I'm reading about this guy who killed several people in response to getting fired. He had a felony for aggravated assault from years ago which the company missed on his background check, but he had been employed there for 15 years. He had more recent charges for domestic related violence which occurred after he was hired. As I read about the case, I thought about his LL and how easily an eviction could have triggered the same time as getting fired from the job. This guy was a ticking time bomb.

Here are my questions:

1) Let's say you have a prospect who had a single aggravated assault charge from 20 years ago but had solid employment for the past 15 years. Would you rent to him?

2) Not all physical interaction can be minimized. How can you fire someone safely and from a distance? I suppose you can just send them a letter but that's not going to stop them from coming onsite to confront someone. The same issue applies in the LL/Tenant context. Keeping physical interaction to a minimum can mitigate responses driven by passion, but what of someone on a mission to find you and exact some payback? The company had an entire management infrastructure in place but to no avail. The "managers" were killed rather than the owner. Often people exact payback on who's immediately available.

There is just know way to keep some of these thing from happening. Sometimes these thing will happen. It's like passing new laws constantly to try to protect people from themselves and others. It may work here and there, but if people really want to kill someone they will figure out a way to do it.

My advice is treat people fairly. Seem sympathetic when warranted. And just make reasonable and rational decisions in your life and business.

THIS is why LLs must take extra steps to protect their family. You never know what's in people heads.

The innocent people around them got hurt. In the case of a LL that would be your family.

Do it for you kids.

I don't take people with violent personal crimes any more. Assault and domestic violence are no go's, because that indicates a temper of a sort I don't want to deal with.

You know what? I barely look at what they do for a living, beyond caring about what they make.

I don't take people with violent personal crimes any more. Assault and domestic violence are no go's, because that indicates a temper of a sort I don't want to deal with.

You know what? I barely look at what they do for a living, beyond caring about what they make.

I often hear about turning a life around, or everyone deserves a second chance, or it's been many years.

But to me, the leopard doesn't change his spots. The person with violent crimes has something wrong with his wiring. Maybe he can learn to control it, maybe he can't. I don't want to be the one to sort it out.

I guess the company just thought they could fire a guy in front of his coworkers and bosses at a meeting. At least that is what I heard was about to happen. How stupid is that? We all know that poor performers get "kicked upstairs" at companies and end up as bosses.

When my former employer downsized 300 people after the Clinton administration Department of Education cheated them on a contract, they were very careful. They downloaded all computers for those involved, had one person tell each person privately and they were escorted to a cafeteria area and then sent to an employment agency for assistance. Some folks were asked to come to a workspace at another company location and do work tasks as needed to get another job in the company. I declined to do that since I had already started another business and was involved in the rentals.

The world is made up of a full spectrum of people. Some good, some bad and everything in between. When someone's world is caving in, their reaction sometimes is to lash out at anyone, even those who were friendly to them.

When I was 18 years old a customer of our company (not real estate) was getting divorced, loosing visitation right to his step daughter and who's business was failing. We had asked this person to please return any goods not sold and would forgive the debt owed, many thousands of dollars.

My partner was newly married with a young infant. The client came to his house and unloaded his weapons shooting everyone. My partners wife didn't make it.

From that day forward I carried a gun, had a bullet proof vest, studied martial arts and looked over my shoulder. When I then got married and had child, I changed professions, locked up my gun and never put my family in this position.

The modern US justice system revolves around plea deals to save time and money on jury trials. So if someone plead guilty to aggravated assault, the true charge was probably something like attempted murder.

Keep that in mind when you look at someone's criminal record, the actual crime was probably a level or two higher. The prosecutor just wanted to save taxpayers money on a trial.

Something to keep in mind, there have always been events like this. A long time ago, I read about two brothers, named Cain and Abel. But, now with instant communications, we can all be alerted to murders, assaults immediately, and reminded ad nauseum.