If soaring rent prices, a lack of apartments, and an increase in violent crime weren’t enough reasons to leave New York, there’s another factor that might push potential tenants away: landlords with ridiculously specific demands. Take Michael Arieh Lerner, the vegan landlord who made headlines for only renting to non-carnivores. Surprisingly, he’s not the only landlord with outrageous requirements.
For instance, there’s a landlord in Park Slope who has a strong aversion to no-smoking signs. In fact, she would only rent to smokers because she was a heavy smoker herself. The apartment reeked of cigarettes and her furniture had a thick layer of nicotine. She didn’t want anyone who would complain about her smoking habits.
Another landlord only wanted to rent to heavy smokers like herself, so she placed real estate ads in Japanese-language newspapers, believing that Japanese people were more likely to be smokers. When a broker visited one of her units, burn marks on the wooden floor revealed that the previous tenant had smoked in bed and even dropped his cigarette.
In a counterintuitive twist, there’s a landlord who insisted on only renting to unvaccinated individuals, convinced that the Covid vaccine spreads diseases. She was even cautious enough to disinfect the doorknob whenever the broker visited. Her constant sharing of Q-Anon videos eventually became too much for the broker to handle, leading them to drop her as a client.
Then there’s the landlord who had a deep distrust of banks and preferred to receive rent payments in cash or, preferably, gold. This would certainly present challenges for finding a suitable tenant.
Some owners of brownstones also have their specific preferences, such as refusing to rent to lawyers to avoid potential lawsuits. Others won’t rent to Trump supporters or fur wearers, although these requirements would be difficult to enforce.
In certain cases, it’s harder to hide whether or not you meet the landlord’s demands. For example, a middle-aged man wanted to rent an apartment for his elderly mother and specifically requested a pretty girl as the tenant. The broker was ready to give up on finding someone who fit this criteria until a lesbian couple showed interest. The landlord, initially skeptical, ended up renting to them after they turned around pictures of Jesus during the apartment tour.
These examples demonstrate that landlords can have rather unusual preferences. In Las Vegas, a property manager even faced accusations in court for requiring a woman to sign a document permitting him to have sexual relations with her in exchange for a lease.
Proving that everyone has their own priorities, a couple living in a brownstone only wanted tenants who had a minimal carbon footprint and cared deeply about the environment. They would inspect the garbage to ensure composting occurred and preferred individuals who didn’t fly, worked from home, and didn’t own gas-powered vehicles. They even avoided using email to conserve electricity.
While maintaining honesty is crucial, the broker in this case had to improvise to please clients who saved water by using rain pots for plant watering. They parked their car a few blocks away to avoid being seen by the clients, knowing that they wouldn’t appreciate someone arriving in a vehicle.
Overall, these peculiar landlord preferences make finding the right apartment in New York even more challenging.
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