market. Over time they bought 18 different condos as rentals. They used a management company to take care of everything for many years. Several years ago they sold all of the units except for two. Ours and one other 2 bedroom condo in Columbia.

When we moved in here (almost 5 years ago) they switched from using the management company to handling the 2 units on their own. They were incredibly meticulous getting the place ready before we moved in. They did all the painting themselves and made sure everything was in working order. I remember her showing me the racks in the oven and telling me that they would need to be replaced because they were just too dirty. I could hardly tell!

They have been incredibly responsive in the 5 years that we've lived here. This morning was no exception. When I woke up it seemed a bit chilly. I thought maybe a window was left open a crack so I started to inspect all of the windows. When I realized that wasn't it I finally checked the thermostat. Sure enough it was set where we always leave it, but the temperature read about 10 degrees cooler. I waited until 9:15 to give them a call - I didn't want to wake them at 7:30am. Within 30 minutes he was here to take a look. He called a repairman right away. At 1pm he came back and sat in the parking lot to wait for the repairman. Everything ended up working out. Trevor had me change the air filter when I first called him and apparently that was the only problem. Ten minutes before the repairman showed up it started working again! (Of course.)

I made sure that I told our landlord how much we appreciate him. In one of our other rentals the heater quit and it took 2 days for the landlord to come out to look at it and another few days for him to send a repairman. It was a miserable week. We were bundled up as much as possible with space heaters everywhere. When I relayed this story to Dick he was astounded. He simply said - "there's just no reason for that!"

Not only do we appreciate their responsiveness, but in the 5 years we've lived here they've only raised our rent once and only by $35 a month. That is completely unheard of around here. In our first "real"* rental they wanted to raise our rent by $100 per month after the first year. I finally negotiated them down to around $50. The next year they wanted to increase it by over $100 again - that's when we decided to move out!

If you have good landlords then renting is the way to go! So, why in the world are we moving?! Well, we're really outgrowing this place - if only it were 3 bedrooms. They're also advancing in years so we have no idea how long this place will be available. If they pass on who knows if their kids will want to continue renting it or if they'll want to sell it.

If you know of anyone looking to rent a spacious 2 bedroom condo send 'em our way. I'm sure our landlords will appreciate a referral when we're ready to move out. Who knows when that will be at this point - most likely sometime July or later as I mentioned before (unless something comes up in Buffalo before then.)

*I don't count when we lived on the WBC/CBS campus as being "real". ;)