Hi, there! Joe White here from Grow Property Management, your trusted property management company in Philadelphia.
I manage a property management company in Philadelphia, and over the years I’ve seen all types of owners; hands-off ones, overly involved ones, inexperienced ones, but the couple I’m dealing with now, a husband and wife, stand out for one reason: their overwhelming entitlement. I don’t say that as a personal criticism but as an observation about how that mindset has severely damaged their own investment. Their situation has become the perfect example of how an owner’s attitude can undermine the financial health, stability, and long-term profitability of their rental property.
The owners have a triplex in a neighborhood near Temple University. Now, anyone familiar with Philadelphia knows this isn’t an A-class neighborhood; it’s not Old City, Northern Liberties, or any of the more upscale areas. It’s a working-class part of the city, sometimes rough around the edges, where tenant quality can vary widely. Even so, these owners managed to place tenants who were subpar even for that neighborhood. And that’s where the trouble began.
When they onboarded with my company, they came with an eviction already in process. They had placed the initial tenants themselves, my company had nothing to do with screening or approving those renters, and they had already lost control of the situation by the time they came to us. One tenant on the first floor needed to be evicted, and to this day, I still don’t fully understand the situation with the third-floor unit because they never even had us manage it. All of it was chaotic from the start.
But the core issue wasn’t the messy state of the building or the tenants they had placed. It was the mindset behind all of it. They came to us with the attitude of “We deserve rent, therefore we’ll take anyone who gives us rent.” That entitlement, this belief that they somehow inherently deserve income regardless of the condition of the property, the quality of the tenants, or the effort put into maintenance, is what set them up for failure.
The first big sign of trouble was how angry they became during the eviction process. They were frustrated that the eviction was even necessary, despite the fact that they were the ones who placed the tenants. They behaved as if my company was part of the reason things had gone wrong, which made no sense. They told us, “We can’t get these tenants out,” and we stepped in and handled everything with the city. We followed every requirement and timeline exactly; those tenants weren’t in the property a day longer than they were legally allowed to be. We did our job. But instead of being relieved or grateful, the owners remained irritated, and that frustration only intensified once the tenants moved out and the condition of the property became visible.
Once the eviction was finalized, we finally got into the unit, and it was exactly as you’d expect from tenants who hadn’t been paying rent in a lower-quality neighborhood: destroyed. The place had been left without power for who knows how long, and the refrigerator had never been emptied. It was packed with rotting food. The entire unit needed repainting. Doors, fixtures, and surfaces were damaged. It wasn’t horrific to the point of needing full renovation, but it absolutely needed about $5,000 worth of work to be put back into a safe, habitable, tenant-ready condition.
The rational response would have been, “Okay, what do we need to fix to get this rent-ready? Let’s do it right so we can attract better tenants and stabilize the income.” But that is not how these owners think. Their response was anger, anger that they should have to spend anything to get the unit back in shape. They kept asking, “Why should we have to make it tenant ready? Why can’t tenants take it as is?”
That is the exact entitlement mindset that damages investments. They believe that simply because they own a property, a stranger should be willing to pay them rent, even if the conditions are subpar, unappealing, or outright unsafe. They confuse what they think they “deserve” with what the market will actually give them. They want to run this property as-is, without repairs, without cleaning, without updates. But doing that will only attract the same kind of low-quality tenants they just had; tenants who don’t pay rent, who damage the property, who leave them stuck in the same financial mess over and over again. They would be restarting the cycle immediately. And it’s not only shortsighted; it’s financially self-destructive.
Their attitude toward the refrigerator alone shows how unrealistic they’re being. When food rots in a powerless fridge for weeks, it’s not just about wiping down surfaces. There are vents, fans, insulation pockets, rubber gaskets, all places where air and moisture circulate. Bugs often get inside when the fridge is off. Even if they die once the fridge is powered back on, their bodies decay inside the walls. Mold and bacteria linger. Air circulates that contamination through the entire unit. Even after thorough cleaning, the fridge may still be unsafe or unusable. I explained all of this, and told them we’d send professional cleaners and contractors to attempt to salvage it, but that they should anticipate needing to replace the fridge. Their reaction was immediate and absolute: “No way. Why should we have to replace it?”
Why? Because it is unsafe, unsanitary, and unfit for tenant use. Renting out a fridge in that condition could even border on violating housing standards. No reasonable tenant would accept it, and no ethical property management company would offer it.
The more I talked to them, the more I realized that their mindset didn’t just conflict with good business, it was actively preventing them from being profitable. They refuse to understand that investment property is not about what they believe they deserve. It’s about what the market will bear. It’s about attracting and retaining good tenants. It’s about maintaining the property at a level that reduces vacancy and turnover. It’s about expenses that yield returns. They’re stuck in the belief that they can demand more than the property, the neighborhood, and the market can reasonably offer.
In the end, I’m leaning toward terminating our management relationship with them. My company refuses to work with predatory owners or owners who expect us to operate in unethical or illegal ways. There is no profit for anyone, not the company, not the owners, and certainly not the tenants, when owners insist on clinging to this entitled “I deserve more than the market says” philosophy.
What would actually turn this property around is simple: make the necessary repairs; bring the unit to a clean, functional, safe, tenant-ready standard; and then screen for a quality tenant appropriate for the neighborhood. With that, the property could stabilize. The cash flow could recover. The long-term value could rise. But for owners who refuse to think like investors, and instead think like people who are owed something; these solutions sound like burdens instead of opportunities.
That’s ultimately the lesson here: rental property is an investment, not a guarantee. The only mindset that leads to profitability is an investor mindset, one that always asks, If I spend this dollar, what return will I get? Anything rooted in entitlement, frustration, or “I just don’t want to” leads to the opposite of success.
At the end of the day, I’m just a humble property management company owner in Philadelphia, trying to help people navigate the realities of rental property investing. And if there’s one message I can leave with anyone listening, it’s this: stay focused on value, on strategy, and on return, not on what you think you’re owed. That’s the real key to long-term success in this business.
As always, happy rental property investment.
