I'm writing this post today as a life lesson I learnt a while back based on my experience in handling various types of tenants as a landlord.
As everybody knows both landlord and tenant have their own agenda. The tenant always strive to get the lowest rent while the landlord strives to get the highest rent possible. It's basically a supply and demand equation.
With the Covid19 situation here, a lot of landlords are desperate and are now lowering their rents at record low levels, some even willing to take a big deficit in their rentals. Some tenants are also aware of this and they will test and ask the landlords requests to reduce rent. During this Covid19 season I've already encountered 2 cases where I almost gave in to the tenant's request but I decided to stay put and call the tenant's bluff out.
➡️ Case 1
A residential tenant called me up during the loan moratorium time (banks allowed deferment of installment on loans) and ask to defer the rent as banks are doing so for landlords. I stood firmly and refuse to do so. My reasoning was that the tenant still had his job intact and this was a residential property. Unlike a commercial property where businesses have to close down during the lock down period in Malaysia. The tenant relented in the end and didn't bring up this topic anymore.
I was quite confident the tenant was bluffing because of the following reasons :
1) Tenant still had his job
2) I've always attended to the tenant's complains within 3 days (my own KPI), eg fan repairs, plumbing issues)
3) The rental price I was giving the tenant was already slightly below the medium rental range in the area
In the end the tenant continued to rent from me until today (2 years and counting already)
➡️ Case 2
Some potential tenants came to view my residential unit. Even before viewing the unit they were already requesting the rental to be lower by RM100 and I agreed verbally. Once they viewed the unit, they mentioned that the walls were dirty and about the musty smell in the unit and then they ask for a further RM100 discount. I stood firm and told them it was not acceptable. I told them I will paint the place up if they don't ask for the discount but they kept pestering for further discounts, saying they were only students. However I saw through their bluff and stayed firm.
I was quite confident the tenant was bluffing because of the following reasons :
1) The tenant was in a hurry to rent the place, they say they wanted to move in next week (red flag)
2) The tenant refuse to rent at the rate advertise despite me promising to fix up everything and paint the whole place up
3) The tenants method of dressing down the property by saying this and that was not good enough but still wanted to rent
In the end I blocked communications with the potential tenant despite them suddenly agreeing to my terms after a few days later. In fact, I even managed to rent out the unit 1 week later at my original rental terms.
At the end of the day as a landlord you got to know what you are bringing to the table and what you are worth. If you don't know that you can be easily swayed by tenants who are demanding and cents smart. Be like a poker player, call your opponents bluff and keep a straight face. This post is not meant to bash or bully tenants but actually are real world examples of tenants trying to bully landlords back. At the end of the day the tenant landlord relationship is like any other relationship, it got to have give and take and if it is toxic, it is best to cut and run fast away from it.