The Landlord of Death

I was reflecting on the recent sale of an investment property and some of the things I learned while I managed it.

Back in 2006 when I had a vacancy, I had a couple apply to rent the home as a lease option. Mark was a blue-collar guy who just came out of an ugly divorce. His credit was trashed and he needed some creative ways make purchasing a home work for him. His new fiance was organized, had great credit, and already owned a home in Clearfield. She was selling her property in order to merge their two households.

They didn't have the $2500 I required for the lease option so he gave me $100 to hold the property for a week while he procured the rest of the funds. A week later they gave me the remainder of the funds and were scheduled to move in on a Friday. On Thursday I got a livid call from the fiance. She is telling me that the home is filthy dirty and totally unacceptable. I agreed to meet her over at the home to discuss the situation. When I arrive she starts screaming at me about how unclean the place is and how much of a scumbag I am. I was shocked since the place was really quite clean. Her tone became more aggressive and I told her that perhaps the home wasn't the right place for her. I offered to refund her option money and cancel the lease. When I did this, she rebuffed and said that she instead wanted an $800 cleaning refund. We both decided to think about it overnight and follow up the next day.

When I got home there was a bright yellow envelope in my mailbox from the bank. Apparently, the $100 hold check they gave me 10 days previous has bounced. Whoops! If $100 had bounced what was $2500 going to do? I immediately called the fiance and told her about the bounced check. She was completely embarrassed and apologized again and again for her unkind treatment of me that evening. I accepted her apology and she then divulged that she had doubts about her future husband and she wasn't sure if things were going to work out. That was pretty big news.

Mark called me later that evening and wanted his $2,500 refunded. I told him that since his little check had bounced, I needed to wait 10 days to make sure the big check didn't bounce. He agreed to wait for it to clear.

Monday morning the fiance calls me up crying. I was a little disconcerted because I thought we had everything worked out. I said, "How are you doing?" and she weepily blurts out "Mark died!". From her tone I could tell she wasn't kidding but I still was incredulous. "What? What happened?" I said. She then began to tell me that Mark had a heart attack and passed away the day after our confrontation. He was 42.

Needless to say, our lease agreement was voided. Legally, I had the right to retain the $2,500 option money but I discovered that Mark had borrowed that money from his father. Now his father had to bury him. Since that check didn't bounce, I refunded his father the $2,500 to help pay for the funeral.

The interesting thing about this story is that living through it was so surreal. In the midst of all the confrontation and craziness, I felt like I was part of a play that I had not written nor did I know the end. I honestly believe the Lord knew it was Mark's time to go and this wacky drama was the run-up to getting him there. It's very strange to be a part of it.

In any case, I share this story so my tenants know never to bounce a check on me. They do so at their own peril.