Just curious what other people’s experiences are, as I’ve been a landlord for about a year now and am surprised at how involved it is and how frequently I have to deal with issues with the tenants.
How often do most landlords have to deal with some sort of property management issue and what are they, and how many hours a month are you investing??
I find that once the tenant has settled in after a few weeks that I very rarely hear from them.
There’s the odd issue such as faulty shower or cooker hob but this is very rare (couple of times a year), it’s certainly not a problem for me. Even so I would usually pass this onto a tradesperson to deal with rather than going out myself like I would previously. Getting them to send videos helps with assessing, or face timing.
I don’t supply white goods any more.
I do 6 month check ups, when they first move in I check after a month.
Most awkward part was arranging for tradespeople to attend, but because I have my regulars I’ve been using for years who I trust I get them arranging times direct with the tenant.
I have a modest portfolio.
are your tenants demading? Are their requests unreasonable ? Maybe you’re being too accommodating and need to lay down the law.
If you’re self-managing, you either spend your time or you spend your money. If what you’re doing is in any way tax-deductable, spend your money until such point as it has offset all potential tax. Then, spend your time.
Yeah that’s good advice - @Mark10 agreed on those points as well, arranging tradespeople has also been frustrating for me. And yes my tenants can be quite demanding, or at least they ask for things (like a 2nd towel rack in the bathroom?!) where it’s not my legal obligation to provide one, but as I want to be a good landlord, I’m sometimes not sure whether to agree to something or not.
I guess the question is what’s too accommodating? I wonder where others draw the line..
I think it depends very much on the property (old or flats have more leaks) and the tenants (if you are lucky a handyman who fixes stuff themselves) and some luck too (but a new boiler does breakdown less often usually than an old one). Some tenants care about cleaning and ventilating to avoid damp/mould others blame any issue on LL
Think most time consuming/stressful is same as when you own a place yourself - the leak where the source can’t be easily found, the roof repair where all the flats need to agree to get it done, any disputes between neighbours. Most regular property maintenance like epcs EICRs gsrs is straightforward once you’ve found some good tradesmen you trust
Improvements - if tenants willing to pay for good quality trades to do and doesn’t affect future rental value (ie no hallucinatory colour schemes) why not - it’s their home and good they want to stay.
Too demanding = unnecessary weekend contact or asking for Concierge level service with everything fixed in 24h. Otherwise consider- they are paying maybe 30-40% of gross income so it’s their biggest purchase, so not unreasonable that they want decent service.
Good luck
the most time consuming part of the job is answering the questions on here !!
No, you actually didn’t have to.
Ah… but it is related to the original post.
The OP is surprised about how frequently they have to deal with tenants’ issues. Your post described exactly the sort of issue that doesn’t require a landlord to attend. If the OP follows your example, they’ll be spending time on unnecessary callouts from tenants. 100+ texts over 30 different issues in the first 10 days is excessive and from my long experience over many decades with many tenants I can assure you that the best way to deal with such a tenant is not to attend to every issue they raise.
I think we also might have different ideas of how “derogatory” is defined. 
@tatemono with 2020 hindsight and experience of the tenant concerned @Priya4 might have been able to avoid the visit that ended with cleaning the microwave stain, but without knowing the circumstances at the time in detail I’m doubtful any of us can judge whether @Priya4 did need to drive there the next day or not to deal with the concerns of her tenant. 2020 hindsight is wonderful tho 
@tatemono I have seen your replies can perhaps inadvertently come over as blunt or judgemental, you do after all have lots of experience - and opinions as a result (and happens to the best of us online myself included)
@Priya4 I’m not sure that @tatemono meant to be derogatory but understand your concern
it’s mostly advertently (if that’s even a word??) 
(post deleted by author)
excellent detail which I’m sure the OP will appreciate as I did. I’d encourage you to provide explanations for your methods both because not everyone here is as experienced and also because it helps to avoid misunderstandings.
@Priya4 well done! Great result
I find it really hard to understand tenants like that and (even between fellow LLs) emails and txts can often cause assumptions and misunderstandings. There’s no substitute to speaking to people preferably in person. It’s much harder to be unreasonable face to face.
