A plea for a flat

[Richard Mason]

If someone texts me at 2am in the morning then I have no interest in having them as tenants. If they are that inconsiderate when trying to secure a lease what will they be like as a tenant? Shift workers know that most people sleep at night so that would be no excuse to me.

[absoluteproperty]

Like many, I am a shift worker. I have never had a day job, ever.

I DO make a habit of texting people at 2am, because that is when I am most active. However, I use a feature on my phone called a scheduler, this enables me to have my phone send my 2am texts out at 830am, 9am, whenever is polite considering the person and the situation I am dealing with. I am typically awake most of the day too (I average around 4 hours sleep, according to my fitbit) but tend to slow things down in the day time.

I am conscious that I operate in another world to most of the people I deal with.

What worries me, is that the SMS sender has had difficulty spelling their name twice in a row (Jesse vs Jessie), which already puts me in the frame of mind that either this person does not have the stability, or the honesty to be a delightful, life changing tenant for you. It might be better to simply ignore the SMS, put it on your block list if you have it and move on.

[sidinz]

If someone texts me at 2am in the morning then I have no interest in having them as tenants. If they are that inconsiderate when trying to secure a lease what will they be like as a tenant? Shift workers know that most people sleep at night so that would be no excuse to me.

Why is it inconsiderate? As a night owl who is most alert then, I will often send an email at night time, expecting it to be read in the morning. How is a text any different?

[DazRaz]

Texts often wake people up. Emails are usually silence.

Yes, I know texts can be set to silent. For me and my work, I need to be woken for texts and calls. I have had a word to someone who texted me at 4:30am a couple of times...

[sidinz]

My iPad dings every time I receive an email. As I get quite a few in the wee small hours, I make sure the iPad is not in my bedroom overnight. For your situation, I guess that's not possible, but most people don't need to be reachable 24/7.

[Keys]

I've had texts arrive many hours after they were sent.

The original post impressed me in that it was not in text speak. I thought it would have been written by someone who had English as a second language.

[Wayne]

My iPad dings every time I receive an email. As I get quite a few in the wee small hours, I make sure the iPad is not in my bedroom overnight. For your situation, I guess that's not possible, but most people don't need to be reachable 24/7.

I set a 'do not disturb' on my Android - no notifications of anything (except phone calls but that is settable) between 10pm and 7am (settable) - maybe iOS does the same?

[HattrickNZ]

that looks like a spam message to me, what site was the ad posted on? and did it look like it came from a legit nz mobile number?
not sure why or how this spam works...

[Glenn]

that looks like a spam message to me, what site was the ad posted on? and did it look like it came from a legit nz mobile number?
not sure why or how this spam works...

I do not think the answer was spam. It was in reply to a standard Trademe advert. I just retyped the message as it came in. It looks as if I typed the name incorrectly. It should have been Jesse in both occasions.
The number starts with +64 28 404 21xx.
It is pretty common for people like this to text messages out to me at all sorts of strange hours.
One really never knows what is at the end of a text, phone call or email. I enjoy guessing what sort of person is sending messages and what is motivating them.
The Stuff media is full of sad people seeking a rental. Often they give their full name and I often check out their story on Tribunal orders on line. I find it crazy that the reporters are so lazy and incompetent that they do not check out the stories they publish. It is these sorts of sob stories that is creating the political responses and rules that politicians are stuffing down our throats.
Can I make a plea to politicians, do gooders, and social engineers. Please do a few simple checks before asking the public to help the victims of our society.
One does not need to be bad to be a homeless victim but society needs more truthful facts about these people.
They are normally not there because some bad landlord has taken advantage of them.

[Perry]

Aww, c'mon Glenn - be reasonable!

Oh, dear! You are. Sorry.

[Glenn]

Aww, c'mon Glenn - be reasonable!

Oh, dear! You are. Sorry.

I am going to hire Kim the ill sicko to smear tooth paste onto the next idiot who sends me heart throb stories in the middle of the night. I am sick of them.

[HattrickNZ]

Hi Glenn.

interesting re media not checking their stories but not surprising with today's journalism.they are either too lazy or don't have time.or worse they have an agenda.

Anyone that contacted me outside normal hours would be questionable as a tenant in my book.but it is interesting what is behind this.

The reason I suggested the spam was I once advertised on Gumtree and got similar maybe a bit more random messages in the mid of the night.

[Meehole]

You assume Jesse is a girl, my son who is 30 is Jesse.
Old enough to know the lines in the songs, "wish I had Jesses girl" and Jesse I won't cut fresh flowers for you"?
Just saying......
Taydam on the other hand????

[Glenn]

You assume Jesse is a girl, my son who is 30 is Jesse.
Old enough to know the lines in the songs, "wish I had Jesses girl" and Jesse I won't cut fresh flowers for you"?
Just saying......
Taydam on the other hand????

I did a goggle search for the late night texter. It came up with what looked like the female form. None of them looked like a young female thing looking for a flat.
I too wondered what was a Taydam.
It is extremely rare to have the first enquiry give me their names. This is what makes the story so interesting.
As it turned out the tenant I chose is proving to be a bad choice so perhaps I should have given them a chance.

[Perry]

As it turned out the tenant I chose is proving to be a bad choice so perhaps I should have given them a chance.

If someone with your experience has those difficulties, no wonder self-managing PIs do, too.

That said, you've often said that - to keep faith with your clients - you need an empty rental [re-]filled in a day, if possible. I suppose self-managing PIs - if they can stand the cost - do have more time in which to make a choice.

Even with that, my experience tells me that's it's still easy to make a bum choice.