The pros and cons of being a landlord

How difficult do landlords feel renting their properties are? Is it worth it?

According to 88.3% of landlords, they find it at least somewhat stressful, according to a recent porch.com report. However, 80.1% said the income from being a landlord is worth it.

What are the biggest problems with tenants? Nearly half of landlords reported a tenant asked to break a lease early, while 44.7% had to evict a tenant and 40.6% had a tenant suddenly stop paying their rent. Overall, on average, landlords reported rent checks were late 25.1% of the time.

Landlords also have to deal with typical household issues. Landlords reported, on average, being contacted six times a year by their tenants about repairs. The most common is a broken appliance, like a refrigerator, at 86.8%, followed by a broken window at 86.1% and a broken toilet at 84.5%.

While the majority of landlords (61.5%) trust their tenants with taking care of the property, that’s not always the case. More than a quarter of tenants (26.2%) lied about having a pet, while 25.7% broke the terms of the lease. Others (22.5%) didn’t report broken items in the home and 20% had someone else living in the home who was not on the lease.

Despite some of these hiccups, 63.9% of renters received some or all of their security deposit after their lease was up.

Ultimately, the majority, 90%, of renters, said they want to own a home in the near future, but 20% said they do not think they can afford to ever buy a property. Nearly two-thirds said they rent because they can’t afford a home, while 46.5% said they rent because they are not sure where they want to live full time and 30.4% don’t want to be tied to a place for too long.