Any Renters?

My friend said that I should upload a video like this to my blog/vlog because I've had a really long run of getting 100% of my security deposits back over the years from video recording/uploading my houses. The only time I didn't get a full return was on the first apartment I rented, where the landlord nickel and dimed me for everything (even light bulb replacement for WORKING light bulbs!). Damages already in the house became my fault because I didn't know to document them and the landlord didn't tell me to, suddenly my professional carpet cleaning wasn't good enough so I had to pay for someone else to do it again, and a lot of other things. I didn't have enough proof to take it to court, because I trusted the landlord.

What I learned from that was that you never trust someone trying to make money off of you. So, ever since then, I have taken a video of all of the house before I unloaded the moving truck, posted the video on YouTube within a few days of moving in, and then did the same thing after I had all the boxes on a moving truck a year or so later. Ever since doing that, I have not lost one penny to landlords!

So, this is an extremely boring video, but if you are renting, it is a good example to have. I believe I even cut this video short and didn't include the outside or a few of the areas in the house because it was already running long. Another tip too - this video was done in a hurry as a sample, so it's not in HD. If you can upload an HD video, that is even better for you!

This is really important for college students to do as well, because the worst landlords I ever experienced were ones who primarily rented to college kids! There are many who will try to bully, intimidate, and push you around because they expect you not to know the laws (or even tell you that their "lawyer" says this or that, when they are making it all up as they go along). In their defense though, these landlords also get so many irresponsible kids renting that they treat you all like morons that will wreck their property or stop paying the rent. My last landlord like that went so far as to tell us that we couldn't break our lease with a military PCS, and that we were trying to con him. He even tried to call the recruiter's office to say that we trashed his house when this landlord had never once even showed up to mow the lawn as our lease said he would!

Also please note that the house in this video is NOT military housing. This is the house we left military housing for (foolishly left in hindsight, as we couldn't see the house we're in now before we moved in, and it is a cracker box, filthy, broken down nightmare!). I don't want to mislead anyone, and if you are military, I would strongly recommend to try renting off base if it's a realistic option for you. They charge us a lot of money here to live in a slum-like neighborhood.