But it does all take a lot of time and effort. And tongue biting skills practice (for me anyway)
The other thing is that the leak /issue/comms doesn’t happen during 9-5 it can happen just when you are about to get on a train (etc) or a Sunday evening etc etc. So it’s much more disruptive than if being a LL was x hours on a weds every week.
Best
Priya, I’m sorry you get some unhelpful replies. Just ignore them.
We had a few incidents like this, with one T making constant complaints for months, which in 100% turned out baseless. One of them was “infestation” where T photographed any odd fly in the flat and sent us as a “proof”. Other complaints were about mould, which always turned out to be a spec of dirt or small smear on the wall, and about obnoxious smell which we just couldn’t smell at all.
Eventually, we served her S21, and the next day she informed us that she solved infestation problem by buying a dehumidifier. We replied that infestation, as persistent as the one she informed us about for a period of several months, can only be solved by industrial methods, and we plan to contract pest control to professionally fumigate the place.
Then it dawned on her that she overdid it (she definitely didn’t want to move), and we will now hold her stories against her (she won’t admit that she simply made it up, will she? She’s too proud, LOL). She feebly tried to suggest that she moves out for a few days to her friend; then she condescendingly said that it has been very stressful for us, so she understands that we over-react and is happy to look past it and move on (what a cheek!).
But nothing worked. We played her game and now were using it against her to get her out - and she couldn’t object it, as confrontational as she was! )) She was really bitter about it. When we met her a few months later, the look she gave us was a picture. We feel sorry for her current LL. The woman is a psychologist with NHS and is unbelievably, professionally manipulative.
We also had a T who moved in and messaged to us that we missed one shelf in the kitchen, and it has dust on it. When we offered to come and wipe it, he said no, it was just FYI.
Generally, every LL has more stories of stinky attitude and sh*tty behaviour than one post will allow. Would be nice to hear some of them ))
Now, when we do viewings, attitude is top of the list. Any sign of concern, and we drop them. It takes ages for us to find a T this way, but it’s worth it. I guess good LL is thick-skinned LL, which we are not.
Spot on with comment about attitude>
For your amusement only, no offense intended to the stereotype.
We once had a tenant who objected to our assessment of the check out condition. Agreeing to meet at the property to discuss I attempted some initial pleasantries, “congratulations when is the baby due?” to which I received a very indignant reply - “I’m not pregnant”.
My thought response is unprintable for fear of offending.
In my defense, I am a well meaning, principled, honest but sometimes blunt Yorkshireman who often opens his mouth to change feet.
The moral of this story - Hard as you try you may never satisfy some tenants, keep it strictly business.
It goes in phases for me. I just have one property, but last year was a nightmare as my property had just hit 25 years old and lots of little things went wrong at almost the same time. My outgoing tenants had not reported issues that had cropped up since last inspection and I discovered that a neighbour had flooded the back of my kitchen and I had to replace it and half the bathroom. Everyone in the block including the property manager had ignored a huge water stain on the external wall, until I inspected a few months after the event. So my preference is definitely for a picky tenant now and I have increased monthly internal inspections and now do monthly external partly because the property management company never seems to identify problems like communal lighting and guttering. This year, (fingers crossed) has been great. Only one small issue with a radiator and some communal issues.
I don’t mind demands within the first month. It suggests that they care about the property and want it in good order. (Especially when they follow tenants who were “no trouble at all” because they failed to report anything.) What I normally do is explain that they may find some snagging. If they make a list and give it to me after a couple of weeks, I will get someone in to sort it all out in one go.
My headache is paperwork. MTD = five returns a year, four with much tighter deadlines. Licensing with each property in a different authority. Greenwich took 18 months to reply, and Westminster are headed that way (already six months, on a one bedroom flat.) What was a profitable side hustle is much more like a less-profitable real job.
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own up who flagged up the deleted posts and why?
Was that aimed at me? Odd. My first ever post, and I had assumed it was constructive, or at least intended to be.
Too busy being a landlord to spend time flagging up posts. .