Anonymous wrote:I once rented to a guy who was in law school. I felt like he was trying to "practice" on me...nitpicking on every little thing, almost like he was baiting. Very, very annoying.

This happened to us too. I don't want to go into details but it was a very unpleasant experience. We're now renting to military and they are great.

Another former PITA law student here, though to be fair, I only wrote one nasty letter, and that was when my landlord brought people into my apartment without any notice (and I was very pregnant and not wearing any pants at the time).

I have rented from the same man for 5 years now, and I have never given him a moment's crap, because he is a good communicator, he responds to issues quickly, and is a generally great guy. In return, we keep the place tidy and always pay our rent a day early.

I rent a two-unit rowhouse -- three tenants, all lawyers.

They did nit pick their leases (although, oddly, they "found" things that weren't inaccurate and completely overlooked things like the wrong name on the signature block -- eagle eyes!). They understand the meaning of a lease, so I don't worry about them breaking it. One of them called to discuss her extension exactly 60 days prior to the end of her lease.

They don't take care of the yard, but tenants seldom do. They do keep the place neat and presentable, but I doubt it's being deep-cleaned. They ask before doing anything that might put their security deposit at risk.

And, they pay their rent on time without complaint. So I couldn't be happier.

This sounds about right. Lawyer here, married to a lawyer.

We like to read the fine print, and are nervous about what we sign. But we're hardworking, so we're too busy to bother with stuff once we're in. We don't complain much, we pay our rent on time, we don't party or trash the place, and as a PP said, we understand the concept of the lease and the obligation it entails. I'd like to think most of us are pretty stable and trouble-free.

Of course, we're also people, which means we come in all flavors.

DC's full of lawyers--swing your backpack and you'll hit one. Hard to see how a LL can avoid renting to one at some point or another. Don't know why you'd want to avoid the lot.

Anonymous wrote:Sold my previous house to a lawyer and bought my current house from a lawyer .... both ends of the transaction were nightmares! It was seriously the worst 4 months I've ever experienced. The buyer got me so upset at the closing with all the stuff they were trying to worm out of me, that I walked out. The buyer's agent had to come chase me down the street and promise me that she would get her client to behave if I would just come back to the table.

DH and I joke about it now and say we would never enter a real estate transaction with a lawyer ever again, but it was probably just dumb luck in both cases that we were dealing with difficult parties. I wouldn't characterize all lawyers in any way just as I wouldn't characterize all accountants in any way, or any other profession for that matter.

fascinating.... I'm a lawyer (31 yrs) and the closing of my last house sale that I almost walked out of was with a single Mom who had a flaming asshole of real estate agent who pulled the same crap at closing (more, more, more) til I finally had enough and told my wife "enough is enough, we'll find another buyer" and the RE agent that "there are 2 kinds of RE agents, those who make deals and those who kill them. You clearly are the latter." And I got up and started to walk out.

The client quickly realized that her RE Agent was the problem and ignored her and the three of us (buyer, my DW and I) quickly resolved the issue.

Assholes come in all shapes & sizes. Assuming that lawyers will be --- though they certainly can be --- is not always accurate or productive.

If you can avoid it, avoid it.

Anonymous wrote:I rent a two-unit rowhouse -- three tenants, all lawyers.

They did nit pick their leases (although, oddly, they "found" things that weren't inaccurate and completely overlooked things like the wrong name on the signature block -- eagle eyes!). They understand the meaning of a lease, so I don't worry about them breaking it. One of them called to discuss her extension exactly 60 days prior to the end of her lease.

They don't take care of the yard, but tenants seldom do. They do keep the place neat and presentable, but I doubt it's being deep-cleaned. They ask before doing anything that might put their security deposit at risk.

And, they pay their rent on time without complaint. So I couldn't be happier.

+1 have rented to several lawyers and they're just people OP

When I was in law school, I had a contracts professor who joked that lawyers make the worst tenants, for all of the reasons PPs mention. Lawyers are not a protected class, so you can rent to them or not, as you choose. Going with your gut is probably the best advice above. Can you ask for recs and check them out with previous landlords?

I agree with PPs that if you are not a slumlord you should be fine with lawyers, but expect that they know their rights and don't try anything shady.

I was also a PITA law student, however I rented from a slumlord lawyer who was open about trying to gouge tenants for as much as possible because he felt screwed from when he was in school. He did send us a crazy nasty letter when we were trying to get repairs done (including, but not limited to, an open hole in the basement wall that was billed as a cat door and through which wild animals and/or strays entered the basement and crapped all over it). It was exactly what you'd be hoping to avoid, all assertion and not-thinly-veiled threats inviting us to break our lease. I was so appalled that I looked up the law and answered the whole thing line by line (after we called the housing inspector) and it was very satisfying! DH used to pull it (my response) out at parties and read dramatically aloud from it while my artsy friends cracked up.

Like a PP said, we were always model tenants in the sense of paying our rent on time, giving ample notice, and not doing anything to jeopardize our security deposit. Often we did small repairs out of pocket if we could (shower curtain rods or fixture replacements and the like) and we never had problems with landlords who weren't lawyers!

I guess, OP, I would say that in DC there is no surefire way to avoid aggressive or contentious tenants except to meet them in person and go with your gut.

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of different kinds of lawyers. Most don't go around suing people. If you've seen your applicants' faces on a billboard or bus stop add, move on.

Sold my previous house to a lawyer and bought my current house from a lawyer .... both ends of the transaction were nightmares! It was seriously the worst 4 months I've ever experienced. The buyer got me so upset at the closing with all the stuff they were trying to worm out of me, that I walked out. The buyer's agent had to come chase me down the street and promise me that she would get her client to behave if I would just come back to the table.

DH and I joke about it now and say we would never enter a real estate transaction with a lawyer ever again, but it was probably just dumb luck in both cases that we were dealing with difficult parties. I wouldn't characterize all lawyers in any way just as I wouldn't characterize all accountants in any way, or any other profession for that matter.

I am a lawyer, we have rental property, I try to avoid renting to lawyers and I would never rent to a law student for all the reasons outlined by one of the PP above.

Especially in DC. DC is so unreasonably tenant-friendly that once you have a tenant it is almost impossible to get rid of them if they are paying rent, i.e., if you think they are a nit-picking pain and would rather get a new tenant, you cannot kick them out at the end of the term if they are still paying rent and want to go month to month.

I am sure that there are very nice lawyer tenants; however, given the choice between a non-lawyer with a good job and stellar credit and a lawyer with the same, I would go for the non-lawyer.

1. If you eliminate lawyers from perspective renters, you eliminate a huge portion of the white collar DC population.

2. If you start from a partnership rather than an adversarial attitude with your renters, your lawyer tenants could become your best friends. Who knows, they might even be able to help you out of a sticky wicket one of these days.

As a landlord, I just want to add that while you don't want tenants who will be demanding pain in the asses, you do want tenants who will tell you when something needs fixing. We had a lovely guy as a tenant for years who never wanted to bother us when something broke - which is why we had to deal with a broken refrigerator when he moved out. I tell the tenants now - we really do want to know when something needs to be fixed. It's in our interest to hear about it!

Haven't rented to lawyers but we do request references from two previous landlords and I always call them both. So that may help you avoid people who are problems.

I'm a lawyer with some landlord-tenant experience and I think it's made me, if anything, a better tenant. I know my rights, which means I don't ask the landlord for things he doesn't have to provide.

If it makes you feel better, most lawyers don't know anything about DC landlord-tenant law. So they probably aren't harder tenants than anyone else.