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How to Find Tired Landlords

Jerry Norton

Dec 20, 2023

Did you know that the best, most profitable real estate investment properties may not be found on the MLS?

It’s true.

There’s many properties to be found off market — and this includes working with tired landlords. 

What is a tired landlord, and how do you find one? 

We’ll break down everything you need to know about tired landlords in this guide. 

What Is A Tired Landlord?

A tired landlord is someone who has owned a rental property for more than 10 years and are burned out — and may be interested in accepting a low cash offer to get the property off their hands. 

In many cases, this can be a multi-family building with a high turnover, in other cases it might be a rental house whose value suffers because it doesn’t see the maintenance it should.

Benefits Of Working With Tired Landlords

There are many benefits to working with tired landlords, including: 

  • Lower Purchase Prices: Tired landlords may be willing to sell at lower prices for a quick and hassle-free transaction.
  • Portfolio Expansion: Acquiring multiple properties from a single landlord can rapidly expand an investor's portfolio.
  • Far Less Competition: These properties are usually off-market, reducing competition among buyers.
  • Rapid Equity Growth: By revitalizing neglected properties, investors can quickly increase equity.
  • Rental Income Potential: Well-positioned properties can yield strong rental income post-renovation.

How To Find Tired Landlords

Here are some of the best ways to find landlords who have just gotten tired of the rental game, and they represent prime ground in which to cultivate profitable relationships.

Use Propwire

Utilizing Propwire’s software, you can find Tired Landlords with the click of a button. 

Propwire’s Tired Landlord filter will show you landlords who have owned a property for more than 10 years in your search area — and allows you to run a skip trace for just 10 cents to contact the owner of the property. 

Local Eviction Filings

Another way to find tired landlords is to track local eviction filings is a highly effective method for finding tired landlords. 

These are public records that are commonly available at local civic buildings, and in some cases can even be found online. 

Frequent evictions at one address, or at multiple addresses filed by the same plaintiff, can indicate a property owner that might just be fed up with trying to collect rent from delinquent tenants. 

Monitoring these filings and offering a timely solution can be their signal to exit the rental market.

Common Vacancies

Looking around for properties that have multiple vacancies that either rotate or stay unfilled for long periods, particularly when no renovations are being done to attract new tenants, can be a green flag for a potentially tired landlord. 

A lot of times what you’ll find is a landlord with limited resources, an aging property, and a waning interest to keep investing time and money into it. 

Extended vacancies also mean lost income, so the owner may even be behind on mortgage or tax payments. 

For investors, situations like this are the perfect opportunity to create a strategy to acquire and revitalize these underperforming assets.

Absentee Owners

Absentee owners can potentially be prime candidates for selling, particularly if they live more than an hour or two from the property, out of state is even better. 

These landlords often face challenges with effective management and administration of ongoing property maintenance. 

The distance tends to make their maintenance burdens worse, and offering them a great deal that lowers their stress level can be just what they need. 

Identify potential absentee owners by looking through public records for properties where the mailing address is different from the property address.

Lack Of Maintenance

Another solid indicator of a potential tired landlord is rental properties that show signs of diminished maintenance efforts, or even outright neglect. 

Look for peeling paint, damaged siding, damaged roofing, or anything else that may be sitting unrepaired. 

For an investor, this can be a chance to purchase these under-maintained properties, relieving the landlord of their burden while acquiring assets that can become profitable with focused efforts. 

Property Management Companies

While often overlooked, networking with some local or regional property management companies can be an incredibly strategic way to find tired landlords. 

These companies are often the first to know when a landlord is starting to become fatigued and is showing less interest in actively managing their properties. 

Building relationships with the companies can be the perfect route to getting insider information on off-market buying opportunities.

High Tenant Turnover Rate

This is usually something that you’ll need to be relatively local to notice, but if there are rental properties near you, look for them to show vacancies 2-3 times per year, and you’ll have a good candidate for a landlord who is just tired of filling vacancies. 

High turnover leads to increased costs and decreased income, causing frustration and fatigue for the landlord, and creating the ideal situation for you to step in and propose a solution.

The Bottom Line: Tired Landlords

Tired landlords can offer below market deals — you just have to know how to find them. 

Use Propwire’s quick and easy Tired Landlord listings to find your next real estate investment today!