Since I’ve been renting houses now for several years I’ve seen this a bunch of times.
I call it – “The Boyfriend Disorder”.
When I first experienced it I shook my head and wondered what was happening. Now I can see it coming a mile away. I wish though that I could see it coming before I drive all the way over to show a house!
What is “The Boyfriend Disorder”?
It’s when a single mom and her kids have an appointment to see a rental, and The Boyfriend shows up with them.
It’s pretty funny because it plays out with the same pattern, every single time.
Mom makes an appointment to see the house. Mom, kids and The Boyfriend show up. The steps that Boyfriend follows are:
Step 1: He shakes your hand hard, looks you in the eye, and introduces himself as The Boyfriend. You know, it’s the whole rooster thing. I have to bite my tongue to not laugh when this happens.
Step 2: They walk around and look at the house. You overhear Boyfriend pointing out all of the “problems” with the house.
Step 3: When they’re done looking it’s time for questions. Boyfriend tells you that he won’t be on the lease, but that he will “be over a lot”.
Step 4: Boyfriend starts listing all the “problem” areas with the house, and states that the rent should be lower due to all of the problems.
Step 5: When you hold your ground on the rent, Boyfriend then claims that he’s “handy” and wants to negotiate the rent down in exchange for “fixing” all the “problems”.
Step 5: When you say no, Boyfriend then complains that the security deposit is “the highest that he has ever seen” and wants to negotiate that down.
Step 6: When you hold your ground on the security deposit, The Boyfriend threatens to walk away.
Step 7: when you call his bluff, The Boyfriend drags Mom and the kids out of the house.
This happened to me today, and it followed the same pattern as always. Mom hardly said anything.
The crazy thing? The mom was a great fit, she had a good job, she could afford the rent, and she had the security deposit. She even had the application almost filled out while the back and forth was happening with The Boyfriend.
And she looked horrified when I took the application back and tore it up as The Boyfriend dragged her out of the house.
The sad thing was that she called me a little while later to apologize and tell me that they had “reconsidered”.
I told her that I hadn’t.
So beware of The BOYFRIEND Disorder. It’s just too much drama.
