"passive income" is a misnomer...

Mr. Savvy and I are recovering from our first weekend as landlords. It wasn't a bad weekend by any means, it was just full of surprises. We made a trip over to the property on Sunday. Mr. Savvy was going to shovel the parking lot (wouldn't you know that we would get our first snowfall the weekend we acquire a new parking lot to shovel), and I was going to vacuum the hall and talk to the residents. I finish vacuuming, and I knock on the door of apartment 3. I wanted them to sign their new lease, as well as to arrange a time for us to install their new water heater next weekend. I was talking to the man of the house about the lease terms and found out two things of interest... 1. They pay $15 more per month than we thought (good). 2. They prepaid their entire lease, through June, to the previous owner (good for previous owner, very bad for me). Here's our conversation... Savvy: As a formality, we will want you to sign a new lease with us, the term and your rent, $x, will not change. Resident: (looking at me like I'm crazy) We actually pay $x+15, and we paid our lease in full when we signed it. Savvy: Really, you pay more than $x? And you prepaid? You have got to be kidding. Resident: I was afraid this would happen. Savvy: Wow, ok. Um, wow, good joke... you can tell me you are kidding at any time. Resident: I'm not joking, I have a copy of the cashiers check in the cabinet. Savvy: I'll make some phone calls and see what I can find out. But I think this would be a really good time to tell me you are joking. Resident: Sorry, not a joke. And our oven doesn't work. Mr. Savvy and I then spent the good part of the afternoon frankensteining a working stove together for them from the stove in an open unit that had a bad burner. (good oven w/bad burner + bad oven w/good burner = one fully functional stove!). We finished up and placed a few phone calls trying to figure out what the heck was going on with this rent payment. Until I saw the cashiers check, I was highly suspicious that they were trying to pull something over on me (my gut said the residents were telling the truth, but I know that I'm just a first-time landlord that has a lot to learn). After getting the tenant ledger from the property management company and supplying the previous owner with both that and a copy of the check, the owner has agreed to cough up the missing rent payments (over $3,000!) once he gets back from vacation. The other upside is that this gave me ammunition to go back to the property management and get more information on the old leases. Turns out the people below them are paying $25 more than we thought. Why none of this was disclosed before, I will never know (I do have the copies of current leases provided by the management company, but they are obviously not complete). Those small amounts could have made a difference (although not much) in what someone was willing to pay for the building and should have been included in the listing and appraisal.