Landlords are people too.
They are like everyone else, trying to make a living by providing a service. They want to be happy and to have satisfied tenants.
Some common sense items will make your relationship with your landlord a positive one – you know, those traits Mom taught; honesty, reliability, and hopefully believing the best in people.
So here are a couple things to get you started off well.
- Start off on the right foot: I know plenty of people who “fudge” the details — about their pets, their pay — to get into places, but I vote for always being truthful so nothing comes back to bite you later. Consider following the rules, even if they don’t make sense and mean you can’t paint your walls what you want. Some folks do design how they want to anyway, but that mean losing favor with your landlord (and you never know when you might need something).
- Report quickly and competently: Don’t let something that needs to be repaired go unrepaired and become worse, damaging or expensive for the landlord to repair. Report needed repairs quickly in writing, and make follow-ups that are polite.
- Pay on time: Some people have a casual relationship with paying their rent on time, but you’d be surprised how just being reliable with your rent payments can have a really positive effect on your landlord’s impression on you. Consider creating an automatic online payment if that option is available to you, or just set a repeating calendar reminder so you don’t miss the day.
That is for a start.
Just remember that, with very few exceptions, your landlord wants to maintain a good, long term relationship with you. Give them the benefit of the doubt!