Renting to Diplomats?

[Anonymous]

Or Aussies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I’ll bite. Would you equally rent to a Finnish diplomat and a Somali or Afghan one with their respective families? You should. But do you? Or do you pick? Based on conscious or unconscious bias? Or you could say, experience? In other words, do you ever discriminate?

The Afghan Embassy in Washington DC closed in March 2022 and due to funding freezes due to sanctions, I would not rent to an Afghan diplomat under those circumstances. But any diplomat from an Embassy with a history of regular payments of its bills in DC, sure. I'm not a racist who only rents to white people from Europe (I'm a person of color myself.)

[Anonymous]

Not the racism (I mean yes) but perceptions of behaviors, cooking habits, responsibility. Great if you don’t discriminate. Not convinced people don’t

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not the racism (I mean yes) but perceptions of behaviors, cooking habits, responsibility. Great if you don’t discriminate. Not convinced people don’t

Discrimination based on perception of behaviors, cooking habits and responsibility is often rooted in racism. Yes, there are racist people out there, along with people who lack the ability for nuanced thought, who say gems like "I would never rent to a diplomat."

[Anonymous]

Why are you so hot and bothered about this? I in fact rent to diplomats. US ones in home assignment, going great, no diplomatic immunity, every check on time. I win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you so hot and bothered about this? I in fact rent to diplomats. US ones in home assignment, going great, no diplomatic immunity, every check on time. I win.

Then you're not the people on the post I'm referring to. There are earlier posts that say things like "never rent to a diplomat" which makes me wonder about the collective IQ of this forum.

[Anonymous]

Diplomatic immunity would give me pause. Ditto the possibility somebody would abuse a domestic worker in my property. So, to not be biased, I avoid putting myself in certain situations. It’s not a buck over everything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you so hot and bothered about this? I in fact rent to diplomats. US ones in home assignment, going great, no diplomatic immunity, every check on time. I win.

US citizens working at the state department in their own country and subject to all the rules of their own country are not diplomats. When they go overseas, they are diplomats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you so hot and bothered about this? I in fact rent to diplomats. US ones in home assignment, going great, no diplomatic immunity, every check on time. I win.

US citizens working at the state department in their own country and subject to all the rules of their own country are not diplomats. When they go overseas, they are diplomats.

Hahaha. My check would disagree and also all my rights as no immunity! Whoop whoop for clever old me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A off-shoot question: could renting to foreign diplomat/embassy (say, from a friendly W.European country) cause any issues for security clearances?

Not for us.

[Anonymous]

I think it does actually. Depending on the level.

[Anonymous]

I think short term (like air bnb) with no repeat business is ok. Renting to and from can be a problem

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My diplomat friend says never ever rent to diplomats

Why so? Is it because they entertain too much? Or is it because they normally cannot afford such nice housing in their own country so are inexperienced in taking care of large properties? I know some European and Asian diplomats could only afford to live in tiny apartments in their own cities, so can be very neglective of normal maintenance required by American houses. Plus they normally have too many children (the more children the more benefits and wife normally don't work)

They have too many children? The wife doesn’t work? What do you care if the wife doesn’t work?

Let’s put it this way, OP, I would not rent to diplomats who don’t have to do it through their embassy.

Your “diplomat friend” sounds a bit dim. We have had amazing diplomat tenants for years. Rent comes like clockwork through the embassy. Property manager does a quick walk through every 6 months and says they’re taking great care of our house

What a dimwit high ranking EU diplomat. You tell ‘em.

We had another friend, also EU, who told us about the landlords. Ew. The Bethesda houses with mold and crickets and snakes and mice. Their children embraced the “wildlife”. It goes both ways

We live next door to a house in Bethesda that is regularly rented to World Bank personnel who tend to be in the DC area for 2-5 years. The landlord does cosmetic touch-ups and charges $4000 per month in rent, but has let the house fall into quasi-disrepair. So I do feel kind of feel bad for the tenants.

The World Bank tenants have all been completely lovely as neighbors. The only exception was the household from a particular country (not in Europe) where they paid their housekeeper $5 per hour (also from their same country) and asked her to work 12 hours per day. The tenants figured that US laws on minimum wages and overtime did not apply to them. Very cheap people, despite driving a luxury car and taking great vacations.

I think I know the house and the family. The family was EU though.

The house was atrocious.

It must not be the same house. The tenants were from Vietnam. I am sure that the rent was paid on time, and the house was immaculate. But I felt bad for the housekeeper. I was just surprised that a woman from Vietnam (who considered herself from a high social class and worked at the World Bank) would treat a household employee (also from Vietnam) so poorly.

[Anonymous]

There’s a famous case, also the World Bank. I believe the woman got reinstated and promoted after being indicted by the Feds. Nothing new but absolutely horrifying.

https://casetext.com/case/us-v-bakilana

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My diplomat friend says never ever rent to diplomats

Why so? Is it because they entertain too much? Or is it because they normally cannot afford such nice housing in their own country so are inexperienced in taking care of large properties? I know some European and Asian diplomats could only afford to live in tiny apartments in their own cities, so can be very neglective of normal maintenance required by American houses. Plus they normally have too many children (the more children the more benefits and wife normally don't work)

They have too many children? The wife doesn’t work? What do you care if the wife doesn’t work?

Let’s put it this way, OP, I would not rent to diplomats who don’t have to do it through their embassy.

Your “diplomat friend” sounds a bit dim. We have had amazing diplomat tenants for years. Rent comes like clockwork through the embassy. Property manager does a quick walk through every 6 months and says they’re taking great care of our house

What a dimwit high ranking EU diplomat. You tell ‘em.

We had another friend, also EU, who told us about the landlords. Ew. The Bethesda houses with mold and crickets and snakes and mice. Their children embraced the “wildlife”. It goes both ways

We live next door to a house in Bethesda that is regularly rented to World Bank personnel who tend to be in the DC area for 2-5 years. The landlord does cosmetic touch-ups and charges $4000 per month in rent, but has let the house fall into quasi-disrepair. So I do feel kind of feel bad for the tenants.

The World Bank tenants have all been completely lovely as neighbors. The only exception was the household from a particular country (not in Europe) where they paid their housekeeper $5 per hour (also from their same country) and asked her to work 12 hours per day. The tenants figured that US laws on minimum wages and overtime did not apply to them. Very cheap people, despite driving a luxury car and taking great vacations.

I think I know the house and the family. The family was EU though.

The house was atrocious.

It must not be the same house. The tenants were from Vietnam. I am sure that the rent was paid on time, and the house was immaculate. But I felt bad for the housekeeper. I was just surprised that a woman from Vietnam (who considered herself from a high social class and worked at the World Bank) would treat a household employee (also from Vietnam) so poorly.

These poor guys had every type of pest and mushrooms growing inside and were told that’s DC