Imagine you know a “car guy”, who has a car he has carefully restored back to pristine condition. If it wasn’t for him, the car would be a rusting heap, falling apart at the seams, but because his hundreds of hours of hard work, patience, and toil, the car is a sight to behold. Now ask him to sell it.
How well do you think that conversation is going to go? Do you imagine he is going to say something like, “I’ve had plenty of time with that car, I think it’s time to get rid of it.” Of course not! That car is his baby, his pride and joy, and you must be truly heartless to ask him to give it up. The thing is, he could likely buy a car that was fully restored, and it would be equally beautiful and a sight to behold. But it isn’t his car. It isn’t the one he bled for, it isn’t the one he cursed at, and it isn’t the one that took hours of his precious time. His relationship to the car is beyond simple owner, and goes into a realm of emotional ownership.
Working toward something or some goal builds an appreciation for that creation that goes beyond the physical elements of the item. So what does this have to do with renting apartments? The inherent problem with renting an apartment is that you don’t own that apartment. You are essentially borrowing it, knowing that you have to give it back. But even worse than not actually owning the property is that we often don’t even encourage emotional ownership of the apartment. I recently found this picture of a wall where the resident had covered it with painter’s tape:
The project took 60 hours to accomplish, and can easily be considered a work of art, but when asked about how he was going to paint it, he said that he was renting the apartment so he couldn’t paint the wall. Granted, it sounded like he was a student and had to leave at the end of the term anyway, but I was blown away by the lost opportunity. Imagine he wasn’t a student, and after the lease term he had the opportunity to either renew or leave. If he was allowed to actually paint that wall, making his mark on his apartment, do you think that would impact his “emotional ownership” over the apartment? I think the answer is a resounding yes! I guarantee that room would be the room he shows off to every person that visits his apartment, and when it comes time to leave, the idea of leaving his work of art behind would weigh on his decision to renew his lease.
I understand that creates costs in repainting or other costs to get the apartment back into a position that is consistent with the rest of the property, but I think that philosophy is undervaluing the potential benefit of encouraging residents to make their mark on their apartment to make it their own. Obviously, guidelines and limits would need to be in place, as painting every room black would create a re-painting nightmare, but I believe that encouraging certain customizations within the apartment could pay off big resulting in more long-term residents.
What do you think?