Integrity–The Key to Business

   A friend of mine was telling me about his home that he has currently rented in Omaha, Nebraska.  The home, a 4 bedroom family home is located in a nice area of suburban Omaha.  My friend was transferred with his company and elected to rent the house in Omaha, partially due to economic conditions, however, partially because they really liked the house and could envision going back to Nebraska at some time in the future.

    My friend and his wife conducted a thorough background check, credit check, reference check on their potential client and found no red flags.  Everyone agreed that all was perfect, a lease was consummated and then………………………………………………………………………………  things went down hill.

The house had an odor, the basement rooms were musty, the carpet had pet odors, etc.  My friend, having not transferred to his new location engaged the services of a property manager to resolve the challenges.  Well, after a couple of weeks of hard core challenges, the lease client was released from the contract and my friend was once again, seeking a new tenant.

     The interesting part of this post is that in the 4 years that my friend owned and lived in the house, he and his family (3 small children) never used more than 50,000 gallons of water per month.  The one month that this client was in the house, the house used over 100,000 gallons of water!!  Why?  The property manager ascertained that the client was trying to cause foundation settlement so that they could be released from the lease. My friend said he had never experienced such a challenge before!

 

      The new client that he found had a foreclosure on his record, was trying mightily to build his credit back up and has never been late with a payment or complained about anything.  My friend said that he wanted to help someone who had a financial misfortune and everyone is happier!

      The original client who initially rented the house had an integrity issue.  What actually happened was that the original client had found another house after they had rented my friends house and did not know how, gracefully, to get out of the lease.  I think that asking is probably the best way.  Now there may be some costs involved, however, they did sign a lease, however, if things did not work out, there is always a way out–honestly.  It may cost money, but it can be done.

       Integrity is the key to any business relationship.  There was no real reason to flood the foundation, hoping for settlement and then trying to cry fowl.  Some of this is common sense, however, the Golden Rule, i.e, “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You” is paramount in any business relationship!  Think about it the next time that you find yourself in a box.  The Golden Rule does work.