Tell me this.. Do you know the whole story or just what that one tenant explained to you? Lets assume you went on a roller coaster and someone threw up on you. Would your experience be as pleasant as the person that didn't get vomit in their mouth? Is it the fault of the owner that another customer ruined your day?

Background checks are only useful if the person taking them knows what they are looking for, or cares and what happens if you get crappy management and new management takes over shortly after and you don't know it. Maybe you just created a bad taste in someones mouth.

Adam, you need to identify your goal. Trying to find the worst landlords is not relative. A landlord does not define its property. A Property is merely an investment, each investment creates different situations. For example a 100 year old building located near 4th Ave and 14th St SE is going to create a different challenge than a 5-10 year old building built in the upcoming parts of Cedar Rapids. It is going to demand different rental amount based on the mortgage, property conditions and location. You cannot demand 600-700 dollar rents for a 2 bedroom apartment between 4th Ave and 14th street unless you accept it on a house with government subsidized rent; Whereas, 700+ would be the normal of an upcoming part of Cedar Rapids. Also, there are different types of people that can afford different amounts of rent, a Capitalist society. It tends to be, not always true, that higher rents are paid by tenants that respect their environment and lower rents are paid by people that just don't care. This reason for not caring is not just for their living environments but about every aspect of their life and tends to be why they cannot afford a higher amount of rent. These type of people tend to believe they should have everything handed to them, subsidized housing, health care, food, EST. After obtaining, they tend not to work towards any real goals because they no longer have to; it’s already given to them by the American tax dollar. Now you decide that it’s the Landlords fault for their living conditions? Okay, let’s attempt to look at it from your perspective. You have a 100 year old property, that is.... 100!!! Years old!!! Do you expect this to be the most pleasant property in the first place? Second, assume the one of the tenants brought something that had roaches in it: a box from a friends, a chair from the street, anything. Now you believe it’s the landlord’s responsibility to remove them? Before you say yes, think of this. You bring a chair you bought off of Craig's list to your home. You get roaches or worse bedbugs, who pays for them to get removed? The landlords job is to make sure the mechanical parts of the property work and that they are attempting to the best of their ability to keep them working, not to remove or take care of every tenant damage. Just as you will not want to pay for damage a stranger did to your house. Landlords are not made of money; they are not super rich people. They are everyday people that instead of investing in the stock market, try their hand at real estate investing. Some landlords struggle as much as everyday people and that is why their properties get worse and worse and drag the owner into bankruptcy. We should all be happy that there are people willing to take that risk and create housing for every income level. It keeps us from having to pay more in taxes than having the government provide housing, which has been tried before and trust me it will not help our economy. Maybe we should all sit down and think before we just start criticizing from our own personal thought pattern. It’s called critical thinking. So finding the "worst" landlord and posting their name is nothing but libel. Maybe making articles to help people identify ways to increase their living environments would be a more worthwhile goal. Explaining Tenant/Landlord laws and expressing house people can help themselves by conversing with their landlords if they are unhappy with their living conditions. Help people understand, what is and what is not their responsibility when it comes to living in an apartment. That creating drama, arguments and crime is not the way to make a happy environment for anyone including you. That getting along, respect and love would make this world a lot better. It’s time we all do a little bit more thinking and a little less conflict searching.