Landlord

As told to Sara Bonchek

A few years after we got married, we bought our house. It came with a basement that had been turned into a rental unit. Though it can feel a little strange to have another family living right underneath you, we deliberately chose a house with a rental unit as the income it would bring in would help us cover our mortgage. It’s very common in our area, and right now, there’s a huge demand for basement apartments and not enough to go round, so it’s quite lucrative.

A landlord-tenant relationship is a bit strange because you’re essentially sharing the same house. “Landlord” is an ugly word, as if we’re lording over them, and has the negative connotation of cold-hearted people banging on the doors of starving families, demanding the rent and threatening to throw them out on the street.

We don’t think of ourselves in terms of landlord and tenant; we refer to our tenants as the downstairs neighbors and ourselves as the upstairs neighbors. Good communication is so important; being able to have a friendly, open, and honest discussion without sounding like you’re complaining or criticizing is crucial.

For the most part, having tenants has been a positive experience, financially and emotionally. But when we first moved in, there were already tenants there, a newlywed couple, and that turned out to be awkward, though we learned a lot from the experience.