Let me start with the excuses. I keep a mental list.
Excuse one. “I got hit with a garnishment from an old bill I forgot about.” My thoughts? So, you want me to garnish your pay also?
Excuse two. “It’s Christmas, it’s my birthday, I ran short this month.” My thoughts? You had 12 months to prepare, Hakim. Why?
Excuse three. “Gas prices are so high, my car needed repairs.” My thoughts? Public transportation is everywhere in this area. Also, living in a box versus a $1,200 car note? Not a good life decision, Carol.
Every one of those ranks below the place where you sleep. I don’t get it. A roof is the one bill that makes the other bills possible.
My tenants aren’t struggling. They’re solidly middle class. Teachers. Longshoremen. Retired police. Federal government workers. The Federal Reserve found that 23% of all renters were behind on rent at some point in 2025, and I know real hardship sits inside that number. It isn’t what I see. These are people with steady jobs who put Christmas, a birthday, and a car note ahead of the roof.
Now the rent. I once complained to my lawyer that I couldn’t raise rent more than 4% a year. The market had climbed. My tenants, solidly middle-class households, were paying about 50% less than their neighbors down the street. He told me Newark is the most rent-controlled city in the country. I can’t prove the ranking. I can tell you what it feels like. You own the building, and somebody else sets what it’s worth.
Then I got sued. A slip and fall inside the house. Not a tenant. A visiting parent. The claim was $250,000. My insurance company found I wasn’t at fault. They paid anyway, because they couldn’t be bothered going to court, and my premium never went up. That’s the day I understood the LLC and the policy. An LLC doesn’t stop anybody from suing you. It limits what they can reach, as long as you keep it separate from your own money. You can form one for under $200. You don’t need an attorney. An umbrella policy runs about $150 to $300 a year per $1 million in coverage. Do both. I’d already done both, and that’s why this story has a boring ending.
The rehab is the part that breaks my heart. A single apartment rehab can run $10,000 or more. After one tenant moved out, one of mine cost $5,000. It’s like a friend asking to borrow a dress and returning it soiled, ripped, and smelly. That’s being a landlord. Industry estimates put the average turnover at $1,000 to $5,000, and that’s before the vacancy.
I used to be generous. Pest control, on top of the termite treatment my area requires. A new ceiling fan. An upgraded kitchen item every year. I stopped, cold. If the city doesn’t require it, I’ll make the upgrade when you move out. The next tenant gets the benefit. I’m done being nice to people.
Here’s why. Tenants don’t ask permission. They offer an apology. They break the lease terms, they know it won’t hold up in court if I try to evict, and I get a weak “sorry.” They’re right about the court. Evictions here can take 8 to 10 months. The laws lean tenant, and judges weigh the economy and the tenant’s sad story. Nobody weighs mine.
Nobody ever thinks about the small landlord, so I’ll say it plainly. There should be classes of landlords. If you or your business owns fewer than 5 buildings or 10 doors, you should live under different rules than a commercial enterprise. I don’t know exactly where the line belongs. It needs to exist. Harvard’s housing center found that 65% of 2-to-4-unit rental properties carried mortgage debt. The bank doesn’t pause for us.
Covid showed what happens with no line. New Jersey’s eviction moratorium ran through December 31, 2021. The federal ban ran from September 2020 to July 2021, until the Supreme Court ruled the CDC didn’t have the authority to impose it. Think about the owner of one multi-family dwelling. The rent stopped. The mortgage bill didn’t. People literally defaulted on their mortgages. More than 1,500 property owners sued over the federal ban, won on appeal, and are in settlement talks with the Justice Department now. A person with one building doesn’t have a legal department to wait on that. Shameful, our government.
And here’s what nobody tells Black women. We hear that ownership is arrival. Buy the building, build the wealth, hand it down. Nobody mentions that your first rental is also the first time you become the institution. You collect. You enforce. You absorb the damage. And the rules treat you the same as a firm with 200 units and a legal department.
Here’s where I am right now. I’m moving off the long-term rental model. I’m not saying to what, and I’m not saying when. Who stays in a place and for how long is shifting, and it isn’t Airbnb. I’m tired of excuses from people who earn plenty to cover the rent and being in debt to me for $20k+. Repairing my roof ranks first on my list. It’s time the people under it did the same- Hakim and Carol can put someone else’s roof last.
What did nobody tell you before your first rental? Tell me in the comments.
