A Disaster in the Making

Several months ago, I was approached by this rather large extended family on helping them find a place to rent. As they were my clients, my job was to present them in the best light possible and help them find a place to live.

The players in question: Babs and Seth--mom and dad--in their early 50s, recently foreclosed upon, self employed in the fledgling construction industry. Joining Babs and Seth were unemployed Daughter 1 who was going through a divorce and had three children of her own. Very Pregnant Daughter 2, her husband (who both worked at a pizza joint) and their toddler and Son 1 who (evidently) had some sort of history of conflicting with law enforcement, was going to the local junior college and was in-between jobs. If you do the math, you should have counted 10 people with an 11th on the way.

A landlord's dream come true.

The only home big enough for this extended family, in their price range, was found. The landlord bought it sight unseen at an auction a month earlier. The 2 acre property included a 2 bedroom apartment, a guest home and a barn. Someone was already renting the apartment. The landlord was planning on keeping the guest home to use as an "office" and he was planning on renting out the barn to a third party. The house was built in one of Mesa's orange groves in the 1980s and hadn't been updated since. Though it was spacious enough, a coat of paint alone would have done wonders.

I explained to Babs and Seth early on, they have no control over who rents the other building--so if the tenant uses the barn to store explosives or makes it into a grow house, that isn't anything they will have control over. If the owner decides to keep a mistress in his office/guest home or if he decides to throw wild parties back there on a Tuesday night, there isn't much Babs and Seth can do about it. If the tenants in the apartment next door aren't their cup of tea, they are stuck. Essentially, this is communal living with Babs, Seth and the gang getting a 7,000 square foot piece of the pie.

If it had been me, the cost of air conditioning a 7,000 square foot home through an Arizona summer would have been enough for me to run in the opposite direction. But, I also explained to them up front about the living conditions, the risks in renting, given they had all this space but had to share the estate with their landlord who may or may not have a style of living they were comfortable with. Babs and Seth could only see big home and extended family all cozying up under one roof.

As far as Babs and Seth went, I could see about 16 zillion red flags renting to them. But, it was my job--as their agent--to present this family in the best light. So, I did what I am supposed to. I explained to them how to best fill out the application to sound the most appealing--without lying mind you. I like my license. I suggested they write a letter to the landlord, explaining how the living situation would be going. I wanted the landlord to get an idea of who they were on a personal level.

Perhaps Seth and Babs' attempt to dazzle the landlord with brilliance worked, or perhaps the landlord was desperate (he should have been), either way, Babs, Seth and the whole brood were approved. Part of me felt bad for the landlord. But, the landlord wasn't going to get a 650 credit score living in his quirky seriously outdated mega mansion.

I got word in October that Babs and Seth stopped paying the rent. Because I live nearby (on the other side of the tracks), the landlord's agent asked me to drive by a couple of times looking to see if there were any signs of life going on in the main home. Nope. By mid-October, Babs and Seth skipped. The home is now up for rent again. With the landlord looking for someone else who might have an interest in sharing an estate with several other strangers.