Pulled another interesting one for the rooming house. This one is a former cop who got a job here locally in security for a logistics company. He completed training while living in a hotel last week and wants a room to get out of the hotel as he starts work on Monday. Something is up with the picture though. Starting salary for a cop in the city he was with is about 60,000. He says the job he took is paying about $ 15 an hour. He may be a burned out cop. Regardless, as long as he checks out, I'll put him in a room.

The guy making 58K is all settled in and seems to be doing fine with his accommodations. He's on a floor with only one other person sharing a bath and kitchen, so there shouldn't be any issues there.

Had a tenant call me the other week accusing another tenant of mast??bating in the shower. Actually sent me a picture of a substance that looked like hair gel. LOL. He claimed this other tenant never cleans up after himself. This is the same guy who plugged the toilet a few months back. When I get around to it, I'll send a text out reminding everyone to clean up after themselves after using the shower.

My son thought he wanted to be a cop. Got a criminal justice/homeland security dual degree, got hired by the police at a really nice salary right out of college, went through nine months of para-military training, hit the streets with a partner for further training before getting his own car. They had to pull their guns the first night out (a burglary.) Had to deal with a dead person the second night. Etc. He was not in a low-crime area. He was afraid of killing someone or getting someone killed. After about a month on the streets, he said this was just not for him and left.

Took a low-paying job just to survive while he planned his next steps in life.

Where did you find your numbers?

Looking up my town's "average police salary" online, it says a police officer in my town should expect to earn about $50k/year, although it can range from about $46-$54k based on experience, skills, other factors, and "other incentives".

However, I just rented to a new officer in town, who had a few years' worth of service with another county's sheriff's office. He's still bringing in less than $35k/year with our local police department. Who knows where the website got their information from. (In contrast, $15/hr pulls in $31k/year.)

So, if you know that the starting salary in that town is $60k because you've seen the job advertisements or have talked to police officers discussing their earnings, that would be one thing-- but if it's based on internet data, I'd be a little cautious.