A landlord in Cleveland told me he screens tenants by asking one question, and I stole it for my shop

Mason Bell · 2026-09-25T07:55:03.279299+00:00

I was touring a rental unit in Cleveland last month and the landlord told me he skips credit checks and just asks every applicant what they did the last time a pipe burst. He said the ones who blame the plumber, the neighbor, or the city always turn out to be the tenants who stop paying, while the ones who just say what they did about it stick around for years. I started asking a version of that in interviews last week, so what is the one question you use to figure out who you are actually dealing with?

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A landlord in Cleveland told me he screens tenants by asking one question, and I stole it for my shop | Business Owners - Talk Freely