By David Pickron

I recently came home from work and saw my teary-eyed daughter sitting defeatedly on the couch. This was abnormal for her, and signaled something was wrong. She is tough, handles stress well and has been an athlete playing high-level golf since age 14. If any game can break you, it’s golf, and last night was her breaking point. Trying to qualify for her first tournament as a college freshman, she started strong on the first three holes with a series of great shots. Things started to crumble on hole No. 4 with a shot into the lake. This rattled her so much that over the remaining holes she struggled and ended up scoring her highest round of golf since her freshman days in high school. As she sat there looking back at me, suspecting her score wouldn’t help her qualify, she said, “it’s just too hard, I want to quit.”

If you’ve been a landlord for any amount of time, you may have felt like throwing in the towel at some point. Last week, one of my tenant’s children decided to get on the roof and pour gas down two stories to a mobile firepit. The neighbor was watching and filmed the entire incident. (I love having a relationship with the neighbors of my tenants). No adult supervision and balls of flames crawling up my walls; definitely grounds for an eviction. I sent the video to my tenant and told them our relationship had come to an end and that they would be receiving notice to leave. Can you guess the answer? “I have COVID so you can’t evict me.” If there were ever a reason to give up on being a landlord, this might qualify.