mtn wrote:
I'll also throw this out there: A landlord, as opposed to a property management company, is usually better. More understanding. Now, the company has a LOT going for it--anything goes wrong, they have their own crew to get it done fast, but they don't care about the property, they care about making money and not getting sued. And from what I've seen (which is actually quite a bit), screwing you over.
x2. We are much happier with our "private citizen" landlord than we ever were with the management company at our old apartment. It seems that the latest trend in apartment complex management is full of modern American Corporate Disease (Just turning a profit is *NOT ENOUGH!!" Maximize profit at every opportunity!!!). The main reason we moved from our first place (that we'd only been in for a single year) is because they posted a notice on the door a month before the end of the lease stating that our rent would increase $100 a month after X month, X day. A hundred buck increase in a single year? We immediately started looking for somewhere else. Found it (this one, actually) and started moving out. It was a leisurely process, since we had a month (I had the dough to pay the rent on the old place and deposits, etc. on the new one). Three days before the end of the lease, the complex manager (an attractive woman my own age) decides to come by the place (while my girl's out), touches my shoulder a lot, and sweetly mentions to me that the notice we recieved was just supposed to be a "reminder" of the conditions of the lease (that staying in the place without a new lease would invoke the "month-to-month" cost, which was true), and that we could sign a new lease at the same monthly rent as the old one.
All I could do was suggest that the notices on the doors should say "please renew your lease", instead of "your rent is going up".
Sorry about writing a book, dude. Long story short: Look for private property with a single owner, and avoid anything owned by a company. It can be a little weird sometimes, but if you get the right person as a landlord, it rocks.
Me: "Hey, we fixed that bad floor in the guest bathroom."
Him: "Thanks, take $500 of the rent next month. I didn't really want to come out there anyway!" 
Actually, this place has even worked out for me as a car guy as well!
Me: "Hey, would you have a problem if I parked a car in the back yard?"
Him: "Nah. My boat used to live out there."
