MAN IN THE HOOD: It pays to be your landlord’s favourite tenant

If ever there were best tenant awards, then surely I would have scooped one by now.

But for now, I’m happy to enjoy the stockpile of benefits and privileges of being my landlord’s favourite tenant

First, the landlord is always on your speed dial. You know that person who has a Herculean crush on you and doesn’t mind showing up even when you summon them at the weirdest of hours? Your landlord becomes like that.

If you ever have a problem, they’ll be Captain Fix-It hence you’ll always be content with where you live.

You won’t have to be an urban pastoralist that’s always hopping from one estate to another in search of a tranquil environment to inhabit.

If you have a disagreement with your neighbour, the landlord will always side with you. It won’t matter whether you are the oppressor or the oppressed.

And when that bad month comes where life has given you a battering and you are completely unable to raise a coin for your house rent, the landlord won’t come down hard and you.

You might also be excluded from constant or capriciously steep rent hikes. I once lived in a flat where the landlord would occasionally increase the rent of other tenants but he would keep mine the way it was and tell me “Usiambie hao wengine ati sijaongeza yako.”

LIKE FAMILY

Another important benefit of being your landlord’s favourite tenant is that they’ll treat you like family.

Your relationship with them becomes more than just a business transaction. If they’re wealthy (which most landlords are), they might even connect you to a financial opportunity from time to time.

You become like their son, daughter, brother or sister.

The first and most effective way to endear yourself to landlord’s eyes is to make a habit of paying your rent consistently and before everyone else.

If the deadline is the fifth of every new month, pay by the first or second date of the month.

Trust me, majority of tenants take forever to pay their rent. Some even play Tom and Jerry with the landlord; they have to be hunted down to part with the cash.

So, when you are the only one that pays on time, your landlord will develop a strong liking for you.

IN HIS SHOES

Put yourself in the landlord’s shoes. You definitely know what it feels like when money that you are expecting comes late.

Whenever your boss or debtor takes forever to pay, your affairs become destabilised and you develop some antipathy towards them. Equally, when you pay your landlord late all the time, they won’t like you.

It’s easy math. When you hand over that money several days after the deadline, you’re destabilising their personal groove. Don’t ruin the landlord’s groove.

About a year ago, there was gossip of how artiste Timmy Tdat’s neighbours were complaining that he brings too many different girls to his house.

Not sure how that was their business but apparently it was and so they forwarded their lamentations to the landlord. It’s clear that the neighbours were so pissed that one of them even leaked this bit of information to blogs.

The leaker even described the situation perfectly by saying “Anabadilisha wasichana kama matatu.”

Mua ha ha ha!

One news outlet decided to contact the landlord to see if Timmy had been evicted for his Hugh Hefner-ish mannerisms but the landlord actually defended the controversial artiste. He said that as far as he knows, Timmy is a decent human who never offends anyone and pays his rent in time.

See that? He pays his rent in time. That was the defining factor here. If Timmy was the kind of guy who pays on the 20th after dodging numerous calls from the landlord, he could have been booted very quickly. 

A GOOD CUSTOMER

The landlord is a businessman. He is in it for the money and in this case, Timmy was a good customer. How can you get rid of your most reliable customer? If anyone has a problem, they’ll have to persevere.

The other thing you need to forge a good relationship with your landlord is to study their operational template. Are they introverted or extroverted? Establish that quickly and sail with their winds. Some like to chat with tenants and are hands-on with tenants while others are hands off with a penchant for privacy.

If your landlord doesn’t like talking, don’t talk to them unless it’s necessary and if they are chatty, make sure to always exchange pleasantries and engage them in virtuosic deconstructions of various life issues whenever you call or meet them. Tailor your interactions with them to match their personality.

The penultimate piece of advice is - be nice (that’s unless your landlord is a tyrant). Don’t act entitled or be a pestering brat just because you pay rent. If you have complaints, always know how to present them in a respectful manner. A lot of people are confrontational. They choose to ignore that tiny part of their hearts where reason and recognisable humanity reside hence they end up not forging good relationships in situations where they easily would have done so.

Be nice and see yourself being favoured.