Gifts for the Holidays

Special “thank you” for special tenants or simply holiday cards. One landlord used to give us a potted poinsettia for Christmas, another landlord served us with an eviction notice on December 18, 2000 – we had rented his house for four years and he agreed to sell it to us, however he sold his house, wasn’t able to find another house to purchase that he could afford – this was in Mountain View/Palo Alto, CA area – so he decided to take up residency in ‘our’ house, ahhh but that’s a whole other story! Let’s see, our landlord in France would always send over an extraordinary bottle of wine and a charming gift for our daughter, and we didn’t get anything from the Married Student Housing Authorities at UVA…except really reasonable rent (and that was worth a lot)!

I kind of like the idea of giving gift cards, or plants, subscriptions, or desserts. I’ve heard of a lot of landlords who think that upgrading something in the rental unit (which is deductable) is a clever gift during the holidays – hmmmm, granted everyone benefits but it smacks of self-serving Scroogieness. If you can’t afford to give a gift – send them a holiday card - lately I’ve been using Thanksgiving cards since I can no longer keep track of who is celebrating what and when…at least with Thanksgiving, everyone will celebrate, regardless of religious preference.