I'm a good tenant in general and live far below my means (I grew up extremely poor, I generally don't need a lot to be happy). Which means I have far more resources at my disposal than you would assume based upon the houses I rent and the vehicles I drive.

I cannot tell you how many times I've had to get a lawyer involved to protect myself from landlords. They always immediately back off because they're used to dealing with people who __cannot__ protect themselves.

I once had a property manager I absolutely loved and stayed in that house for 5 years. Until the owner decided to change property management companies, I was gone in 2 months. The month I was supposed to start paying them instead of the original property manager, they contacted me 3 days before the end of the month and insisted I would have to pay an extra processing fee to pay them via my card and the only way to avoid it is to mail in a check but if I do that it won't get there in time and will assess a late fee.

I tried to rent a new house from that same property manager but was unable to find something I liked in the right timeframe.