A landlord’s story: What can we learn from a property owner’s point of view?

As a grad student attempting to make some extra money on the side, I work part time at Iowa City-based ProofreadingPal. My boss there, Brian Kaldenberg, owns a few rental properties in Coralville and North Liberty, and the majority of his tenants are University of Iowa students, families and recent university graduates. We recently chatted about what it’s like being a landlord—what opportunities has property ownership created for him, and what challenges are involved in keeping up with Iowa City’s hard-partying student population.

Little Village: What is the hardest part about being a landlord in the Iowa City area?

Brian Kaldenberg: I would say the hardest part so far is making sure you have good tenants and dealing with complaints of loud music and pot smoke.

LV: When I told my friends I was doing this, they all pretty much unanimously had negative things to say about Iowa City landlords.

BK: The problem is, landlords have a lot of the power, and if they want to charge you a couple hundred dollars for something, really, it’s not worth your time and effort to go fight it. Vice versa, if you want to get away with more damage than your security deposit, but only, like, a couple hundred more (laughs) — to be honest, for the landlord, it’s the same thing: It’s not worth it for him to go chase down the extra three hundred bucks …

Iowa City rents are pretty high, and that’s just because we know you have to live here. We know everyone wants it, especially when you get closer to campus. And we know you have student loans or mommy and daddy’ll pay for it.

LV: I would think it would be hard to rent to college students. I see what you are saying about student loan money, but it’s maybe their first time living away from home. This is the number one party school in the country, so that’s kind of a hard population to have to deal with.

BK: That’s why I try to price my apartments a certain way. I try to attract a certain type of tenant. Certainly, I am not trying to attract partiers. Now landlords downtown that have the five-bedroom house, they’re charging a ton of money, but they also know what they’re getting. They’re getting partiers who are going to break things, who are going to have disorderly conducts. Then, when that happens, those tenants are going to pay for the damage.

I know one of my friends who lived in a downtown house — a three-bedroom—the owner was a painter who had taken really good care of his house. He and his family moved to another house, and he was going to rent this house out. The guy leaves some furniture around, and some of my friend’s roommates burned the furniture (laughs). In the house. There were burn marks on the nice wood floor. I remember some huge parties in this house. So that guy, he was nice, he was a hard-working guy and kept a really nice place, and these kids just came in and just destroyed it …

And then there’s some good tenants. I think there’s a give and take, but if you really step back and look at it, I think the landlords, at the end of the day, are pretty responsible in Iowa City. Most of them are probably not trying to screw you too bad (laughs).

LV: What do you think is a solution to students destroying nice properties?

BK: I have rented to a lot of students, and I have had only one instance in which the property was somewhat damaged beyond reasonable wear and tear. But by no means was the property ruined. The majority of students will take decent care of the properties. Not perfect care, but decent care. I think it is a very few minority that actually ruin properties or cause severe damage.

The best solution is to keep your properties nice so you can charge somewhat of a premium for rent. Most people who are going to severely damage properties are also looking for cheap places to live or do not appreciate the condition of the property because it is not in that great of condition to begin with.

Another form of protection is a strict rental application. Typically, people with solid references from previous landlords and a high credit score are going to be more responsible. The final form of protection is the security deposit. If the damage goes beyond the security deposit, there is also small claims court.

I do not think there are any sure-fire ways to prevent properties from being damaged, but there are not a lot of sure-fire guarantees in any business. You do what you can to minimize risk.

LV: What do you wish tenants would do that they don’t?

BK: Let us know right away about water leaks, running toilets, insect problems, broken windows and doors.

LV: So the ideal tenant is someone who pays the rent and lets you know about issues as soon as they come up. Anything else? 

BK: For me, a college graduate.

LV: Why does that matter?

BK: Because I think typically they’ll have higher income, and higher income just means less chance that they’re going to not pay their rent. For me, I like [tenants that are] still in college because it makes them more predictable. They are not going to just get up during the middle of the semester and leave; whereas someone out of college might get a job offer or they are getting married now. So, I really like people who are in academia for predictability.

LV: Final thoughts?

BK: I hope money continues to flow to student loans.

LV: That’s really interesting, the relationship you bring up between our education policy and the local rental markets.

BK: And our interest rates, too. Most loans are on a five-year arm, so if interest rates go up, in five years when you have to renew your loan, the payment goes up a lot. And if the interest rates go up for loans, they’re going to go up for student loans, too. And we certainly don’t want a decrease in the amount of students coming to major universities. So I hope we keep money flowing to students who want to go to college, and hopefully we can keep interest rates somewhat low for the near future because I think interest rates have a bigger effect on a community like Iowa City than a lot of people think.

Raquel Baker is a PhD candidate in literary studies at the University of Iowa and works part-time as a customer service representative, editor, and proofreader at ProofreadingPal.