Landlord Lifeline

“I swear that paint chip looked like a light gray in the store…”  my cool bachelor tenant is explaining to me as I stare in disbelief at the bedroom I agreed he could paint in his apartment….it is mauve!

Once again, dear blog friends, I am sharing with you my years of landlord experience, so that you don’t tread where I have gotten up to my pudgy buttocks in mistakes.  Don’t let your tenants paint!

Poor color choices are only one reason to not let your tenants paint.  Others include:

·         Messy paint spots and spills on the carpet, tile, hardwood floors, bathtub or let’s just say, wherever they are painting;

·         Wrong type of paint for the location (i.e. flat paint in a bathroom is disaster);

·         Paint that doesn’t match the rest of the house….

Here is where I have to stop to tell you about the tenant who painted the front door.  This is a Victorian house zoned for business in a small business district. The house was being painted with a cute three color Victorian scheme, but the front door had not been painted yet.  Why I thought she would use one of those colors with the paint we were using…I don’t know.  Colors on the house were yellow, green and burgundy…She painted the front door a bright Salmon!

Save yourself time, money and headaches… Don’t let your tenants paint!

Sounds harsh, doesn’t it.  Only once have I let a tenant paint and not regretted it.  The tenant is a professional painter and did an amazing job.  Rare!

Pick one neutral interior color for all rentals…not white, but something tasteful.  We use Beachcomber from Glidden at HomeDepot.com.

Thanks!

B

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Art of Being a Landlord by admin