adventures in landlording II

I wrote last month about our two units opening, one of which is in need of some work. We spent yesterday painting, and we had arranged for carpet to be installed later this week. The apartment was marketed as having fresh paint and new carpet. Well, I found a tenant last week and we were finalizing the lease terms, when she told me she'd prefer NOT to have new carpet, in exchange for a decrease in rent price. I quickly called the carpet supplier and canceled our order, and worked with her to come up with a mutually agreeable discount ($15/month - negating the rent increase we were putting in). This works great for us because I would rather have the cash right now, and great for her because she needs the discount and she doesn't have to worry about her kids tracking dirt all over new carpet. We were also able to find a tenant for the unit that is being vacated early and I expect to have that lease signed early next week. This was a giant pain in the arse, not because it was difficult to find a tenant, but because the woman that wanted out of her lease early kept meddling. She was running her own ads, offering to show her apartment to people. We like to screen people via a questionnaire before we show a unit (saves time and eliminates most of the not-so-serious people, as well as the crazies and those that don't have the income/credit necessary to qualify). We wanted a year-long lease and small rent increase, but her ads had the wrong rent amount and didn't specify lease terms. It was a mess and was really pissing me off for a while. I'm glad its almost over. I learned that even a tenant who pays on time and treats the place well can be a huge headache. I have some carpet to shampoo today and some cleaning to do. I hate to be that landlord, but I am going to charge the couple that just moved out for cleaning. I won't charge for the carpet because we told them we were putting new carpet in, but that's no excuse for some of the mess left behind.